This week marked the beginning wintry weather across the Case Western Reserve University campus. After what many meteorologists described as a fairly warm December, temperatures dipped to the single digits as students headed off to class following the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Students heading to class Tuesday morning battled temperatures as low as 7 degrees with wind chills below zero.

Undergraduate student Janis Cava described the morning walk to her class in the Peter B. Lewis Building saying, “It was one of the longest walks I have taken from south side to north side.”

“The greenies were really busy this morning with people trying to avoid the snow, so I decided just to walk and deal with the cold,” she continued.

Euclid Ave., the major Cleveland road that cuts campus in half by the Thwing Center, still had not been cleared as late as 10 a.m., causing traffic back ups all around University Circle. By the time students left for class on Tuesday, most university pathways and sidewalks had been shoveled, but it was not until later in the day that all of them were cleared.

On Tuesday, the city of Cleveland issued a parking ban on city streets designated as snow emergency routes to allow for plows and emergency vehicles to more easily pass. A university issued alert preemptively warned students that vehicles could be towed in the event that they did park on the streets.

In addition to the parking ban, the city issued a statement on Tuesday requesting Clevelanders to stay off the streets as much as possible to allow plows to do their jobs.

Following the warning, many Cleveland area schools were cancelled due to the snow and cold temperatures, but CWRU remained open. CWRU issued an alert informing students that classes would still be in session, but the alert encouraged students to “be safe.” CWRU has not canceled classes for students due to weather in over two years.

Nevertheless, weather did serve as a threat to area commuters. A weather related accident on interstate 90 east of Cleveland in Ashtabula County left a portion of the highway closed on Tuesday.

Reports indicated that blinding snow and heavy winds could have been responsible for the accident, which involved a number of semi-trucks and passenger vehicles.