By Luke Dinkel

Over Christmas break, an Arctic cold front struck a majority of the country, bringing temperatures into the negatives and windchills of -30 degrees to town.

Moving can be a hassle on a regular day, but when Principal Mr. Adam Jones’ pipes burst a day before moving day, it turned into a catastrophe.

“I woke up at 4 in the morning to my wife screaming,” Mr. Jones said. “I ran downstairs where I was greeted by water pouring out of the ceiling onto my living room carpet, which came at the worst time since I was selling my house the next day. I knew some of my pipes had frozen the day before, but I wasn’t expecting them to burst.”

Having connections with friends and family can always come in clutch when in need.

“Since it was the day after Christmas, most plumbers weren’t working or were already busy fixing frozen pipes somewhere else,” Mr. Jones said. “Luckily, I have a friend who was willing to drop what he was doing and come help. He might have had 30 calls about other pipes bursting that day. I’m extremely thankful for all the people who came over to help my family move, even Mr. Zilli came over to help, which made everything much easier.”          

With everything freezing, it even made it difficult for some to get inside of their car, let alone drive it.

“When I went out to my car, the first thing I needed to do was clear the snow off the windshield,” junior Ryan Ebersole said. “When I went to grab the scraper out of the backseat, the door wouldn’t open, so I let the car warm up for about 10 minutes hoping that the ice on the door would melt. When I went back out, the door still wouldn’t open, so I just grabbed an extra scraper from the garage since I had to get to work.”

If a car’s rubber gaskets are dirty, the dirt and debris can prevent the car door from sealing shut. This allows moisture to seep in and freeze the door.

“It turns out the door ended up becoming frozen open,” Ebersole said. “I tried pushing it closed but it wouldn’t move. I ended up having to drive all the way to work with the car beeping because it thought the door was actually open.”

Luckily, one good thing that came out of this arctic weather was the perfect conditions at Seven Springs Mountain Resort.

“Over Christmas break the conditions at Seven Springs were immaculate,” sophomore Lauryn Swierczynski said. “The majority of break there was lots of fresh snow every day, and more terrain was getting opened because of it. From the beginning to the end of break, I saw at least three new hills open.  Although the lines were extremely long, I still had a ton of fun with friends and family.”

The snow and cool weather made for the perfect Christmas climate, something that most northerners dream of every year.

“It’s perfect,” Swierczynski said. “The way the snow laid on the trees, the Christmas lights glistening off the snow was amazing. This time last year the weather was 50 degrees and rainy, it felt dreary and depressing. I don’t think we had a Christmas like this in years.”