Snow day at Florida State University
Winter flurry turns Tallahassee into a winter wonderland.
It was 21-year-old Florida State University student David Foster’s first time seeing snow, and he didn’t even have to leave the Sunshine State.
On Jan. 21, the students of FSU awoke to 26-degree temperatures, and around 5 p.m. It began snowing in Tallahassee, the state’s capital city. The snowfall came down in sheets throughout the night, forming an icy sleet on the roads and closing FSU’s campus for the remainder of the week. The National Weather Service in Tallahassee recorded nearly two inches of snow and sleet on campus.
Despite the dangerous driving conditions, electrical outages and class cancellations, FSU students rejoiced over their unlikely snow day. The streets were teeming with laughter and excitement as Tallahassee slowly but surely transformed into a winter wonderland.
“We just kind of just stood outside in amazement when it first started coming down. It was me and most of my roommates' first time ever seeing snow, so it was pretty surreal,” Foster said.
After taking in the reality of the situation Foster met up with his girlfriend and walked around town. They made snow angels together before eventually ending up in Collegetown, a strip of bars right next to FSU’s main campus.
“It was pretty chill vibes by my apartment, but down the street in Collegetown people were throwing snowballs and getting rowdy,” Foster said. “Both sides of the street have different bars on them, and people were just throwing snowballs bar to bar. The alcohol was definitely flowing.”
Some students built snowmen on their car hoods and drove through Collegetown, showcasing their creations as they hung out the windows of their slow-moving automobiles. The crowd, however, didn’t seem too impressed.
“People would hang onto the cars and sled down the road and throw snowballs at them, just harassing these cars as they drove by,” Foster said.
“People were targeting random casualties. Girls were getting hit in the face, and somebody must have called the police. The police ended up coming, and the snowball fight escalated into everyone versus the police, and they seemed to not like that. They brought out pepperball guns and started shooting at the crowds. Everyone dispersed, you couldn’t really be outside. Everyone started coughing. I had never even seen snow, and I knew, in Tallahassee, people get rowdy. But I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Although the storm accumulated more sleet than snow, it brought sleddable conditions to Tallahassee for the first time in 35 years. In fact, this winter storm system affected the whole Panhandle, breaking Florida’s previous snowfall record and bringing up to 9 inches of snow near Pensacola.
Students had plenty of time to go sledding, as the combination of snow and sleet coating the streets didn’t clear up until Saturday.
Family snow day
“My family drove up from Ocala, where I’m from, Wednesday morning, and we just spent the whole day sleighing all over the FSU campus. I have nine siblings, the oldest being 22 and the youngest being three, so there were 12 of us including my parents. It was pretty crazy,” Phoenix Ferguson, a 20-year-old FSU undergraduate said.
Most students weren’t prepared for this type of weather and made sleds out of normal household appliances, using everything from laundry bins to flat-screen TV’s. However, the Fergusons came ready.
“We just recently went on a trip to New York for Christmas break to see snow for the first time, so we bought a bunch of sleds, and we just brought them up with us. I think sledding around campus was more fun than even our trip to see snow, because we were in Florida and just running around all over the place looking for the best hills to bomb,” Ferguson said.
As Ferguson and her parents herded her family around campus, they couldn’t help but draw attention from the other college students also trying to enjoy the snow.
“I think a lot of people were surprised to see children so young running around campus. A lot of people were making freshmen jokes. But it was just so fun because I felt like a little kid again, and all my younger siblings were just as excited as me. We were all super, super happy and stoked for the snow at all ages,” Ferguson said.
She and her family continued sleighing down the streets of campus and the staircase outside of Strozier Library until her younger siblings got worn out and had to call it a day.
Tallahassee is no stranger to unusual weather conditions and natural phenomena. In the last 18 months, it has fallen victim to three hurricane landfalls, two straight-line wind events and a tornado. However, out of all the weather cancellations, FSU students seem to have found this one to be the most enjoyable.
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