“I was in the Women’s Lounge at the Union, keeping up with what was going on,” said Alex Hahn, an interdisciplinary studies in social science and health studies junior.

She debated with herself that Tuesday — to party that night, or not — and hoped for cancelled classes. Her wish, like many other Spartans’ wishes, came true.

Looking out any window in East Lansing today, one would never know that a year ago today was a winter wonderland. Snow plows have gone unused, Ugg Boots barely broken in and warmer weather seems to be the new norm.

And although her dreams came true on Feb. 2, 2011 with a snow day, Hahn — like many others — isn’t protesting the warmer winter.

A ‘classic’ storm
“We got right in the sweet spot,” said Bob Dukesherer, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids, of the storm that caused the snow day.

A few days prior, meteorologists were tracking an area of low pressure moving out of the Rocky Mountains toward the Great Lakes region. Weather service offices as far south as Texas issued warnings for the impending storm, and a blizzard warning went into effect for East Lansing on Feb. 1, 2011 because of the threat for snow, cold and wind that night and the next day.

This system, along with a great deal of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, created the conditions necessary to drop more than 13 inches of snow on MSU, Dukesherer said, along with winds gusting to near 50 mph.

“(Those storms) don’t come around that often,” he said.

The jet stream, which directs storm systems across the country, this year has oriented itself west to east rather than north to south — which would bring colder air from Canada to Michigan, Dukesherer said.

“The cold air has been bottled into Canada,” he said. “We’ve been above average (temperatures) pretty much all winter long.”

Response to the elements
The storm in 2011 was enough to kick in emergency procedures, university spokesman Kent Cassella said.

MSU officials — including MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon, Provost Kim Wilcox, police, human resources staff and others — occasionally conduct drills to test the preparedness of the university in an emergency situation.

In 2009, a flood emergency scenario was carried out, Cassella said. A year later, officials met to practice how they would react if an illness struck campus. And in February 2011, a real emergency occurred.

“We don’t want students to walk out to class in those dangerous conditions,” Cassella said, referring to cold temperatures and the wind chill. “Once we reach those dangerous levels, we make a decision.”

Although some people online criticized officials’ actions to cancel class Cassella said the decision was made in part of meteorologists calling the storm a top 10 event for Michigan.

“We never say MSU is closed,” he said. “The university maintained all of those crucial functions (including) cafeterias, lights and power. All of that has to keep going.”

MSU police inspector Penny Fischer said she and others reviewed the emergency plan to keep faculty, staff and students in mind. Because fewer people would be roaming campus that night, she said police staffing remained at a standard level but operated within an emergency recovery response.

MSU reacted by placing snow plows and salt on the road.

Across the street from campus, East Lansing officials said they were ahead of the storm.

“We knew that it was going to be a significant amount of snow,” Director of Public Works Todd Sneathen said. “When it comes to an emergency, that’s when we think we’re at our best.”

In a previous interview, East Lansing police Capt. Kim Johnson said there were no serious accidents at the height of the storm.

So far this season, the city has spent about $55,000 on salt supplies, compared to about an $85,000 cost last season, he said. Last February, about 460 tons of salt was used on the city streets.

One year later, temperatures have reached warmer than 50 degrees and sunny, but February is just beginning.

“We’ve got a system we’re looking at out into the weekend, … (but) we’re not hyping that at all,” Dukesherer said, adding the mild conditions likely will continue.

sNOw SCHOOL!
For Lane Vines, a political science sophomore, she thought it was all a dream as she woke up on Feb. 2, 2011 and discovered classes had been canceled — the first time since 1994.

“Me and my roommate screamed a couple times,” she said, then asking, “What are we going to do today?” only to hang out in the snowy conditions.

A year later, Vines said she won’t complain about the lack of snow and warm temperatures.

“When it’s cold, it’s just too depressing,” she said.

Staff writer Kellie Rowe contributed to this report.