when the tunnel caves in. The children take Skinner captive and begin to run amok throughout the school. Meanwhile, Homer and Ned decide to rescue the children, clearing the roads with an improvised snowplow built by attaching a section of Ned's roof to the front end of his car. The car skids out of control and crashes into a fire hydrant, which sprays water that freezes it in place. Homer attempts to break them loose by gunning the engine, with no success, and the car fills with carbon monoxide that causes both men to hallucinate wildly. Skinner sends out a call for help by slipping a note inside the exercise ball of the school hamster, Nibbles, and pushing the animal out a window. Nibbles finds his way to Homer and Ned, jolting them back to reality and alerting them to the situation. They break the car free of the frozen hydrant and speed toward the school, but again lose control and crash into a silo filled with salt on the grounds of a cracker factory. The salt spills out and melts the snow around the school, freeing Skinner and the children. Superintendent Chalmers arrives unexpectedly, ready to fire Skinner over the crisis, but is mollified by a remorseful Bart's claim that there is a good explanation for it and does not ask for any details; Skinner thanks Bart for saving his job after the mess they were in. The episode closes with Lisa turning into a camel - the product of a fresh round of Homer's hallucinations - and wishing the viewer a merry Christmas. Production "Skinner's Sense of Snow" was written by Tim Long and directed by Lance Kramer. It was first broadcast on the Fox network in the United States on December 17, 2000. The idea for the episode came from Long. One winter during his childhood, Exeter, Ontario, where Long lived, was hit by a blizzard. Much to his dismay, Long found out that all schools except Exeter Public School, which he went to, got closed (in the U.S., schools are closed entirely at the county or district level, so the real-life situation did not apply here, as it was shown Principal Skinner had the authority to open the school and even to have Otto work his usual bus route). Eventually, Long and his classmates were snowed in with the school's staff. "It was hellish, but then