Superintendent for the City of Freeport District Sandra Edgecombe said the decision to close area schools at 12 noon was due to concerns about the ad-verse cold conditions being experienced by teachers and students in the various classrooms.
“Parents may not have even realised the extent of this cold and there is some concern about the way the children are dressed,” Mrs. Edgecombe said. “A couple of the principals have expressed that some of the children have had runny noses already and many of them are sitting in their classrooms and freezing. At lunch time and break time you know that they will go out to play in those cold temperatures, so I thought that in the best interest of all of them, that is in Freeport City, that they all go home early today.”
Mrs. Edgecombe advises parents that if the weather today is similar, then they should forgo the uniform and dress their children up warmly. However, she did not say whether schools would remain closed today.
“They can dress them in jeans or warm-up suits because the white shirts and the little skirts flying is not the best way to be dressed in these cold temperatures,” Mrs. Edgecombe said. “I cannot forget my colleagues who are out there shivering because they are cold and who are not able to accomplish very much on a day like today. So to make things better for everyone, I thought that you can do half of the day. You don’t want them (students) to be out, but you have to think about their health in the long run.”
Mrs. Edgecombe said one concern that caught her attention were classrooms where the louvres were missing, causing students to suffer extreme cold conditions. She added that there were cases where the windows in some classrooms were stiff because of the salt in the atmosphere, resulting in them not being able to shut down properly.
Another concern, she said, was the number of pre-schoolers who attend some of the primary schools in the district.
When The Freeport News contacted Hezekiah Dean, District Superintendent for the western and eastern school districts, he said he had not received any concerns from the various principals and teachers in his district. In fact, he said none of them had expressed a need for those schools to be dismissed for the day because of the cold weather. As far as he knew, only schools in the City of Freeport were closed at 12 noon.
Meteorologist Trisard Tynes said yesterday that the cold temperature being experienced in Grand Bahama is due to a strong cold front moving through the area from the northwest coming directly from the United States, where the weather has been extremely cold for the past several days.
“We also have an area of high pressure to the north of us that is also pushing some of the north winds into our area,” Mr. Tynes said. “We have strong winds out of the northwest that is keeping our wind chill factor at least five to 10 degrees lower than the average temperature we are getting.”
Mr. Tynes said the high temperatures for Monday were between 57 to 59 degrees and that once you add the wind chill factor, it felt like about 48 to 49 degrees. The meteorologist said Monday night would be the coldest for the week, predicting that temperatures (wind chill factor added) would drop as low as 35 – 32 degrees.
“Those temperatures mentioned will be so once the winds stay up, but if the winds happen to fall off, then we will really be experiencing some cold temperatures,” he said. “But we expect the winds to keep on the brisk side.”
Mr. Tynes said cold temperatures are also expected for today; however, much warmer temperatures can be expected by Wednesday. He said the high pressure system is expected to move towards the east, and as it moves, it is going to shift winds from the north to the east.
“Once we get an easterly or southeasterly wind component moving into the area, what that means is that we are going to get warm air from off the Atlantic Ocean,” he said. ” Wednesday’s temperatures look like low 70s and by Thursday and Friday, things should be back to normal.”
Mr. Tynes advises Grand Bahamians to get those extra blankets out for tonight and if one ventures outside tonight in celebration of Valentine’s Day, please wear protective or warm clothing.
By LISA S. KING, Freeport News Reporter
