When I was a kid in Michigan we were at church and my dad sees the local superintendant of public schools in the pew ahead of us.  He taps him on the shoulder and asks him how the heck he decides when there is, or isn't enough snow to cancel school for the day.  He said if he can make it to the mailbox to get his newspaper in the morning, we have school.  As a result, generally only if the drifts were up to my eyeballs, did we get to stay home and initiate violent neighborhood snowball wars and drink cupfulls of melted marshmallows with a little hot chocholate at the bottom.  

Now I am observing that a slide in all societal policy has occurred to where a couple snowflakes fall and the whole of the earth is condemned to go on lockdown!  

I think part of this comes from the impending threat of lawsuit against anyone who should maintain plans that bring people out on the roads.  The courts have become a vehicle of collectivist redistribution that seeks to compensate handsomely any victim of personal tragedy at the expense of whatever well-insured deep pocketed party happens to have any connection whatsoever with the event.  It's like the whole of society itself is considered to be one giant insurance company from which expenses can be draw at the discretion of the court. Establishing some thread of responsibility is a mere formality.

I myself consider it a challenge to see just how large of a snowdrift I can crash through and I'll look for any excuse to go out in the blizzards!  But that's just me.