{"id":4360,"date":"2021-12-02T12:50:36","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T17:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=4360"},"modified":"2023-02-01T09:28:45","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T14:28:45","slug":"cold-comforts-of-a-big-red-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/cold-comforts-of-a-big-red-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cold Comforts of a Big Red Winter, Then and Now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Embracing the inevitable, Cornellians<\/em> takes a lighthearted look at East Hill\u2019s weather woes and wonders, past and present<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joe Wilensky<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ithacation<\/strong> [ith-uh-KAY-shen]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noun: 1) A hybrid type of precipitation\u2014usually a mixture of snow, hail, rain, and slush\u2014accompanied by gloomy skies and bone-chilling cold, endemic to Ithaca, New York; 2) a favorite topic among Cornellians.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For as long as the University has been standing far above Cayuga\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aerial view of a snow-covered Arts Quad. (Photo: Cornell University)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Depending on your perspective, this can be seen as a challenge, a game of chance\u2014or, if you\u2019re meteorologist Drew Montreuil, MS \u201915, a scientific delight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the most unique\u2014and, from my point of view, the coolest\u2014things 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,\u201d says Montreuil, a Tompkins County native who holds a master\u2019s in earth and atmospheric sciences and runs the popular Finger Lakes Weather site<\/a>. \u201cBut from a forecasting point of view, it can be a pain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest quirks, he says, \u201cis the lake effect, and how one minute it can be sunny out, and then you fast forward five minutes, and you can\u2019t see across the street. Obviously, that can have a big impact on people, road crews, commuters, and just getting around and staying safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what makes Ithaca\u2019s weather so \u2026 particular?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One factor is the hills and valleys of the Finger Lakes, as well as the lakes themselves. The largest ones\u2014like Cayuga\u2014are deep enough that they almost never completely freeze over in the winter. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve got the Great Lakes on top of that,\u201d Montreuil adds. The five huge freshwater bodies\u2014spanning more than 750 miles from west to east, with Lake Ontario only about 70 miles north of Ithaca\u2014have an outsized effect on the region\u2019s climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Snow creations of all sizes often make surprise appearances. (Photo: Cornell University)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>
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\u201cIn the winter, they give us a lot of snow, and they make it really cloudy all the time,\u201d Montreuil says. \u201cBut they also keep us a lot warmer than we would be otherwise.\u201d Sans the Great Lakes, he says, our weather \u201cwould be a lot more like Minnesota.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the forecast for winter 2021\u201322? According to publications like the Old Farmer\u2019s Almanac<\/em>, the U.S. is in for a \u201cseason of shivers\u201d\u2014and Upstate New York is in for very cold temperatures, though perhaps drier conditions than usual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as for Montreuil? He tends to avoid making broad predictions\u2014and notes that dire weather warnings are sometimes inflated to garner headlines and page views. \u201cThe Climate Prediction Center<\/a> has us looking at higher chances for above average temperatures, with near-average precipitation for December, January, February, and March,\u201d he says. \u201cIf I had to put my chips anywhere, I\u2019d place my bets with them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on for a flash-frozen sampler of some of Cornell\u2019s winter-related lore, stats, tips, memories, and more.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shovel ready<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Each time it snows or ices up, the University\u2019s grounds crew tackles the clearing of some 15 miles of roads, 61 miles of sidewalks and walkways, and 114 acres of parking lots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s not a straightforward task: as the mercury drops, road salt gets dramatically less effective. At 30 \u00b0F, for example, a pound of salt can melt 46 pounds of ice\u2014but at 10 \u00b0F, it can barely melt five pounds, and takes more than 10 times longer to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These days, grounds staff are metering out salt more precisely, with the aim of using less; they\u2019re also testing other compounds to pre-treat\/anti-ice walkways and roads. And, as always with weather, timing is everything.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Grounds staff at work. (Photo provided by Dan Schied)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf it stops snowing at two o\u2019clock in the morning, and we can get ahead of the students and traffic, everything is golden,\u201d Schied says. \u201cBut if it\u2019s snowing during the day and we\u2019re trying to plow while there are students on campus, you can imagine how slow we have to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Illustration: Cornell University; data provided by Mark Wysocki)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Winter newbies<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Given that Cornell draws students from all over the world\u2014including much warmer climes\u2014the 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 \u201923, a Hotelie who hails from Ghana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first time I saw snow was one afternoon freshman year, on my way back from the Ag Quad,\u201d recalls Amoako, who promptly called her siblings and tried to give them a sense of what she was experiencing via video chat. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\nLordina Amoako \u201923<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Like many international students, Amoako soon learned that what she\u2019d earmarked as winter gear was really only appropriate for fall; luckily, friends helped her shop for everything she needs to stay toasty. \u201cI like the snow, now that I am warm and do not freeze,\u201d she says. \u201cBut sometimes when it\u2019s still snowing in April or May, I just want it to end.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blades of glory<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

More than a century ago, when Cayuga Lake completely froze over in the winter of 1911\u201312, Floyd \u201cFlood\u201d Newman 1912 and four friends decided to take advantage of the opportunity. They skated from the lake\u2019s southern tip in Ithaca all the way to the northern end\u2014roughly forty miles\u2014before hopping on a train back home. Flood\u2019s skates are now on display in Helen Newman Hall (which he endowed, along with Newman Lab and Newman Arboretum).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Beebe Lake rhino<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201926, who appropriated a professor\u2019s trash can\u2014made from an actual rhino leg\u2014to fake the footprints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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