School closings in Rochester NY: How districts decide when to cancel school in cold weather

UPDATE: The Rochester City School District is closed today, as are several districts south of Monroe County.

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School officials will be monitoring the weather closely as a mass of bitter cold air slides into the Rochester area this week.

Wind chill values on Friday are forecast to be in the negative teens, not far from the point where cancellations are recommended.

Each school district in the area determines whether schools should close for the day, but Monroe County's Department of Public Health offers a guideline to help educators determine how cold is too cold to have school.

Both the city school district and Rochester area suburban schools generally follow the health department's recommendations that urge schools to consider closing when wind chills are at or near minus 25 degrees.

The coldest stretch is predicted to be between Friday afternoon and midnight, said Liz Jurkowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Buffalo. Friday's high is predicted to be around 8, and a low of 2, but when considering expected sustained winds around 20-25 mph and gusts up to 35 mph, it will feel far colder, she said.

The wind chill is expected to be between in the negative teens during the day on Friday and around -20 Friday night in much of the Rochester region. South of Rochester, including in Ontario and Livingston counties, the wind chill is predicted to dip as low as -25 in the same timeframe, according to the Weather Service.

In a letter sent to local school district superintendents on Thursday, Dr. Michael Mendoza, the county's public health commissioner, implored schools to consider the potential injury to students as a result of bone-chilling temps, in which frostbite can occur on exposed skin in a matter of minutes.

"Frostbite can occur on exposed skin in about 30 minutes at wind chills of minus 25 degrees. At wind chills of minus 40 degrees, frostbite can affect exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes," Mendoza wrote in the letter. "Wind chills this low can be dangerous depending on how children are dressed, whether students have to walk long distances to school, if children have long waits for the bus."

"Communities are on their own to make this important decision," he said in the letter. "While health departments have no legal authority on when to close schools due to weather conditions, we believe it is our role to make recommendations on such health matters."

The National Weather Service issued a wind chill advisory for the Rochester region, which runs between 4 a.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: School closings in Rochester NY: How districts decide when to cancel