UAFS MailbagFebruary 02, 2024

UAFS Mailbag: Let's Talk About the Weather

Written By: Ian Silvester

Welcome to a new semester and new year! If you are new to the UAFS Mailbag, it is a bi-monthly collection of thoughts. Each mailbag edition intends to answer questions for the curious, and everyone is encouraged to email what they’d like to see covered. I will do my best to find answers and share them here each month.

Without further ado, let’s get into it! January, am I right? What a year that month was. Practically every day, I woke up thinking, “Is it winter? Is it spring? Nope, it’s just Arkansas weather.”

Growing up in Colorado, I feel pretty confident in my ability to handle the snow and cold, but what January threw at us was borderline whiplash. Going from sunny and mild to cold and snowy to ice to rain to mild and sunny again – I don’t know about you, but the recent forecasts have been a rollercoaster.

With rain on the horizon, you might be thinking, “Spring is on the way, right?” Since his first prediction in the late 1880s, Punxsutawney Phil has made a correct prediction about 39% of the time. As tradition goes, if he sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. According to calendars, this is correct, with the first day of spring, March 20, coming about six and a half weeks after. If Phil doesn’t see his shadow on the morning of Feb. 2, there will be an early spring, which he predicted would happen in 2019 and 2020. This Feb. 2, Groundhog Day, Phil predicted an early spring once again.

Tradition aside, to answer your question, the running joke in Arkansas is that spring is not quite here. We’re entering what is commonly called “fake spring,” which is usually followed by “second winter” before spring begins next month.

Simply put, don’t count out another possible run of cold weather, snow, or ice to enter the forecast. If we were to see another cold snap and measurable snow, the first few weeks of the semester would indicate how the university monitors the situation to ensure everyone’s safety.

Shortly before the spring semester began, Dr. Riley gave us a peek behind the scenes regarding weather safety. UAFS Chief of Police, Chief Ray Ottman, monitors National Weather Service weather briefings for the latest information about weather in and around Fort Smith. Weather-related decisions are made based on current conditions, what the weather briefings are indicating and predicting, and an understanding of what decisions are being made by businesses and schools around the university.

If weather causes a full or partial closure of the campus, students, faculty, and staff are all notified through a campus-wide email, Lions Alert – sign up if you haven’t already by logging in to your My.UAFS and selecting it from the menu – and through official UAFS social media accounts, like Facebook and Instagram. The email will also notify you about which services will remain open.

We are still in the thick of an active weather season here. It is always best to remain weather-aware and know what the university is doing in response. Safety is always a priority.

As always, if you have a question or want to see a topic covered in an upcoming mailbag, email us at communications@uafs.edu.

Until next time,

Ian

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• Weather
• Groundhog Day
• UAFS Mailbag