As if those of us not getting to escape to tropical islands over spring break didn’t have bad enough FOMO, Mother Nature decided to give us the gift of a blizzard to make staying home seem like even more of a drag.
It’s hard to believe that just a couple weeks ago it truly felt like spring had sprung at UConn. We were blessed with 50-60 degree days and all of us responded by quickly shedding our heavy winter coats and spending as much time outside as possible. The sundresses and shorts may have been pushing it a little, but as college students living in Storrs, nothing will stop us from going all out at the first sign of nice weather. We all thought that the season’s substantial snowfalls were behind us and this seemed like a pretty safe assumption considering that we were so close to the end of winter. But of course, New England weather never really makes sense.
While snowstorms in December and January can be exciting and cozy, big snowfalls in mid-March are down right frustrating. Especially if they happen during spring break! Even though we may not have had big travel plans, a lot of us still had plans for our time off (none of which included shoveling heavy snow and being snowed in).
Personally, I had pretty much been living in denial about the impending storm until Monday afternoon. The snow on the ground from last Friday was finally starting to melt and I was enjoying seeing the grass again. Besides, forecasts can change right?! But by Monday afternoon, it was impossible to ignore the frantic weather reports and warnings popping up all over the place. Evening weather reports were warning us all about the “paralyzing blizzard” that was going to be taking over our state, with some towns predicted to get up to two feet of snow.
Realizing the seriousness of the situation, my family decided to hurry out to buy food, water, flashlights, and batteries in case we were going to end up losing power. The stores were flooded with frantic customers scrambling to get everything they needed in preparation for the big storm. Children were excited about the snow day that had already been called, while the adults appeared to be dreading the impending snow event. As UConn students, we’d received a text and email around noon informing us that all UConn campuses were closed for Tuesday. Unfortunately, we did not get the benefit of cancelled classes from this storm since we were already on break.
Once I came to terms with the fact that spring break simply was not going to feel or look anything like spring, I started to look on the bright side. Being snowed in would make it easier to start tackling the list of homework assignments that I had been successfully ignoring, I would get to spend more time with my sister since the high school was closed, and freshly fallen snow can be really beautiful.
Winter storm Stella delivered heavy snow, ice, and wind throughout the Northeast on Tuesday, March 14th. The blizzard impacted 10 states on the East Coast the most (Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia).
According to The New York Times, as of 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, the highest snowfall total recorded from this widespread nor’easter was up to 30 inches along the New York-Pennsylvania border. The strongest wind gusts were seen in Wellfleet, Massachusetts at 79 mph. Wind gusts also topped 50-60 mph from the coasts of Delaware and New Jersey to parts of Southern New England. Additionally, more than 200,000 homes in the North East lost power as a result of the blizzard.
While I admit that I did not got as much work done today as I was hoping to (I am a highly skilled procrastinator), I will say that my snow day was still pretty successful. I stayed warm, spent time with my family, relaxed and wrote this article! Overall, snow during spring break didn’t end being as terrible as I thought it would be.
Here are some photos taken by HC UConn writers today during their own spring break snow day!
Did you take a cool photo during the storm? Tweet it to us @UConnHC!