Students speak of thoughts regarding record-breaking low temperatures

By Sarah Newberry / Staff Writer

This frigid weather is something to be wary of and in the know about so you can keep informed.

The bitter cold, and sometimes dangerous weather, Hutchinson has experienced recently is breaking records. It hasn’t been this cold since the 1960s or 1970s. With the temperatures dropping down to minus-16 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday according to Accuweather, it is undoubtedly dangerous, and advised that no one be going outside unless necessary.

Before the weekend of Feb. 14, it was cold, but not as cruel as this. From Feb. 7-11, high temperatures were in the teens daily, while lows dipped to as low as 7. From Feb. 12 through Feb. 16, high temperatures ranged from 15 degrees Saturday to 2 degrees Monday.

Hutchinson Community College even cancelled classes Monday and Tuesday due to extreme cold, coupled with snow and the possibility of losing electricity on campus.

Bryant Selebangue is a HutchCC sophomore from Lasalle, Quebec and he said he was not fazed by this kind of weather. To him, it may feel like a taste of home when he is so far away. It might even feel like a heatwave of sorts. This kind of weather, somewhat out of the norm for Kansas, is perfectly normal for Selebangue, who also plays for the men’s basketball team.

“This is an everyday thing for me,” Selebangue said.

According to Selebangue, it gets much colder in Quebec than it does here. They measure their degrees in Celsius, not Fahrenheit, but it still gets down into the negatives there. Also, Selebangue said they can get 10 feet of snow or more. If that happened down here in Kansas, it wouldn’t end up very well.

“We have an excellent system for dealing with the snow in Canada, one of the best, I think,” Selebangue said.

When they do have a lot of snow, people still go on with their everyday lives, and school hardly gets canceled in Canada. In Kansas, people complain about the cold weather, even though they have lived here their entire lives.

“People should suck it up and stop complaining,” Selebangue said.

On the other hand, CJ Ogbonna, a sophomore from Atlanta, has an entirely different story and perspective on this cold weather. Coming from the South, this cold is something that is a shock to him. While this weather is typical for someone like Selebangue, Ogbonna said he thinks quite the contrary. He doesn’t like this icy weather at all.

“People are very, very crazy to go out in this weather,” Ogbonna said.

While Selebangue wouldn’t mind having classes when wind chills are well below 0, Ogbonna thinks otherwise.

“It is too cold to be holding classes; we shouldn’t be holding them at all,” Ogbonna said.

Ogbonna, like many other students, did get his wish when classes got canceled because of the bad weather.

When there is bad weather like this or worse up in Canada, life is rarely shut down. But in the South, minor snow accumulation can result in closing schools.

Kansas is in between and it can take a significant bout of poor weather to close schools, like what the area saw this week.

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