The "Snowpocalypse" of 2014 will apparently not see a repeat—after canceled classes Monday evening and all day Tuesday, a normal schedule will return on Wednesday.
A DukeAlert sent just after 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon confirmed that the Severe Weather and Emergency Conditions policy would end at 5 p.m. as originally scheduled and classes would resume Wednesday morning. The alert came six hours after the University announced that classes would be canceled for the day—giving students and professors their first snow day of the school year.
Shortly before 1 p.m. Monday afternoon, Duke announced that the severe weather policy would go into effect later that night, with classes canceled from 5 p.m. Monday to 11 a.m. Tuesday. Snow and freezing rain began accumulating late Monday afternoon and continued to fall through most of the night. Just before 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, administrators made the decision to cancel all classes and extend the weather policy until the end of the day. Campus buses began running at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
Though Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta advised students to use their time "profitably" in an email Tuesday morning, more than a few used their day off for activities other than studying—with many sledding in the Duke Gardens and photographing the Chapel.
Significant further precipitation is not expected over the next few days, but there is a chance of flurries Wednesday afternoon. Temperatures are expected to decrease throughout the week and could possibly dip below zero. The prolonged cold could bring black ice, forecasters warn.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Gov. Pat McCrory said in a statement Tuesday. “This is not your typical North Carolina winter storm where the sunshine melts the snow and ice in a day or two. The extended low temperatures and black ice likely will make this a dangerous situation for several days.”
Durham County is under a winter weather advisory from the National Weather Service until 10 a.m. Wednesday. Wednesday's high of 36 degrees is expected to be the warmest Durham will be all week, with highs of 19 and 24 degrees Thursday and Friday, respectively.
Many other area institutions shut down Tuesday for the weather—including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and North Carolina Central University, all of which canceled classes. Both NC State and NCCU are not reopening until 10 a.m. Wednesday. UNC, like Duke, is operating on a normal schedule. Durham Public Schools released three hours early Monday before closing Tuesday and Wednesday. Schools in Wake County and Chapel Hill-Carrboro will also be closed Wednesday.
Many students took to social media to express excitement over Tuesday's snow day, but the time off was relatively short compared to the five days of canceled classes that winter weather brought in 2014.
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