even in Wisconsin, we foolishly forget and get shut down for lack of equipment. We had several very mild winters without much snow, and rather warm. So when looking for things to cut in the budget, snow removal was quick to go. and then we got socked by a very snowy winter (last year and December especially of this winter) and suddenly we're unprepared. In central Wisconsin, snowfalls were only a little above average last winter, but way more than the last several years, and people acted like we've never had winter here before. When old plows wore out, they weren't replaced. The plow fleet was down by a third, and they only hired half of the drivers. And then they ran out of salt.
Thankfully things are better prepared this winter. Even with record snowfalls for December, they were doing prep work, like leaving room for more snow when it came. And I have heard that WI and areas of the midwest purchased so much salt that it ran up the price for the rest of the country.
And we still have our areas and our days when we shut down completely. Like my old high school. A few years before I moved into the district, my classmates got stuck overnight at the middle school. So the district tended to overreact to snow. My senior year, I think we had over a dozen late-start, early-release, and snowdays.