The blizzard that whipped across Michigan on Dec. 11 left Jillian Williams - and many others - out in the cold during finals week.
“I had an 8 a.m. final on the night of the blizzard,” the human resources senior said. “The bus can only take you so far, so I walked part of the way. It should have been a five minute walk and it ended up being 20.”
Experts also say that students can expect to trek through more snow during an unseasonably cold winter that should last until late March.
Kevin Green, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said, on average, the Lansing area receives 17.9 inches of snow by this time of year. However, 36.1 inches have blanketed the area since October - 100 percent above average.
Green cited several reasons for the increase.
“The jet stream pattern is farther south than normal, so there’s more arctic air,” Green said. “Michigan receives lake effects snow. Plus, the storm systems in December account for the extra snow.”
Colder than normal temperatures and above average snow falls should continue until spring, Green said.
The finals week blizzard has affected area road crews to this day. MSU grounds maintenance workers have had to carry the burden of clearing roads and sidewalks to accompany students returning to campus.
“We started working with crews on campus around the clock, 24 hours a day, for the first three days of (finals) week,” said Gary Parrott, manager of grounds maintenance. “After that we cut back to 16 hour shifts. There’s crew members that have put in more than 50 hours of overtime and worked more than 90 hours in a week.”
“But, we’re very dedicated to providing the university with safe passage and parking lots.”
Crews have been hauling snow from parking lots and sidewalks to areas at the corner of Mt. Hope Road and Farm Lane and to a lawn area of the Grounds Maintenance Building to clear the way. The process has been time consuming at best, Parrott said.
“We prepared to handle a three to four inch snowfall within a couple of days,” he said. “Ten inches of snow takes about a week to remove, and we’ve had about three times that amount fall so far.”
Some are concerned that problems may occur once spring arrives. MSU experienced flooding the last time large amounts of snow fell on the area - nearly 20 years ago. Green said it’s too soon to tell if that flooding could happen again.
“We’ve had significant snow cover with high water content,” he said. “If there’s high rainfall in the spring, there might be problems. It’s too far ahead to tell, but it’s something to keep in mind and watch for.”
Parrott said crews are hoping for a little bit of warm weather in the coming months to allow the snow to melt gradually. Sandbag barricades would be needed for athletic fields, the Botanical Gardens, building basements and the area behind Kresge Art Center and the Auditorium, should flooding occur.
“We just hope that doesn’t happen,” Parrott said.
