If this is your freshman year, you’re probably thinking that the Buffalo weather isn’t as bad as you heard it was going to be.
My freshman year I remember thinking that as well, since the Buffalo weather that year was almost comparable to a normal winter I would experience back home in New Jersey.
Many UB students each year receive those October phone calls from parents and grandparents asking if it’s snowed in Buffalo yet. This year, we’ve made it to the month of December without a snowflake in sight.
Being a senior, it’s weird to be in the month of December without Buffalo being covered in snow and the weather still reaching the 40’s and 50’s. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to still wear a trendy and lighter fall coat as opposed to my oversized, puffy and heavy winter jacket.
During my time in Buffalo, I have experienced some of the record breaking Buffalo snow and now can add a new broken record to my time here in Buffalo.
According to NBC News, the city of Buffalo has broken a 116-year record of making it this far into the year without a measurable snowfall. The last time Buffalo didn’t see snow by Dec. 3 was in 1899 and days without snowfall are still being added to the record as we continue to not get hit by snow.
Last November, my drive home to New Jersey for Thanksgiving break was a rough one. Buffalo was hit with a lake effect snowstorm that drowned Erie County in seven feet of snow.
This storm caused I-90 to close down due to trucks and cars getting stuck in the snow on the highway. My friend and I had to take an alternative route for our drive home on slippery and snowy back roads until we reached the point where I-90 was open and safe.
Each year, the Buffalo winters seemed to get worse and worse but now it looks like they are lightening up again.
Before I came to UB my freshman year, I remember being told by UB alumni that it is extremely rare for the university to ever cancel classes due to snowfall.
They said that because of how accustomed Buffalo is to snow and how almost all the buildings on North Campus are connected, the school makes it convenient for students to not have to walk outside to get to class.
My freshman year it seemed as if these alumni were right because from what I can remember, we had a normal Buffalo winter without any class cancelations. After that first year, I believed that Buffalo winters aren’t as bad as people made them out to be.
Even the year before my freshman year, students a year older than me told me that they were wearing shorts again by the time March came around.
But my sophomore year there was a stronger winter, which pushed UB to have days of canceled classes.
Then, last semester’s winter became overwhelming when the winter seemed never ending with endless piles of snow on the ground until late April. Temperatures reached way below zero. The Snowvember storm happened. It became the worst winter I’ll hopefully and most likely, never have to experience again.
After last winter, it’s been nice to experience a non-snowy Buffalo for the first time and let’s hope this trend of casual Buffalo weather will continue for the last few days of the semester.
Maybe next semester we’ll get to experience normal winter weather without excess amounts of crazy snowfall. After all, we don’t want to miss out on winter completely – this is Buffalo after all.
Dani Guglielmo is a features desk editor and can be reached at dani.guglielmo@ubspectrum.com.
