The record-breaking snowstorm that closed Lyndon State College recently was yet another storm in a winter that has featured many surprises.
“It’s totally unprecedented to have three total closings in one winter, including the one during break,” said the Dean of Academic and Student Affairs, Donna Dalton. “It’s Vermont; we get snow.”
The first closing this winter occurred on Wednesday, Feb. 2, and a closing during winter break on Friday Feb. 25, followed by the most recent closing on Monday Mar. 7.
The storm deposited the third-most snow ever on record in nearby Burlington. 33 inches on February 26, 1969. Here at LSC, we received over two feet of snow, rivaling the most snow ever reported in 24 hours at St. Johnsbury, 33 inches on February 26, 1969.
“We had a student measure an unofficial measurement at our college of 25.5 inches,” said atmospheric sciences professor Jason Shafer. “You can usually go with a margin of error of plus or minus 10% because of blowing and drifting of the snow.”
Shafer is part of a group of individuals at the college who give input when the decision to close the college is considered. However, Shafer does not make the final decision.
I advise the college and I can recommend or give them considerations to take into account, “said Shafer. “It’s not considered part of my job, it’s a service to the college.”
“There are multiple people involved in the decision to close the college” said Dalton. “There’s myself, Wayne Hamilton, Tom Archer, Jay Shafer, our college’s personal meteorologist, the President if she’s available, and Jonathan Davis who are all involved in the decision.”
In the instance of the storm that hit our region Sunday night and Monday, Dalton felt it was appropriate to wait until Monday morning to make a decision about closing the college.
“We get forecast info. from Jay (Shafer) 36 hours in advance, and then he updates it as the storm gets closer,” said Dalton. “As of the information we had Sunday evening I went to bed thinking we would have a delay. The thinking at that point was the worst would be from 4 p.m. Sunday until 4 a.m. Monday.”
Dalton says she does not want to close the college unless there’s no chance the campus would be usable during the day.
“Closing the college is not a decision that we enter into lightly,” said Dean Dalton. “It’s terrible for faculty and students, particularly courses that meet once per week on the day we close.”
The decision to close classes, especially when they are closed twice in a semester, can certainly result in a huge inconvenience for students and faculty alike. Our college has no mandated number of class meetings like the public school system, however Dalton does hope professors fulfill their responsibilities.
“My informal expectation is that faculty is doing what they can do to cover the material that they missed,” said Dalton. “The assignments don’t go away, but maybe the discussion will be shortened.”
Communication between meteorologists and the general public can be one of the biggest problems during major storm situations, and such confusion has not escaped Lyndon in the past.
“A few years ago it wasn’t clear to me that we should close and I remember Dr. Atkins being very unhappy, asking ‘why didn’t we close?!,” said Dalton.
Since that storm, Shafer has re-done the way he writes forecasts and recommendations to the administration regarding winter weather events. He now rates storms based on a five level travel impact scale.