A Historic Charleston Winter

A+Historic+Charleston+Winter

This might come as a surprise to most of you, but on Wednesday January 3rd Charleston received some snow. To be exact, the blizzard left the city with approximately 5.1 inches of snow and ice on the ground, the most snowfall in 29 years. This storm was the 3rd largest of all time for the city behind the 5.4 inches  received in 1973 and the whopping 8 inches in 1989. The snow and ice lasted for about 5 days and Charleston County School District was forced to cancel 4 days of school that will later be made up.

The slick roads threw off many inexperienced Charleston drivers causing crashes and one pedestrian death in North Charleston. While the storm was dangerous, it also was enjoyable to people who stayed home and off of the roads. Many college students came home to escape harsh winters in the north to see the beaches covered in white snow while younger kids and dogs saw it for the first time. Small snowmen littered the city and kids searched for hills to sled down. To find out how this snow affected a student at Magnet, we interviewed Coco Kelly (senior) to hear about her experience.

1.Did you expect it to snow and ice as much as it did?

“Well, I was expecting problems getting to and from my island, because I knew it was going to ice but I didn’t know it was gonna start snowing until it started pouring snow. And then I was like heck yeah I’m stuck at Meghan’s house because I couldn’t cross any bridges.”

2. Did you enjoy the snow and play in it?

“Yeah I enjoyed it for the first 52 minutes and then after that I just wanted it to leave because I didn’t realize that it would stay as long as it did and i just wanted to go home. I played in the snow with my brothers a lot and personally, I think I was the best at making snowballs because I had the most experience. And I pelted some boys hard. ”

3. Were there any times when you drove on the icy roads that scared you?

“Well, when Meghan and I were driving on Highway 17  in Mount Pleasant one of the first snow days, we saw 2 different car crashes almost happen and 2 flipped cars so that was scary. Also my Buick is not equipped with snow tires so I slid around more than I wanted to.”

4. How long after it snowed were you ready for it to melt?

“About 52 minutes.” (see previous answer)

It was crazy but fun.  We’re hoping it doesn’t take another 29 years to do that again.  We’ll be 47?  Wow – that’s a long time.