While the Seminoles are enjoying a rare snow day and canceled classes, Gators will be slogging through possible freezing rain and sleet.
As temperatures dip to near and below freezing, the addition of rain to the mix makes some question if students will soon be building snowmen in the swamp, but WRUF chief meteorologist Jeff Huffman said there is no possibility of snow in Gainesville.
“There never has been a chance with this storm system in Gainesville,” he said.
However, from midnight to 6 a.m. on Thursday, there will be a chance of sleet and freezing rain.
Sleet is frozen rain falling to the ground as ice pellets, and freezing rain is precipitation that freezes upon contact with the ground, leaving a glaze of ice.
Today’s temperatures will be in the 30s with a windchill dropping below freezing, Huffman said.
Although local media outlets reported flurries near Gainesville in 2010, the last recorded snowfall in Gainesville was in 1989, according to wunderground.com.
Stanley Yoder, a 19-year-old UF nursing sophomore, said he’s going to turn on the heat and break out the blankets in preparation for the cold weather.
“I’m definitely gonna be bundling up,” Yoder said.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 1/29/2014 under the headline "No snow for Gainesville despite cold"]
