Snow, ice closed campus 2nd day
By KRISTEN KIRTLEY
Assistant Editor
Due to inclement weather, Northwestern’s Alva campus was forced to close on the second day of the spring semester for the safety of students, faculty and staff.
According to nasa.gov, Earth’s average surface temperature in 2023 was the warmest on record.
Record-keeping began in the late 19th century, and in 2023, the Earth was around 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the late 19th century average.
The past 10 years have also been the warmest on record.
Parts of Oklahoma were predicted to experience what’s called an arctic blizzard on the evening of Jan. 8, and several towns in Oklahoma, including Alva, experienced just that.
Although the schools in Alva and the university have only closed for one day so far, several schools and colleges in Oklahoma have experienced closings due to the snow, and are still experiencing them.
Several places in Oklahoma have been facing substantial amounts of precipitation, low-temperatures and wind chill advisories over the past several days.
According to weather.gov, a wind chill advisory is forecast when the wind chill values are predicted to be between -20 degrees Fahrenheit and -29 degrees Fahrenheit in the span of 24 to 36 hours.
The purpose of wind chill advisories is to inform, educate and prepare the public so that people will know to bundle up or dress accordingly if planning to spend time outdoors.
Weather.gov says that the wind chill is a way of describing what the temperature actually feels like, rather then what the temperature is said to be.
The combination of the air temperature and the wind speeds is an easier way of explaining what the weather will feel like to people that are outdoors.
In the Oklahoma News 4 weather forecast on Jan. 15, which can be watched on kfor.com, Emily Sutton, meteorologist, said there was a record-cold high on Jan. 14.
“This is out of the ordinary cold for Oklahoma,” Sutton said. “And it just made it brutal with the snow falling down.”
Sutton said that whenever there is an arctic snow, there will be more snow out of the moisture than if the temperature was closer to 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
“We set a brand new record this afternoon for the coldest high temperature ever recorded on this date,” said Brandon Wholey, meteorologist of 2 News Oklahoma in Tulsa, in his weather broadcast on Jan. 15.
