On Nov. 28, Case Western Reserve University students woke up to an alert from CWRU safety informing them that, due to snowy weather, CWRU would be on a delayed schedule with in-person classes and non-essential employees not beginning operations until 9:45 a.m.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a lake effect snow warning for Cuyahoga County on Nov. 28. The alert expired at the end of the day.
Sounding the alarm, the NWS warned residents that up to 16 inches of snow was to be expected at the start of the week. However, the actual snowfall, specifically in University Circle, was not that severe.
Many areas of Cuyahoga County experienced an amount of snow which ranged from 6.9 inches in Pepper Pike, to 0.1 inches at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Areas east of CWRU, such as Ashtabula County, experienced over 13 inches.
Government agencies from the NWS to the Ohio Department of Transportation advised commuters more time to get to their destinations. Across Northeast Ohio’s various freeways, local media reported frequent slowdowns and car accidents.
In CWRU students’ recent memory, the last “snow day” came in January 2022, where heavy snowfall caused CWRU to close for one weekday and one day over the weekend.
In preparation for this week’s snow, the city of Cleveland recently created a snow plow map. Allebit with a 15 minute timer, it shows the live location of snow plows and when each of the roads have been cleared. The city also declared snow parking rules in effect, making many street parking locations illegal.
In addition to CWRU, Cleveland State University had a delayed start at 12:30 p.m. Other nearby schools, such as John Carroll University and Baldwin Wallace University did not cancel or postpone classes, according to their social media accounts.
There were further shutdowns across Northeast Ohio. Cleveland Metropolitan School District closed due to the inclement weather. This is in addition to many of the surrounding school districts, who all closed due to the snowy weather. The Cleveland Public Library also closed. The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority did not publicly comment on any disruption they faced.
Once the afternoon came, snow quickly stopped falling at CWRU and class schedules at the university returned to normal. With the exception of a few professors and students who did not make the commute to University Circle, much of the university’s day-to-day operations went on, albeit with 30 mph winds.
