Last Wednesday night, West Texas A&M University students could be seen taking advantage of quickly falling snow. The storm and its almost immediate effects on area roadways led many community institutions to closure the following day. WT was no exception; the weather conditions fell into the specific criterion required to consider cancellation of classes – heavy snow, blizzard conditions, or a major ice storm.
“It’s been nearly two years since the snow and ice have been bad enough to cancel classes,” Isaac Martin, senior Sports and Exercise Science major, said. “The people who make the decision take it very seriously.”
The decision to close the university ultimately rests with the the president of WT, in this case Dr. J. Patrick O’Brien.
“I gather as much information as I can from the NWS Amarillo,” O’Brien said. “We also monitor closely AccuWeather, Weather.com, and an iPhone app called MyRadar. In addition, we monitor actual road conditions. Officers of the university police department will drive the roads to determine conditions and will gather information from other police departments to determine the frequency of weather related traffic accidents. TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) provides information regarding conditions of the Interstate Highways and State roads.”
Paul Braun, Public Information Officer at TxDOT Amarillo, said “TxDOT collaborates with WT by not only giving information about road conditions, but by sending snowplows onto surrounding State roads as well as through Russell Long Boulevard.”
Being a region populated with numerous educational facilities, the presence of severe weather allows for much contribution to the process of cancellation.
“Generally when a major storm is predicted for the area, the National Weather Service of Amarillo will notify all Emergency Managers in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandle along with the education community: WTAMU, the heads of the two year colleges and the superintendents of the school districts throughout the region,”O’Brien said.
The timing of the cancellation depends on the timing of the storm.
“We try to make a determination by 5:00 a.m. of whether we close,” O’Brien said.
