If I had a nickel for every time the first week of classes coincided with a major weather event, I’d have two nickels — which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
On Tuesday, Jan. 16, students woke up to snow covering Fordham University’s Rose Hill campus. The bright pink sunrise behind Keating Hall lit up the sky, reflecting off the glittering white of the snow. It was beautiful, and it definitely made my 7 a.m. walk to Ram Fit a million times better (even though it was freezing cold).
The previous night, Fordham announced in an email and on Fordham News that classes would be delayed until 10 a.m. due to New York City’s Winter Weather Advisory, forcing students to have their first class of the new semester be on Zoom… or… not happen, period.
While this was definitely the right decision on Fordham’s part, it is surprising to see the difference between this snowstorm and the ones of the past.
In February 2010, New York City was hit with 36 inches of snow. I remember this storm from my own childhood in Annapolis, Md., where a normal sleepover with my classmate turned into getting snowed in for a few days (best sleepover ever!). But in New York City, these snowstorms were normal — getting large amounts of snow that would shut down the city was a seasonal occurrence. What we consider to be a “major weather event” now would have been considered a small blip in the season just a decade ago.
The Jan. 16 snowstorm ended a 701 day snow drought in New York City, an almost two-year period where Central Park did not see more than one inch of snow. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I don’t remember snow really sticking on Fordham’s campus after the last big snowstorm on Feb. 13, 2022.
I loved winter as a kid because of the snow. Waking up to an automated call from the school saying we got a two-hour delay or a cancellation. Rushing to the window to see what it looked like outside. Waiting for a big enough snowstorm to go sledding on the hill that leads to our neighborhood pool. Going through all the superstitions the night before a maybe-storm: — sleeping in your pajamas inside out and backwards, putting a spoon under your pillow, flushing ice cubes down the toilet. These silly things we did as kids were normal because it was normal to have multiple snowstorms every winter. The newest generation will never be able to understand the true beauty of winter, not the way that we did.
This is, as you could have probably guessed, due to climate change. In New York state, winters have warmed three times faster than summers have, despite the many heat waves we’ve been getting in the city. The annual statewide average temperature has warmed 3 degrees Fahrenheit since 1970. However, this has been worse for winter overall. In the northeastern United States, average winter temperatures have increased by about 3 degrees Fahrenheit over the last century, whereas spring increased by 2 degrees Fahrenheit and summer and fall only by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit.
But it’s not all gloom and doom, yet. When we do get snow, let’s celebrate! Let’s make some snowmen and go sledding with our friends and have a big snowball fight on Eddie’s. Wear the too-thick fuzzy socks, the big snow boots (or, in my case, platform Doc Martens), the mittens your grandma got you for Christmas and the big scarf that doesn’t really match your cute winter outfit. While the cold waves aren’t fun to walk through, try to find the beauty in them while they’re here, especially if it means getting to see that pink sunrise behind Keating.
