weather

I have had this conversation a million times with a million different people since we relocated to the frozen north. Why is it that the weather affects places so differently. For instance when my husband was a kid [from Idaho] if the temperature dropped lower than -20 or got 2 feet of snow they canceled school that day. He would lay down at night and pray "God, please let it snow, a whole bunch. But if you cant do that then please make it really really cold". Here 2 feet of snow is business as usual, there just might be more traffic due to wrecks, and at -20 the kids can still go out for recess. Anything more than 20 below they have to stay inside. School cancellations NEVER happen. Some businesses close when it is 60 below, but temperature is not usually a reason for change, nor is snow. I have a lot of friends in the lower 48 [that is what we call it] that haven't be able to go to school or work for a week now. When my dad flew up here last Christmas he was delayed out of Seattle because of ice on the plane. That very same plane was doused with an ice melt in Anchorage and made its way to Fairbanks with no problems. In inch of snow at some airports would cripple travel, but here, again, business as usual. There is a place called Wittier they get 258 inches of snow annually, in order for the kids to get to school they walk by way of an underground tunnel. INSANE. 258 inches of snow would stop normalcy anywhere, even here. It is just biiiiizzzzzaaaarrr to me how the same weather affects places so differently.