The strangest thing happened in Leesburg, VA, last Friday, Nov. 22. It snowed. Not heavy, earth-sticking storms of the white powder, but flurries all the same, no matter how slight. At Tuscarora High School, students could be seen staring out of the windows that morning, mesmerized by the flakes. A few teachers were jokingly dubbed “Grinches” because they couldn’t get their students to stop looking out the window.
Students had cause for their actions, however, as Virginians live in a state whose winter is always cold but never snows.
Since then, the days have consistently reached highs of 50s, discouraging the wishful thinking of a snowstorm. According to The Weather Channel, Thanksgiving day is supposed to be in the high 40s. While the temperature may drop from there out, it should rise to the 40s again around Wednesday, Dec. 4, staying true to Loudoun County’s fluctuating temperatures (The Weather Channel). Aubrey Boissiere, a senior at Tuscarora, fondly describes this phenomenon as “the state where you can experience all four seasons in one day.”
This does not mean that Leesburg, or even Virginia, reaches snow levels that other regions do. Areas in Ohio received their first snowfall on Thursday, Nov. 21. In the Cleveland Browns versus the Pittsburgh Steelers football game, snow quickly accumulated on the field and swirled around the area like a football game trapped inside a snow globe. Inside views of the northeastern Ohio region depict snow-coated cars, as the storm created a winter wonderland in a short amount of time. Even regions of Pennsylvania received a light dusting, whereas Northern Virginia only received a few flakes from the storm.
Northern Virginia’s most notable snowstorm, dubbed “Snowmaggedan,” occurred 14 years ago in 2010 (Loudoun History). Since then, we have not seen storms of the same intensity. However, students are hopeful that the few flakes they saw on Nov. 22 could be a sign of substantial snowfall this winter.
“I think it will snow a little bit. Like a few inches,” Kira Hunt, a junior at Tuscarora, approximates. She enjoys sledding and building snowmen, so if it does snow, it would make her happy.
Quinn Burmaster, a sophomore at Tuscarora, enjoys going outside when it snows as well. “When I was little,” he reminisces, “we built a snowman.” This occurrence was due to the heavy snow around 2011-2012, and Burmaster hasn’t been able to build an appreciable snowman since.
While the snowflakes sighted on Nov. 22 may have melted in the air, and Northern Virginia is too far for the Great Lakes’ snow effect to reach, Tuscarora students will be watching the weather for news of snowfall in the region. Hopefully, it will be more than a few flakes. As autumn falls aside to make room for the approaching winter, we’ll have to wait and see if Virginia can follow suit of the age-old film “White Christmas.”
