Winter wonderland

Students returning to campus on buses from semi-formals andother parties during the early hours of Saturday morning were amongthe first to witness the accumulating white powder that left theHilltop blanketed in almost five inches of snow by noon the sameday.

The winter storm also left roads covered in slush, thermostatson high, and one unsuspecting owner of a convertible quite a messto clean up.

Many students took advantage of the storm, opting to build snowforts and snowmen, and even start impromptu snowball fights.

Among these students were the track and field team members.

“We just got back from competition at Arkansas, and whilewe had heard it was going to snow, I wasn’t expecting thatmuch snow,” sophomore discus thrower Mike Robertson said.”We jumped off the bus, and we were already throwingsnowballs at each other. We ran home, changed clothes, and we wereback out on the throwing field preparing defense walls andsnowballs for a fight.”

For other students, the weather wasn’t such an enjoyableexperience. Junior Gamma Phi Beta Whitney Weiss and some of hersisters had planned to go to Shreveport, La., to visit friendsafter a party her sorority had Friday night, but the storm hadother ideas.

“We left at around 3 a.m. after the party, and theprecipitation wasn’t bad in Dallas at all,” Weisssaid.

“But by the time we got to Terrell, Texas, the lightingwas poor, the snow was thicker, and the visibility went down toabout one and a half feet. We had to turn around, and watch othercars and trucks drive 10 miles an hour back to Dallas. One truckeven slid into a barrier,” she said.

While conditions were dangerous on Saturday morning, by lateafternoon, much of the snow had melted off of the road and onlyremnants of fast-melting snowmen remained around campus and therest of the Park Cities.

By Sunday morning, visions of a snow day canceling Mondayclasses were all but gone from students who had high hopes of arepeat of last year’s ice storm that ground the entire cityto a halt on Feb. 25 and 26. Nonetheless, students still enjoyedthe uncommonly heavy snow.

According to weather.com, no more snowstorms are predicted tohit the Metroplex in the near future.

Temperatures are expected to warm up for the rest of the week,and a high of 72 degrees is forecasted as early as Thursday.