A student adds a pop of Cornell red to the Arts Quad during a snowfall. (Photo by Cornell University) Campus & Beyond The Cold Comforts of a Big Red Winter, Then and Now Stories You May Like Hurricane Forecaster Has Blown Away Barriers in Broadcast TV In this Spooky Season, a Look Back at Rulloff—Ithaca’s Infamous Rogue ‘Sheer Awe’: Recalling the Legendary Grateful Dead Concert of May ’77 Embracing the inevitable, Cornellians takes a lighthearted look at East Hill’s weather woes and wonders, past and present By Joe Wilensky Ithacation [ith-uh-KAY-shen] Noun: 1) A hybrid type of precipitation—usually a mixture of snow, hail, rain, and slush—accompanied by gloomy skies and bone-chilling cold, endemic to Ithaca, New York; 2) a favorite topic among Cornellians. For as long as the University has been standing far above Cayuga’s waters, Cornellians have been complaining about Ithaca winters, which can take on different personalities within a day, or even over the course of an hour. Aerial view of a snow-covered Arts Quad. (Photo: Cornell University) Depending on your perspective, this can be seen as a challenge, a game of chance—or, if you’re meteorologist Drew Montreuil, MS ’15, a scientific delight. “One of the most unique—and, from my point of view, the coolest—things about Cornell and Ithaca when it comes to the weather is how vastly different it can be from downtown to campus and up in the hills,” says Montreuil, a Tompkins County native who holds a master’s in earth and atmospheric sciences and runs the popular Finger Lakes Weather site. “But from a forecasting point of view, it can be a pain.” One of the biggest quirks, he says, “is the lake effect, and how one minute it can be sunny out, and then you fast forward five minutes, and you can’t see across the street. Obviously, that can have a big impact on people, road crews, commuters, and just getting around and staying safe.” So what makes Ithaca’s weather so … particular? One factor is the hills and valleys of the Finger Lakes, as well as the lakes themselves. The largest ones—like Cayuga—are deep enough that they almost never completely freeze over in the winter. “And we’ve got the Great Lakes on top of that,” Montreuil adds. The five huge freshwater bodies—spanning more than 750 miles from west to east, with Lake Ontario only about 70 miles north of Ithaca—have an outsized effect on the region’s climate. Snow creations of all sizes often make surprise appearances. (Photo: Cornell University) “In the winter, they give us a lot of snow, and they make it really cloudy all the time,” Montreuil says. “But they also keep us a lot warmer than we would be otherwise.” Sans the Great Lakes, he says, our weather “would be a lot more like Minnesota.” What’s the forecast for winter 2021–22? According to publications like the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the U.S. is in for a “season of shivers”—and Upstate New York is in for very cold temperatures, though perhaps drier conditions than usual. And as for Montreuil? He tends to avoid making broad predictions—and notes that dire weather warnings are sometimes inflated to garner headlines and page views. “The Climate Prediction Center has us looking at higher chances for above average temperatures, with near-average precipitation for December, January, February, and March,” he says. “If I had to put my chips anywhere, I’d place my bets with them.” Read on for a flash-frozen sampler of some of Cornell’s winter-related lore, stats, tips, memories, and more. Shovel ready Each time it snows or ices up, the University’s grounds crew tackles the clearing of some 15 miles of roads, 61 miles of sidewalks and walkways, and 114 acres of parking lots. Over the course of a typical winter, says grounds director Dan Schied, staff distribute more than 2,500 tons of salt on roads and pathways. It’s not a straightforward task: as the mercury drops, road salt gets dramatically less effective. At 30 °F, for example, a pound of salt can melt 46 pounds of ice—but at 10 °F, it can barely melt five pounds, and takes more than 10 times longer to do so. These days, grounds staff are metering out salt more precisely, with the aim of using less; they’re also testing other compounds to pre-treat/anti-ice walkways and roads. And, as always with weather, timing is everything. Grounds staff at work. (Photo provided by Dan Schied) “If it stops snowing at two o’clock in the morning, and we can get ahead of the students and traffic, everything is golden,” Schied says. “But if it’s snowing during the day and we’re trying to plow while there are students on campus, you can imagine how slow we have to go.” (Illustration: Cornell University; data provided by Mark Wysocki) Winter newbies Given that Cornell draws students from all over the world—including much warmer climes—the snow and chilly temperatures that strike toward the end of fall semester can come as a bit of a shock to some. Just ask Lordina Amoako ’23, a Hotelie who hails from Ghana. “The first time I saw snow was one afternoon freshman year, on my way back from the Ag Quad,” recalls Amoako, who promptly called her siblings and tried to give them a sense of what she was experiencing via video chat. “I saw these white flurries coming down from the sky and they were everywhere. What struck me the most was that it did not produce any sound. I am used to rain, and rain makes a lot of sound, so it was very strange to me.” I saw these white flurries coming down from the sky and they were everywhere. What struck me the most was that it did not produce any sound. Lordina Amoako ’23 Like many international students, Amoako soon learned that what she’d earmarked as winter gear was really only appropriate for fall; luckily, friends helped her shop for everything she needs to stay toasty. “I like the snow, now that I am warm and do not freeze,” she says. “But sometimes when it’s still snowing in April or May, I just want it to end.” Blades of glory More than a century ago, when Cayuga Lake completely froze over in the winter of 1911–12, Floyd “Flood” Newman 1912 and four friends decided to take advantage of the opportunity. They skated from the lake’s southern tip in Ithaca all the way to the northern end—roughly forty miles—before hopping on a train back home. Flood’s skates are now on display in Helen Newman Hall (which he endowed, along with Newman Lab and Newman Arboretum). Stories You May Like Hurricane Forecaster Has Blown Away Barriers in Broadcast TV In this Spooky Season, a Look Back at Rulloff—Ithaca’s Infamous Rogue The Beebe Lake rhino As the (possibly apocryphal) story goes: one winter morning in the 1920s, Cornellians were surprised to find a set of large animal tracks leading across campus to a hole in the frozen lake, where the creature appeared to have fallen in and drowned. A zoologist examined the prints and determined that they belonged to a rhinoceros. At the time, the lake was the source of most of the drinking water on campus and many people refused to partake of it; those who did claimed it had a distinctly rhino-like aftertaste. The tracks turned out to be the work of infamous prankster Hugh Troy ’26, who appropriated a professor’s trash can—made from an actual rhino leg—to fake the footprints. Footage from 1929 includes the Arts Quad, the Suspension Bridge, horse-drawn plows—and attempts at skiing. (Cornell University archives) Walk like a (Big Red) penguin Cornell’s hilly roads and winding pathways—combined with its sometimes-unpredictable weather—spurred the creation of a web page of resources for winter safety that features advice, a hotline to report issues, and downloadable posters. They include a flyer advocating the “penguin walk” for better stability. Emblazoned with a cute mascot wearing a “C,” it suggests such techniques as walking flat footed; pointing your feet slightly outward; taking short, shuffling steps; and keeping your arms at your sides rather than in your pockets. (Illustration: Cornell University; data provided by Mark Wysocki) The Blizzard of ’93 Until fairly recently, Cornell had a reputation for staying open even during the kind of nasty weather that would close schools and offices around Tompkins County—but a historic blizzard in 1993 actually forced it to shut down. At the time, Matthew Hammond ’91 was working as the opening supervisor at Robert Purcell dining and living a couple of miles away in the Village of Cayuga Heights. Enjoying the outdoors. (Photo: Cornell University) “The University closed, but of course the students in the dorms had to eat, so dining didn’t close,” recalls Hammond, a government and history major who’s now an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. The county closed the roads—so Hammond had to get creative. “I borrowed my housemate’s cross-country skis and got up at four to ski into work,” he says. “It was just me and the snow plows.” The storm, which dumped thirty inches of snow on East Hill, also looms large in the memory of Peter Salino ’79, retired director of Cornell’s grounds department, where he worked for 27 years. “I called Cornell Dining to ask them to bring us some food, and building care to get some cots for my crew,” Salino, a former environmental science major recalls. “I didn’t get home for three or four days.” Icicles 101 New York state climatologist Mark Wysocki, MS ’89, a senior lecturer in earth and atmospheric sciences, offers a primer on the photogenic phenomenon, of which Ithaca often seems to have a bumper crop each season during freeze-and-thaw temperature swings. Sage Hall is framed by icicles hanging from Olin Library. (Photo: Cornell University) “If you don’t have good insulation in your attic, heat will rise up through the ceiling, warm the roof, and melt the ice,” he explains. “And if you don’t clear your gutters of the leaves from the autumn, then the water backs up, overflows, and freezes in the air as it drips off.” The Botanic Gardens' Mullestein Winter Garden provides seasonal color, texture, and shape to the winter landscape. It boasts more than 550 plants selected for their ornamental characteristics: beautiful bark, colorful twigs, sculptural branching, and varied form. (Photo: Cornell University) Entertainment on ice Up until the late Forties, when Beebe Lake stopped freezing over consistently each year (and University safety standards and risk management concerns were likely less stringent), annual ice carnivals were held on its solid surface. Hundreds of people would attend to skate, hear bands, and enjoy refreshments in the warming sheds. Toboggan runs on the southern shore sent riders careening across the frozen lake and “broken arms and legs were not uncommon,” says University Archivist Evan Earle ’02, MS ’14, speculating that many of the injuries stemmed from collisions. Until Lynah Rink was constructed in 1957, Big Red hockey teams played on Beebe, cleared by horse-drawn “zambonis” that would drag plow-like equipment across the lake to pick up ice shavings. Ice skating on Beebe Lake, early 1900s. (Photo: Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections) “On Saturday afternoons in winter, if skating is good, and the weather is just a wee bit mild and sunshiny, one is always sure of finding a great crowd assembled at Beebe,” states O.D. von Engeln, a professor of geology, in the 1918 edition of Concerning Cornell. “The graceful evolutions of the skaters and the mad rushes of the hockey players furnish a sight both pretty and thrilling, one that invites even the most sluggish soul to participation.” Seasonal scribes “The men here use something I never saw at home. They call them skis. They are about seven or eight feet long and they fasten one on each foot and with poles in their hands to guide them, slide down the steepest hills. It is rather dangerous, I believe, but they say it is lots of fun. Perhaps you know all about skis, but they were new to me.” — Letter from Adelaide Taber Young 1899 to her mother, January 10, 1896 A skier traverses Libe Slope as fresh snow blankets campus. (Photo: Cornell University) “We had what I hope is our last out-of-door surveying lab this afternoon. In the way of clothes, I wore a gauze combination, a woolen combination, a paper jacket, a corset, a muslin combination, and a petticoat and corset covering shirt waist, suit, winter coat, shoes and stockings, galoshes, gloves, muff, and hat. At 4 o’clock we decided we were too cold to stay out any longer.” — The diary of Helen Bullard 1919, December 3, 1917 “Ithaca is clothed in white, and snow is about eight inches deep continually. Some students ski to their classes. Life here is a constant variation of icy walking with muddy walking, slipping, and wallowing.” — The diary of David Kogan ’50, January 12, 1947 Top image: A student adds a pop of Cornell red to the Arts Quad during a snowfall. (Photo: Cornell University) Published: December 2, 2021 Comments Barbara Hankins, Class of 1954 6 Dec, 2021 My biggest memory of the snowy campus was walking to an 8 o’clock from Clara Dickson to then Food Science building on the Ag campus my freshman year. For some reason, Saturday mornings were particularly difficult! Women wore skirts and knee socks in those days. My knees turned red during the winter. Reply Robert Baime, Class of 1960 25 Jan, 2022 My first two years: snow so deep that it was like walking through tunnels. One two week period when it was -20 every morning. Yes, we used the trays as sleds but I remember metal trays I think. Reply Caryl Warner, Class of 1957 25 Jan, 2022 In 1957 during that -20 and deep snow spell I walked down the Lib Slope from my waiting job at the Statler to my room on Stewart Ave. about 10 pm with no hat and my crew cut, telling myself that I was warm. Luckily there was no wind. Not very smart. Prodigious falls occurred on the Lib Slope in the fresh snow and/or ice in the morning going up to McGraw Hall from Baldt or Stewart Ave. Reply Leonard Harlan 4 Dec, 2022 I too remember those paths with the snow on each side being up to our shoulders. I think at one point Ithaca was snowed in and all roads were cut for a couple of days. It was an adventure particularly for us engineers who had to rush across campus from Sibley and the labs to the “new “ engineering quad not to be late for class. Reply Gerry Curkendall, Class of 1955 25 Jan, 2022 I was a 1955 grad. My freshman year I had an 8 o’clock in the An Hus building on Saturday. I lived in a dorm one block up the hill from Stewart Ave. Long hike! Reply Catherine Hicks, Class of 1976 26 Jan, 2022 Hello. THANK YOU for this communication. So enjoy pictures of our totally uniquest campus. I’m a mere MFA acting grad – very old now and very fond of this experience! Catherine Hicks. ‘76 Reply Jane Parkinson, Class of 1981 6 Dec, 2021 I don’t remember exactly which winter this happened, but it had to have been either the winter of 1978, 1979, or 1980. A huge icicle formed in the Fall Creek Gorge just below the bridge on North Campus. It grew bigger every day. I believe people were making bets on when it would finally break off and fall into the gorge. Reply Tom Bantle, Class of 1974 6 Dec, 2021 The Cornell Daily Sun prank edition my freshman year had an article that all Work/Study students would be assigned to shovel Libe Slope and other sidewalks. Reply Michaline (Spina) Bruyninckx, Class of 1979 6 Dec, 2021 I remember snow in May 1978(?). All the tulips were covered! Reply Jon Sundquist, Class of 1982 7 Dec, 2021 It must have been 1977 (I didn’t arrive on campus until 1978). It famously snowed on the day of the May 8, 1977 Grateful Dead concert. Reply Lucrezia Herman, Class of 1976 25 Jan, 2022 It also snowed the first week of May 1973 – during study week. My freshman roommate, from Southern California, freaked out. Reply Cindi (Gray) Zembo, Class of 1980 4 Dec, 2022 Yes, 1977..Our Donlon dorm picnic was cancelled! Reply Jon Hrbek, Class of 1979 7 Dec, 2021 Yes Spina, I remember that too, although I think it was 1977. And wasn’t the first day of finals postponed then too, because of all that snow? I also remember that the study week just before was just perfect weather. Reply Mike Accardo, Class of 1979 19 Dec, 2022 Definitely ’77. The Grateful Dead concert was on Sunday, May 8. The weather had been mild that day, so no one was dressed for the surprise snow that started falling during the concert. I believe the total snowfall was 8-9 inches by morning and, as I recall it, the university closed on Monday (but it was the beginning of Study Week and no finals were postponed). But it’s been a long time … Reply Anne Powell, Class of 1966 6 Dec, 2021 Since I grew up in Ithaca, when I went to Cornell I was surprised by how many comments other students made about the “awful” weather (including the seemingly unending periods of cloudy days). As an Ithacan, I was used to it, of course. For the last 50 years, I have lived in Shelburne, Vermont, just south of Burlington on the shores of Lake Champlain…and I feel completely at home with the weather here since it is almost identical to Ithaca’s (including the very familiar large number of cloudy days). The common factors for both locations of being next to a large lake and having a hilly topography explain the twin weather characteristics of the two spots. Reply Bill Landberg, Class of 1973 6 Dec, 2021 Richard Feynman the Nobel laureate said he left Cornell for CalTech because he was tired of having to deal with the snow. Reply Gregory Moore, Class of 1983 6 Dec, 2021 I remember people would take food trays from the cafeteria in Willard Straight and use them as mini sleds down the big hill from McGraw and Arts Quad down toward dorms. Reply geoffrey hewitt, Class of 1979 7 Dec, 2021 I was in graduate school in the late 1970s and lived in a graduate dorm known as Sage Hall. I do not think it had been renovated for decades. It had clanking steam heat and poor water pressure but I was there for an excellent education which I am to this day very grateful. Now most students live in beautiful accommodations. Reply Amy (Fuchs) Nutig 14 Dec, 2021 Sage was an undergrad dorm in 92-93. I lived there for a few weeks and will never forget the ancient bathrooms. The wiring must have been almost as old – my roommate had a mini fridge, and every time the compressor turned over our lights would go out. Reply Dexter Wang, Class of 1969 7 Dec, 2021 I was a freshman living in North Baker. I remember a storm in 1966 where we were jumping out of second floor windows onto drifts that almost reached the window, and then sliding down to the ground. During the winter of 1970 I remember scraping snow off my windshield for 30 consecutive mornings. Reply charles camisa, Class of 1973 25 Jan, 2022 Lucky to have a car in those days, Dexter. Reply Candi Dabi, Class of 1968 25 Jan, 2022 I was at Cornell roughly when Mr.Wang was. I had a car but it never left the parking lot at PiPhi in the winter ! Reply Karen Kalista Green 7 Dec, 2021 During the blizzard of ‘93, I remember seeing people celebrate the day off from classes by using cardboard, trays, mattresses – anything they could find – to sled down Buffalo St. in Collegetown. Reply Kim Eike, Class of 1969 7 Dec, 2021 If my memory is somewhat accurate, Fall term finals (which were in January of 1966) were postponed for one day by a lot of snow. Reply Mary Ames, Class of 1969 7 Dec, 2021 I remember that, too, Kim. My recollection is that we got about three feet of snow during the day and night of January 31. My memory may be off, but I’m fairly sure, because my birthday is February 1, and I thought of that one-day reprieve from finals as the world’s best gift. Reply Robin Atwood Fidler, Class of 1969 25 Jan, 2022 I remember that too, Mary. we lived across the hall from one another in Dixon. I remember walking outside onto the field in front of Helen Newman Hall and making snow angels in the drifts. We heard that the only reason exams were postponed was because the faculty couldn’t get on campus from their homes. That day is the only one I remember that the weather really had an impact on us in four years. Otherwise we just learned to get up and slog through the snow to classes. Reply Les Abramson, Class of 1968 25 Jan, 2022 Yes. In 1966, thirty inches of snow caused a postponement of exams for one day, supposedly for the first time in University history. When the announcement was made in Uris Library, you’d have thought that exams had been cancelled rather than postponed. Crazy!! Reply Don Robert Deal 25 Jan, 2022 Kim, Quite right, good memory. I was a first semester grad student and was scheduled for my first orals on that day. We lived out on Ellis Hollow road in a house with about a 45 yd. driveway. My wife and I shoveled it out several times during the day before and into the evening – and was so relieved late in the evening when the chair of my committee called to say I didn’t have to come in to Plant Science the next day. -Bob Deal Reply Gail Colin Leibovich, Class of 1962 7 Dec, 2021 In my freshman year on a bitter cold morning, a friend and I were walking from Clara Dickson to Stimson Hall for an 8:00 zoology class. We had to wear skirts on campus in those days. Knee socks helped a bit but above the knee skirts were the fashion. All the way there, my friend kept saying “It’s so cold that i feel like I have pins and needles in my knees.” When we got to class and sat down, we could see that her knees were covered in blood spots. Turns out she had hemmed her skirt the night before and had left some straight pins in the hem! We found out later that the temperature was -20 degrees at 7:30am. Reply Barbara Mann, Class of 1958 25 Jan, 2022 That is SO funny! Reply Seymour R Rosen MD, Class of 1964 7 Dec, 2021 I remember crossing University Ave on Feb 2, 1961. The temperature was -25F, every breath I took felt like my nose and mouth were freezing; a motorist stopped and said it was too cold to walk to class so he gave me a lift to my 8am class; I understand the temperature that day set a record low for Ithaca. Reply Michael S. Schenker, Class of 1968 7 Dec, 2021 During 1966-67 I was living in an apartment in Cayuga Heights (I am still friends with my roommates) and my car was parked outside. Early in the morning I went out and started the car (miracle #1), released the parking brake (miracle #2), and started to drive out of the parking spot. The problem was that I could not stop; apparently brake fluid is not very fluid at -22F. Reply Michael M. Young, Class of 1968 25 Jan, 2022 During that winter of 66-67, I remember a week of sub zero nights (about -20 degrees). Three of us lived in a small house on East Lake Shore Drive up from the Lake. There was also a larger house next to us with about 7-8 other students. The first cold morning none of us could start our cars since the batteries were too cold. A service truck was summoned and jump-started all of us. He made a lot of money from us from just one service call. One of my housemates, Len, and I had to remove our batteries every night for a while and carry them into the front door to be able to restart our cars the next morning. Reply Nigel Colborn, Class of 1968 26 Jan, 2022 I remember those vicious frosts in ’67, too. Being a foreign student from England, Ithaca winters were a massive surprise. (Our winters are just wet and chilly.) In the year you recall, I think we had one of the heaviest blizzards of my time at Cornell. I remember walking up the Hill with the snow well above my knees – and I’m quite tall. My roommate owned a pair of snow shoes and was adept at using them. Most fun of all, each winter was the tray-sliding on ‘borrowed’ cafeteria trays. Reply Martin Root, Class of 1973 7 Dec, 2021 One morning in Spring ’71 I woke to ankle-deep snow and more coming and an 8:00 Organic Lab in Baker. I was one of the few students in attendance. Halfway through class we learned that classes were cancelled and I walked back to Mennen Hall through knee-deep snow. Many years later as an employee in ’93, I got stuck in that blizzard in Varna on the way home as we learned that the county had closed the roads. Our car was stuck at the bottom of the Varna hill. Fortunately a friend with 4-wheel drive came by and got us safely home. Reply Andrew E Hospador, Class of 1962 7 Dec, 2021 Thanksgiving ’58 it snowed so hard that when we threw a red Frisbee it disappeared into and reappeared out of the snowfall. My recollection is we got 24 inches in that storm. Reply Dianne Gwynn Berger, Class of 1972 7 Dec, 2021 I trugded through the snow on the old path from Forest Home along Beebe lake to my 8:00 AM Statistics Final Exam in the Ag School, only to have some official announce at 8:00 that campus was closed for the day. It was Dec 1970 or Jan 1971. After fighting my way back to Judd Falls Rd. I crawled back into bed. The exam was rescheduled and I did very well, thank you. Reply Toby Mark Miller, Class of 1973 7 Dec, 2021 I remember that day too! Reply Maureen McCafferty Stanton, Class of 1996 7 Dec, 2021 I remember trudging from Founders Hall to Jansens through waist-high snow during the Blizzard of’93. We found only cereal and some very dedicated employees inside. Reply Terrell E. Koken, Class of 1962 7 Dec, 2021 In winter of ’58-’59 we more than decimated the Straight’s supply of lunch trays on Libe slope. Tray-sliding was a real whoop, and the University placed hay bales around all the road signs at the bottom of the slope and closed the road, mainly to keep students from killing or maiming themselves. At the bottom of the slope there was usually a heavy shock as you passed over the curb, often accompanied by the disintegration of your tray. I don’t remember seeing a lot of tray fragments when the thaw came; they were probably picked up by diligent safety personnel. Reply Bayla (Schlossberg) Singer, Class of 1960 13 Sep, 2022 Those hay bales froze solid, and were more dangerous than the trees! Reply Victor Carfi, Class of 1980 7 Dec, 2021 I was a sophomore during the winter of ’78-’79 when we had over 100 inches of snow. It was a very, very bad year for me to live 4 miles off campus (near the airport) without a car. Reply Doug Wright, Class of 1969 7 Dec, 2021 Kim is right and I recall further that two of my finals in May of ’66 were postponed two days because of an 8 or 9 inch snowfall – IN MAY! Reply Barb Bachle Bleaking, Class of 1980 7 Dec, 2021 One year, it must have been 1978 or 1979 I trudged from North Campus to the ILR school for a 9 am class when it was -26 degrees. Only 3 students showed up. The professor gave us all As for coming out in such frightful weather. Reply Mike Accardo, Class of 1979 19 Dec, 2022 Almost certainly February 1979. As I recall, the average temperature for the first three weeks of that month was about 3-4 degrees vs. the record for coldest February ever — an average of about 12 degrees. The last week of the month was warm, so we ended up either breaking the record by a little or just missing. Reply Paula Naomi Friedman, Class of 1960 7 Dec, 2021 Cornell winters made me love snow. I remember waking early,in December of freshman year, in Clara Dickson Hall and seeing acres and acres of snow, the whole way to Beebe Lake, glowing pink from the rising sun. The next winter, 1957-1958, my friend Alice and I dressed in warm slacks, sweaters, and our heaviest coats to shelter among snow-covered bushes and watch the Northern Lights, a phenomenon I’m so grateful to have seen. Reply Caryl Warner, Class of 1957 25 Jan, 2022 IN 1957, as an MBA student I established a snow and ice shoveling route for residents, particularly in Cayuga Heights. I hired two freshmen football players to assist me. We usually started around 6 am so the homeowners could make it out the driveway to arrive at work on time. We worked hard as we only had snow shovels. My first class at McGraw Hall I was usually put to sleep by the relaxing sound of the steam pipes as the prof droned on with his lecture. Reply Cheryl Weissman, Class of 1981 26 Jan, 2022 I was a graduate student in Arts & Sciences in the late ’70s. I recall one winter night probably 1976 or 1977 going with an Irish student named Dermott to the Rongovian Embassy in Trumansburg, where we were able to see the Northern Lights from the parking lot or some place close by. What a fabulous experience. Reply Michael H Gilman DVM, Class of 1956 7 Dec, 2021 I am a Cornell 56 DVM grad and I was so occupied with struggling thru my six years of Cornell U getting a Degree that I never got time to be involved in any of the shenanigans mentioned in any Remarks Made by my fellow or other Graduates. I am happy to have survived this arduous adventure and now am happy To be retired and able to chuckle over the whole thing ! Thank you Cornell!!! Reply Richard Warshauer, Class of 1971 8 Dec, 2021 I remember the Blizzard of 1971, all too well. I walked from my apartment in Cayuga Heights to campus, only to learn all classes were cancelled. When I walked back, every muscle in my body ached. My landlady, the late Prof. Wanderstock’s widow, took pity and lent me her Vicks Vaporub. Reply Eric Key, Class of 1977 15 Dec, 2021 The two winters I remember were December 1973 when there was a storm that caused Tompkins County to close all the roads, and my new found buddies in UHall 4 trekked up to Community Corners and back, and the winter of 77-78 when there was about 120 inches of snow, and you couldn’t see the the Number 9 firehouse from the sidewalk on the opposite side of College Ave, just the lights flashing red on the snowbanks as the truck rolled by. Reply Don Schwartz 15 Dec, 2021 I came to a faculty appointment at Cornell from a similar position at North Dakota State University (and am a native North Dakotan). I smiled at student complaints about Ithaca winters and had to repress my urge to say “Let me tell you about REAL winters…”. I honed my response down to, “Well at least it melts here. In ND it blows around on the ground all winter until Spring when it finally wears out.” Reply harris d leinwand, Class of 1968 25 Jan, 2022 Montreuil in article seems to make no sense. One factor is the hills and valleys of the Finger Lakes, as well as the lakes themselves. The largest ones—like Cayuga—are deep enough that they almost never completely freeze over in the winter. “And we’ve got the Great Lakes on top of that,” Montreuil adds. The five huge freshwater bodies—spanning more than 750 miles from west to east, with Lake Ontario only about 70 miles north of Ithaca—have an outsized effect on the region’s climate. small snow sculpture on ledge by Ho Plaza Snow creations of all sizes often make surprise appearances. (Photo: Cornell University) “In the winter, they give us a lot of snow, and they make it really cloudy all the time,” Montreuil says. “But they also keep us a lot warmer than we would be otherwise.” Sans the Great Lakes, he says, our weather “would be a lot more like Minnesota.” but minnesota has over 1,000 lakes – many are large lakes, and minnesota has a long shoreline (over 300 miles) with lake superior, the largest great lake and much larger than lake ontario which is 70 miles from ithaca. Reply Lucrezia Herman, Class of 1976 25 Jan, 2022 Early January 1978, when all my housemates were still away for the Christmas break, I got snowed into my house on Blair Street – front and back doors covered by snow drifts and the screen doors frozen solid. A friend who lived around the corner on Cook returned the next day and had to excavate me. That was an especially memorable winter – walking up and down Cook was so treacherous at times that coming back home from campus after work I’d walk all the way down College Ave onto State and then up Blair instead. Can honestly say I don’t miss *that* part of living in Ithaca at all! Reply Cheryl Weissman, Class of 1981 26 Jan, 2022 I returned before my housemates to my second floor room in a rooming house on Quarry St (North Quarry St?) in Collegetown in January 1976. There was I think only one other person in the house at the time, an Englishwoman who lived on the first floor. On my first night back I discovered that my radiator had not actually worked all through the first semester–my room had been heated by the other residents’. Kind Englishwoman, maybe named Jan, loaned me her space heater for the night. I was awake for most of it, alternately freezing and burning. The next day I got hold of the landlord, who growled but got the radiator fixed. Reply Priscilla (Alden)Clement, Class of 1946 25 Jan, 2022 My memory of winters in Ithaca was wearing socks, leaving legs uncovered. Slacks were not in fashion yet. Reply Elizabeth A. Weis, Class of 1950 12 Dec, 2022 As I remember, women were not allowed to wear them. i remember trying not to be late to class and walking accross the dam at the bottom of Beebee Lake to same time. i have a picture of that dam taken then and oh my, if I had a child that did that!!!!! Reply Priscilla (Alden)Clement, Class of 1946 25 Jan, 2022 It was a long walk out to a class in Ag campus! Skirts left legs bare. Reply Vashti "Tice" Supplee, Class of 1973 25 Jan, 2022 I had a favorite study nook in A. D. White Library with a window where I could watch the snow fall. It snowed so much that studying was the one thing I could do. I thank the winters for helping me graduate! Reply Richard Hagelberg, Class of 1969 25 Jan, 2022 In January, 1966 we were hit with a blizzard just before finals. With a few friends I went skiing, at Greek Peak I believe. What was I thinking? Several of us got stuck in Dryden and spent the night with a family. Fortunately finals were postponed the next day. Reply Roger Remedios, Class of 1976 25 Jan, 2022 My first year at Cornell as a graduate student was 1973. I remember not seeing much ground from late November to early March. I remember the fraternity I was staying at required a snow plow to allow the inhabitants to leave on several occasions. All the cars were bumps in the parking lot. I walked between buildings and wondered where the other students were. I later discovered the underground passage ways. Despite being from California I loved the snow. Especially walking down from the Graduate Library at 11:30P and witnessing the beauty of a Cornell winter. Reply alan newhouse, Class of 1959 25 Jan, 2022 i recall some pretty deep snows and cold i recollect a -33F morning i wonder what the real record is? i also remember some long walks from ridgewood road to the engineering campus and occasional hairy car rides Reply Karen Kaplan, Class of 1975 25 Jan, 2022 Just flakes, nothing stuck as far as I can remember. I’m from Buffalo, so maybe I have a different perspective on the weather. Reply Esserman Alan, Class of 1963 25 Jan, 2022 I clearly remember winter 59/60 when as a freshman in University Halls I had a physics exam at night. Lib slope was a sheet of ice and we all were reduced to crawling on all fours to get up the hill. If someone started sliding back down no one would try to stop them for fear of also losing their grip!! Quite the experience! Reply Thomas Jones, Class of 1966 25 Jan, 2022 Growing up near Buffalo prepared me well for Ithaca weather. Comparatively speaking, Ithaca was almost “balmy”. Reply Bob Clark, Class of 1968 25 Jan, 2022 Winter in New York, let’s complain about cold, snow and mostly, the extreme darkness. Spring, mud and bugs and flowers. Summer, heat, humidity, more bugs and maybe camping without a day of rain. Fall, cloudy, rainy, always damp except for one glorious day of sunshine and the extraordinary color of the leaves. Reply Steve Daw, Class of 1969 25 Jan, 2022 I lived in a trailer park a few miles north of campus. For five consecutive days in early 1967 the temperature did not go above -25, and reached -35. The elevation there was even higher than campus so we were obviously colder than the official Ithaca temperature. I ran a few electric cords with a light bulb out to under the hood of the car for heat and never got stranded, though when driving the tires never “rounded out”. This past November marked my fiftieth year in Florida. Reply Carole Sahn Sheft, Class of 1959 26 Jan, 2022 As several writers mentioned, we didn’t wear pants in those days, but we did wear long underwear that covered our freezing knees and reached our calves just where our skirts ended. One semester, I had an 8 o’clock chemistry lab on Saturday mornings in Baker, and coming from North Campus after a snowstorm, I climbed the steps up from Forest Home Drive with a groundsman shoveling the snow from each step above me so I could get up to the building entrance. Reply Jill Klion Dodsworth, Class of 1974 26 Jan, 2022 I remember the layers of clothes required to make it through the cold sometimes windy walks across campus…and the “ritual” of peeling off the layers once inside the warm, toasty building for class…only to have to layer-up again an hour later!! And fond memories of what are called a “snorkel coat/snorkel parka” — a coat with a hood that when fully zipped up resembled the periscope of a submarine! No one could tell who you were and you had no peripheral vision, but they sure kept the biting wind off your face!!! Reply Paula Millenthal Cantor, Class of 1959 26 Jan, 2022 I have memories as if it were yesterday and not around 65 years ago, of trudging through the snow from Dickson V, or from SDT on Ridgewood Road, for those 8AM classes on the Arts Quad … I had to factor in a fifteen- minute early arrival just to have time to peel off all the layers of clothing! It was SO cold, but SO beautiful, crossing Triphammer Bridge and looking down at the frozen waterfalls below. My boyfriend drove over from Amherst one winter when I was living at SDT, and his car got stuck in a huge snowdrift outside of the house. It was impossible to dig him out, so we called a tow truck, which arrived, only to get stuck as well. Ditto a second tow truck. Somehow, everybody finally got dug out by the next day. His professors at Amherst were skeptical about the reason for his late return to school … but what did they know at Amherst about the spectacular Cornell winters?!! And the boyfriend graduated and married me anyway, so no harm done all around! Reply Melissa Yorks, Class of 1975 29 Jan, 2022 December 1973- my roommate and I had “pizza” for dinner with homemade dough and some tomato sauce. I didn’t want to walk the short distance from 109 Triphammer to Clara Dickson for dinner. We were only there because our respective mothers didn’t want to drive through the snowstorm that day at the end of the semester to get us. But the best part of the snow was a few days earlier as I was studying in the stacks of Uris Library and I saw an engineering student slip and fall and slide all the way down Libe slope (he was ok) but his slide rule came off his belt as he fell(that’s why I guessed engineer)and it hit the bottom before he did. Could even have been Bill Nye… Reply Randolph (Randy) Little, Class of 1962 4 Dec, 2022 In the final years of skating on Beebe Lake the lower level of the Johnnie Parsons Club served as a very welcome place to change into/out of your skates and, of course, to get warm. Horse-drawn snow plows had been replaced by a Worthington tractor borrowed from grass mowing responsibility on the golf course. As a “townie” I really enjoyed those days. Reply Bob Everson, Class of 1961 4 Dec, 2022 Barb (Ballweg) and I remember the blizzard of Feb (4th?) 1961 between semesters. We walked around campus and I took a selfie which was printed in a letter to the editor about a story on Ithaca winters in a past issue. I’m glad I didn’t go home. Reply stefan g. belman 4 Dec, 2022 Stefan G. Belman BS’58 DVM’61 Walking down from the Vet college on Tower Road one cold morning for a coffee break and without a cap on my noggin. When inside the Straight, I noticed my ears were frozen solid and without any touch sensation. My buddy, Bob Fleischmann had to cover my ears with his hands to slowly warm them. The pain was excruciating. Reply Robert Baime 4 Dec, 2022 I remember driving to Syracuse- snow was so high it was like a tunnel. My 1957 Corvette was buried in the Tau Delt parking lot until spring. Two weeks of -25 degrees. Junior year stayed in an apartment complex and remember tunneling to an adjoining apartment where a couple of girls lived. Reply Leslie Verdier Armentrout, Class of 1963 4 Dec, 2022 Do the women remember that as freshman, we all lived on the “other side”of the gorge and had to cross Triphammer Bridge to get to classes on campus? The campus police stood vigil on the bridge and turned back any woman wearing slacks unless the temperature was below 20 degrees. And most of us wore white sneakers and white bobby socks (professors said we all looked like sheep). In later years, my kids could not believe we did not rebel or rush the bridge en masse but instead behaved much like sheep. Reply kundu 18 Nov, 2023 Absolutely, the memories of crossing Triphammer Bridge to get to classes on the ‘other side’ are etched in our minds! The campus police standing guard, particularly enforcing the no-slacks rule unless it was below 20 degrees, was definitely a unique aspect of those times. It’s amusing to think back to the ‘sheepish’ appearance we apparently had with our white sneakers and bobby socks – a fashion statement that certainly made an impression on the professors! Looking back, it’s fascinating how times have changed, and the contrast with the rebellion and activism of later years is quite striking. It’s a testament to the different eras and the evolving spirit of the student body. Those were truly memorable times, and it’s interesting to reflect on how perspectives and behaviors have shifted over the years! Reply Roy 13 Feb, 2024 Remembering the perpetual winter mental debate. AAARRRGH, 40 degrees and 2 feet of snow outside. Must I really get out of this electric blanket heated bed and walk up the hill? Naaaah! Course that’s why I almost “cumed” out! Reply Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Students Student’s Playful Paintings Showcase the Hill as You’ve Never Seen It Bear Hugs With Online Clothing Business, Nigerian-Born Alum Gives Back Cornelliana Cornell’s Beloved Hawks Raise a Family, Far Above Campus