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Mother Nature rattles school schedule
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A school bus parked at South Effingham Elementary School on Friday sports snow on its hood and roof more than 48 hours after the storm. - photo by Mark Lastinger/staff

RINCON — There has been a 100 percent chance of unusual occurrences in the Effingham County School District’s 2017-18 weather forcecast.
A solar eclipse in August, tropical storm in September and upwards of four inches of recent snow forced alterations to the school schedule. The snow and resulting frozen roads forced schools to close three days last week.
“It’s really unbelievable when you think about it — first, for it to snow, and then, on top of that, for it to stay cold this long,” Superintendent Dr. Randy Shearouse said.
Temperatures remained below freezing for a few days last week.
The snow arrived on the morning of Jan 3. shortly after schools were set to open following the Christmas break. The return date, marked by a high temperature in the 20s, was 24 hours earlier than originally slated because of time lost to Tropical Storm Irma.
Observing weather reports, school officials cancelled classes the day before the snow arrived.
“(Meteorologists) definitely got it right this time,” Shearouse said. “I was working and we rode down to the south end (of the county) to kind of check things out, and the snow started coming down pretty good while we were down there. By the time we got on Midland Road, it was really coming down and an SUV had actually slipped and turned over there.
“It got bad really quick and we were going, ‘Thank goodness we decided to call off school on Wednesday.’ ”

See the Jan. 10 edition of the Effingham Herald for more details.