Feature

Great Neck’s First February Without Snow

Natasha Khazzam, Associate Editor|March 9, 2020

A snowless path behind North Middle School this February.

After the clock struck 12 on New Year’s Eve, the start of a new decade meant a lot of things for the Great Neck Community: resolutions, a fresh start, and an erratic weather pattern. There is no denying the fact that the weather this winter has been weird. From the daily temperature changes of up to 40 degrees, to nearly 60-degree January afternoons, things have been changing— and not necessarily for the better.

This past month marked Great Neck’s first February on record without snowfall.

Senior Netta Mualem expressed her concern for “having had global land and ocean temperatures reach a record high this past month,” and explained its impact on her own life. “My friends and I missed playing in the snow together,” she said.

Like Mualem, other students at North High have had similar experiences with the lack of snow. “I’m pretty disappointed that there hasn’t been any snow, or more importantly, snow days, this February,” said sophomore Adelia DeRose. “Though enjoyable, the warm weather has also been concerning in regards to climate change.”

Great Neck Snow Plowing at work during past winters. [Image Credit: Great Neck Snow Plowing]

A snowless February also meant much smaller incomes for Great Neck’s snow plowing services. Great Neck Snow Plowing, a branch of Fagan’s Towing Service which often turns to snow removal during the winter, explained that the weather impacted it “drastically.” “We haven’t made a nickel!” exclaimed a representative of the company, effectively summing up the company’s losses this February.

Apart from both depriving us of our precious snow days, and hurting local businesses, this unusual winter is also a clear indicator of an impending catastrophe: Global warming.

On February 6th, the Antarctic summer reached a record high temperature of 64.9 degrees, and the global land and ocean surface temperatures in January were also the highest ever recorded.

Ice levels fall in the Arctic [Image Credit: UAF]

However, the effects of global warming have not been isolated. Along with the declining coverage of polar and Atlantic sea ice, record-warm temperatures were also set across the globe in parts of Scandinavia, North and South America, as well as in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans. As a result, sea levels have drastically risen, and ecosystems across the globe have been disrupted.

Mrs. York, the chair of the science department at North High, explained that, in addition to many other concerns about global warming, this recent change in climate is particularly troubling to her in regards to the “places that grow our food or along coastal regions, which are prone to flooding and storms.”

The lack of snow this February was an unfavorable twist to our winter this year, negatively affecting the community as a whole. But reflecting the change throughout the planet, the atypical occurrence was part of a much larger, and rapidly-growing crisis.