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Oswego’s Unusual Winter
Winter may not be over yet, but just by looking around you would think it ended weeks ago. The few signs that remain of winter slowly melted away last week as temperatures soared into the 40’s. According to Dr. Scott Steiger the local co-op observer for the National Weather Service, we’ve only received forty-nine point one inches of snow as of February 29th.
An alarming seven feet below the average snowfall for this time of year. Though it’s not surprising that we’ve seen so little snowfall, through the winter months Oswego ran 2.9 degrees above average temperature-wise. January saw the worst of the effects of the warm winter at an amazing 6 degrees above average.
Students, either way, have taken advantage of the spring-like conditions and have used the time to spend their days outside. While others were left waiting for the snow that never came like Florida native Bruno Rojas. Bruno had this to say about the past winter in Oswego “There weren’t that many lake effect events in Oswego so you never really got to see…big snow storms, where you could just sit down you know in the snow and just kind of watch the really big snowflakes kind of fall really gracefully. ”
Many have expressed similar views, asking constantly where was winter this year? The answer? There was a strong Arctic Oscillation or AO, that was in its positive phase. When it’s in a positive phase we oftentimes see a lot of the cold air trapped up in Canada. It’s when it enters its negative phase that it starts to allow the colder air to funnel down into the United States. and that’s what allows for those cold Oswego winters that we all know.
While this was certainly an anomalous winter, it is part of a longer-term trend of winter warming across upstate New York. The trend becomes obvious on this chart from climate central, showing how Syracuse’s average winter temperatures have warmed 2.8° since 1970. While this chart is only for Syracuse, the changes can be seen all across New York as our climate continues to change.
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Oz Speaks Series: ‘Blue Lives Matter’
by Ilyssa Weiner, WTOP10-TV
Moderated speak-out series “Oz Speaks” held the most recent talk in their series on Oct. 25. The topic was on the issue about Blue Lives Matter.
Students, faculty and members of the community were encouraged to speak about their thoughts and feelings about the situation without it being a debate. Some participants shared stories of family members in law enforcement while others discussed the impact of both the Blue Lives Matter and Black Lives Matter movements on their personal lives.
Sophomore Keonna Wren was one of the participants of the event. One of the issues she spoke about was her identity as a black woman and how the two movements, [Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter] shaped her life.
“I absolutely love events like this because it’s not a debate,” said Wren. “I’m happy I got to spoke my truth and that’s what I came here for.”
Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Jerri Howland is one of the organizers for “Oz Speaks.” She says this speak out is different from the others because of the structure for how Blue Lives Matter came about and how this movement contrasts to Black Lives Matter.
“It’s not only important for students, but it’s important for everyone in our society to make sure we listen to all points of views,” Howland said. “I think it’s when we don’t listen to others and don’t understand their point of view that we don’t really get to the heart of what diversity is.”
Howland says the goal of the “Oz Speaks” series is to create a space for the SUNY Oswego community to freely speak about their thoughts on issues. She believes the series has successfully done that so far.
The next “Oz Speaks” talk will be Nov. 1 at 6:30 PM in the Campus Center Auditorium.
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Lakers Win Close Game Against Canton
The nationally ranked Oswego State men’s hockey team defeated the Canton Kangaroos 3-2 on Saturday night. With the win, the Lakers move to 3-1 overall while the Kangaroos drop to 1-3.
After taking an early lead in the first period off of Josh Zizek’s team leading fourth goal of the season, the Lakers never looked back. The team continued its success on the power play in the second period with AJ D’Orazio scoring the first goal of his young Oswego career. However, Canton would not give up easily as they would pull within one. Just under two minutes later, Lakers’ alternate captain Cameron Berry gave Oswego the insurance goal they were looking for to put them up 3-1.
In goal, Canton’s Austin Washkurak made 37 saves while Oswego’s Cedric Hansen earned his first NCAA win, stopping 20 shots.
Oswego will look to build on their two game winning streak Friday night at 7 pm when they take on Buffalo State at the Marano Campus Center Arena.
