When it snows in Madison, it blizzards.
Heavy snow, blizzard conditions and a loss to Ohio State combined to enrage Madison residents and create a dismal weekend.
UW-Madison sophomore Josh Galvan said the loss to Ohio State coupled with the fact that the walk to class Monday will be a sloppy mess ruined his weekend.
""Not only am I going be walking to class depressed from the loss,"" Galvan said ""but because of that I also know that I'll walk into countless puddles this shitty weather has created.""
Over the weekend, The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for Dane County Saturday and a winter storm warning Sunday.
The powerful, winter storm, according to FOX 47 Meteorologist Andy Dorn, dumped nearly 16 inches of snow on Madison throughout the course of the weekend. He said approximately seven inches of snow accumulated both Friday and Saturday nights, with an additional two inches Sunday night.
""It was a very intense storm and it's going to be very messy,"" Dorn said. ""We actually thought it was going to be a rain event earlier in the week.""
Dorn said that in addition to the massive amounts of snow, many residents heard the rumbling of thunder Saturday night. That weather phenomenon is known as thunder snow and Dorn said it happens very rarely but when it does it can produce heavy snow—indicative of the weekend blizzard.
""It was a white out. Our plows could barely see,"" said Al Schumacher, Madison Streets superintendent. ""It was nuts.""
However, Dorn said that although Madisonians may be ""digging themselves out"" the next few days, areas such as Milwaukee were much harder hit than Madison. He said Milwaukee and cities along Lake Michigan were buried under snowfall of 20 inches or greater.
Schumacher said a snow emergency was declared and plows worked tirelessly to make streets safe. He said that the plan was to have streets cleared by Sunday evening.
Still, he added that campus area streets pose a difficult challenge because students fail to follow the snow emergency guidelines.
""We are working on it, but it's a very slow process,"" Schumacher said.
