OT: Snow Day

Submitted by LLG on

Given the local schools closing tomorrow, I'm wondering what was your snowiest day or coldiest day in Ann Arbor?

I didn't realize it hit negative 39 a few years ago, or that Michigan had its first snow day in 36 years one year earlier.

As for me, I fondly remember my first big snow ball fight at South Quad.

 

 

carolina blue

February 8th, 2018 at 9:56 PM ^

When at Western Michigan I lived in the Valley dorms. The thing is , while they are in a valley, they’re not at the bottom. To get to campus you have to go down to the bottom of the valley then back up to campus. Then you have to repeat the process on the way back. So, those of us in valley 2 actually did go uphill both ways.

Peter Parker

February 8th, 2018 at 9:37 PM ^

I was a grad student working on my chemistry PhD during the year the snow day happened. I took the bus in to town and walked to the chemistry building pretending I was a Nord in Skyrim. Got to lab to get some work done and found out that classes had been cancelled. Didn't matter to us graduate students, we had work to do. I think that somewhere around 5 out of the 7 members of the lab were there working that day.

BTB grad

February 8th, 2018 at 9:44 PM ^

My freshman year during the 2013-14 polar vortex. U-M cancelled classes for the first time since 1978 and it happened to be on my birthday. A LOT of drinking was done during the day off....to keep warm of course

alec baldwin drinking GIF by Cheezburger

NittanyFan

February 8th, 2018 at 9:53 PM ^

coldest - probably mid-January 1994.  Huge cold snap.  Something like -20 at Detroit Metro (DTW) and below zero for 3 straight days.

I don't know what the deal is at Ann Arbor's airport, but they seem to ALWAYS be 10-15 degrees colder than DTW on clear and chilly nights.  I've once or twice even seen them have temperatures in the upper 30s in July (?!?!?).  DTW's temperatures seem a bit more representative of the area as a whole.

LSAClassOf2000

February 8th, 2018 at 10:14 PM ^

I remember both of these - we actually tried to make a run to Blockbuster on Ann Arbor-Saline to get some movies during the cold snap in 1994, and even the 20 foot walk from the car to the front door felt like an hour. As I recall, we had a generous helping of snow before that snap too, so extra depressing indeed.

January 2nd 1999....I was supposed to get back to campus and ended up stuck at my parents' house, only 15 minutes from campus, for a few days since Washtenaw County never really mastered plowing subdivisions that were in the townships and not in more developed areas. The worst part of that was that it got REALLY fucking cold in the days after it, so if you didn't shovel out right away, you couldn't safely do it for days afterwards. 

bluepow

February 9th, 2018 at 5:52 AM ^

The January 1999 snowstorm convinced me to move to Colorado.  16 inches of fluffy beauty and blue sky Arctic air was followed the next day with sheets of rain and dense fog. Upon seeing this horror I walked into my manager's office and gave my two weeks notice.  The problem with Southern Michigan winters isn't that they are too cold, but rather they are too warm.

Shop Smart Sho…

February 9th, 2018 at 8:49 AM ^

I remember that 1999 storm.  I drove from near Purdue where my parents live back up to Flint as it was getting started.  The interstates up there eventually got shut down, but that didn't stop 5 or 6 of us from piling into a car to go to Deja Vu.



I used to make some absolutely terrible decisions.

Mr. Elbel

February 8th, 2018 at 9:49 PM ^

January 6th, 2014. Was -45 wind chill and snowed 17 inches the night before in Flint. We drove to Detroit that morning for me to catch a flight to Germany. We de-iced on the tarmac for two hours and broke one of the de-icer trucks, but we got out of there.

The Krusty Kra…

February 8th, 2018 at 9:54 PM ^

Was those damn polar vortexes my senior year in 2014. I remember one of the worst was the night Florida State played Auburn in the last BCS National Championship game. We drove over to our buddies place of East U and the thermometer in my car read -24, I think the wind chills were below -30. That winter overall was brutal then somehow, by divine intervention, I was back in town Super Bowl weekend the next year when it snowed like 18 inches in the span of 12 hours. Those have to be the two worst days I remember in Ann Arbor in terms of snow or cold.