As the daughter of parents who grew up in Minnesota and Washington state, I often get mocked for complaining about the cold in the winter.

“Thirty degrees?” they say. “That’s April temperatures!”

However, I feel my shivers are justified this winter, with temperatures dropping to–and maybe even below–zero.

The Harrisonburg City School system caught on to the literally freezing temperature levels and gave the school a two hour delay. Looking at the hourly weather forecast on weather.com, I can see that between seven in the morning and the delayed nine o’clock starting time for buses and the like, the temperature shoots up a whopping two degrees.

A heat wave, frankly. 5 degrees? Sure, wind chills put it at -8, but that’s just a technicality. It’s like living in the tropics!

My parents, the cold-weather champions, were struggling to make sure my siblings and I were appropriately clothed for the weather. This is coming from people who are prepared for such disastrous temperatures, meaning that families who have lived in Harrisonburg their who lives probably don’t know what to do with this situation. They likely aren’t aware that it doesn’t feel as cold immediately because there is so little humidity in the air, but they still need to bundle up against frostbite and other cold-related health issues. They may not know to layer up on socks and hats. It’s not like the school sent out a list of to-do’s in this situation!

Elementary schools students, little kids, are waiting for buses in this weather. Send them out at ten instead of eight and they’re standing in six degree weather. Sure, they may not keel over right there, but is that really something we want to do to these kids? Some parents work night jobs or don’t get up to prepare their kids for school–does that mean the children will run out in their coats and not much else, not realizing the extent of the cold?

My car almost didn’t start this morning. My mother, employing another trick, drove 15 mph for the first half mile to make sure the car didn’t collapse on us. That particular method may be used more commonly for cold weather, but it shouldn’t be necessary to the extent that it was this morning!

If Harrisonburg City Schools really didn’t want to cancel school against these icy temperatures, then maybe they should’ve sent out a guide for what to do in these situations. Freezing weather may not have the immediate danger of icy roads, but it still can hurt.