Blacksburg experienced the second snow storm of this winter causing Virginia Tech do what they rarely do, close their campus on February 15th.
This time around Blacksburg got 10 inches of snow and one-tenth of an inch of ice on top of the snow, according to the National Weather Service. The storm hit Montgomery County, Giles County, Floyd County, Radford County, the city of Roanoke, and other surrounding areas including North Carolina and West Virginia.
It started snowing in the New River Valley around 4 p.m. on February 14th according to local reports. Virginia Tech closed its campus and cancelled campuses for February 15th that night. Virginia Tech reopened its campus and resumed classes at 10 a.m. on February 16th.
Emma Mehfoud is a junior at Virignia Tech. “I was on my back to Blacksburg from Richmond right when it started snowing. I did not expect to hit snow that would prevent us from getting home. I was terrified that we wouldn’t make it home and would have to stay in a hotel,” said Mehfoud.
This snowstorm came by surprise for most residents of the New River Valley. Not many people expected it to hit the area this hard. Stores were not out of stock of bread and milk. People weren’t in a frenzy to get gas or leave town. Students rushed to do homework last minute instead of celebrating the snow day.
This gave parts of Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia many feet of snow that weekend cancelling school, work, church services, and many other events.
Virginia Tech has never cancelled classes for weather reasons this frequently. In 2014, Virginia Tech closed its campus for one and half days for weather reasons for the first time in 10 years. In 2015, Virginia Tech closed its campus for a half day. This year, Virginia Tech has already closed its campus two times because of snow.
Montgomery County decided to cancel school for February 15th that afternoon. Montgomery County has also cancelled school for February 16th and could for another day.
Many ask, “Is this because of a new president of Virginia Tech? Is this because of global warming? Or are our winters just getting colder?”
View from the top of Clay Street
Engel Hall in the Snow
This story was created for my Multimedia Reporting class in Spring 2016.
