The end of the semester is quickly approaching as we all prepare for the Christmas holiday and month-long break. However, these last few weeks could potentially bring the first snowstorm of the year in Erie- a type of winter weather that many Behrend students may not be used to.

       

Erie, PA is known for record-breaking snowfall from year to year, according to ErieSense, a blog run by Erie Insurance. Many Erie natives, including myself, can attest to the fact that harsh winter weather is often something that becomes a part of our everyday lives in the winter. In other cities of the surrounding area, an inch of snow in a day calls for school closings, as well as most functions of the city being shut down for at least that day. According to ErieSense, however, three feet in three hours is completely normal around here because “we don’t have snow days.”

       

However, winters in Erie often vary a lot from year to year. For example, while the winter of 2014-2015 saw average snowfall amounts, it was the record cold temperatures that took the cap of this season. According to The National Weather Service, the only month in recorded history that was colder than February of 2015 was January of 1977. Many schools in the area closed for multiple days in a row that month because of wind chills as low as negative thirty degrees Fahrenheit. In fact, Behrend even canceled classes for two of these chilly days in February 2015, according to the @PSUAlertBD Twitter page.

       

Perhaps the most memorable snowfall in Erie’s recorded history, however, was that of the Thanksgiving Day storm in 1956. While most of us were not alive at that time, GoErie reports in a throwback article that this storm dumped two-feet of snow on the city on Thanksgiving Day that year. This storm resulted in a state of emergency and the call-in of twelve-hundred National Guardsmen.

       

Winters in the area don’t always live up to their expectation, on the other hand. According to Weather Underground, the area’s snowfall was 15 inches below the yearly average as of the beginning of March of this past year.

       

While the average snowfall in the area sits at 100.9 inches per year, many sources this year are predicting a more brutal winter than usual for this year. The latest report from AccuWeather states, “Areas prone to lake-effect snow will see high totals.” This same report also cautions Erie residents to prepare for a colder-than-normal winter.