Who doesn’t love the beautiful cold flurries that fall so gracefully from the sky every now and then? Who doesn’t love having snow days off to hangout with friends and drink hot chocolate? Nice right? Well, who likes being trapped inside their homes for a week due to a foot of snow and ice with extreme polar temperatures?

On Tuesday, Feb. 17 the unexpected “snowpocalypse” began, starting with an original 10 to 18 inches of fluffy snow. Every student in Fayette County was ecstatic to a get a day off from school to enjoy sledding and other fun outdoor activities. Little did we know that this would be the start of one of the snowiest February weeks ever for Lexington and for other cities as well.

The temperatures continued to drop as the week continued, starting at the low 20’s and upper teens. On Wednesday another round of snow started to shower us in waves adding 1 to 4 more inches of snow to our already substantial snow pack, with polar winds blowing and drifting the snow.  On Thursday the intense amount of snow (13”-16”) was outshined by the intensifying low temperatures.

By Friday, Feb. 20 everyone in Lexington was getting sick and tired of the cold. Right as our snowy weather started to slow down another winter storm came along to continue the dreaded cabin fever. This new winter storm arrived just in time for the weekend bringing a nasty mix of sleet, freezing rain and of course more snow. The readings for Friday ranged from -5 to -30 beating the record coldest temperatures in Kentucky at -21.

A Winter Storm Warning was sent out for the entire state of Kentucky through Saturday. This snow storm brought some serious issues from the significant amount of snow as well as the freezing rain that began to freeze over that Friday night. Saturday continued with the same patterns as Friday with the horrible mix of sleet, freezing rain and snow throughout the entire day.

Finally,  we find ourselves wondering if we’ll ever get rid of this snowy nightmare and the answer is no. Sunday, Feb. 22, all the freezing rain and snow that had fallen over the course of the week began to freeze over creating slicker paths on already icy roads, several neighborhoods were so iced up that many people continued to get stuck trying to get out of their own driveway. Of course with the snow freezing over, another shot of arctic air moved in pushing temperatures to continue being in the single digits and even below zero.

What began as an innocent snow day has turned into the wildest snow week in Kentucky history. By Monday students were craving to be back at school due to the cabin fever from being snowed in all week.

Unfortunately due to this arctic adventure many schools will be in session through June, again. This “snowpocalypse” has definitely earned its name in the state of Kentucky.