As students and staff are welcomed back after the holiday break, they begin to share how they spent the sudden and extra addition to Winter break. On December 22, 2022, members of the Arrowhead school district were informed that school the following day on Thursday, December 22, 2022, would be canceled due to the predictions of dangerous weather by news sources.

The snow day came as a surprise for many, but it also added to the upcoming winter break that started on Friday the 23rd. 

Junior, Bri Prox says, “I went to bed at 1 am on Wednesday, and did not wake up until 1 pm on Thursday which gave me a nice extra day of sleep.”  

A math teacher, Trina Dodge, said, “The snow day was well appreciated as I was able to sleep in.”

The weather conditions in the southern United States had expected decreasing temperatures, snow fall, and high winds. In the state of Wisconsin, the forecast was expected to give high chances of snow, high winds in the upper 30s, and low visibility, affecting driving conditions. 

Many people chose not to leave their houses because the visibility had been low and roads had become packed with snow and freezing ice.

“I decided to hang out with friends and go sledding, but we left early and hung out at a house because it was very cold, and it was no longer enjoyable,” said Prox. 

Dodge spent her day at home. She said, “I didn’t leave my house since I thought it was better to be safe than sorry.”

Chris Herriot, an Arrowhead teacher, said, “I already had planned to be out on that Thursday, as I needed to take my son in for sinuplasty surgery, but I was able to get out to shoot the sunrise since his surgery was not until 9:00 am. Since there was a threat of a blizzard and it was so close to Christmas, the image I took went viral on Facebook, it showed up in 377,000 Facebook feeds with hundreds of comments and thousands of reactions. I spent a lot of time responding to some of the comments and then spent the rest of the day getting ready to travel earlier than expected due to the pending storm. The extra time being home with my son allowed me to finish up Christmas preparations and pack up to leave two days earlier than expected for a family trip to Florida. We ended up beating the mass airline cancellations by taking a gamble and showing up to the airport Friday morning to get on a flight. We made it on while the flight we were supposed to take two days later ended up getting canceled.” 

Herriot was referring to the mass number of Southwest flights that were canceled. During the dates of December 22, 2022 and December 30,2022, over 15,000 flights were canceled due to weather issues, staffing shortages, and plane shortages, therefore disrupting many travel plans over the past holiday.