Last year, MFS truly experienced a winter to remember, filled with a record number of snow days and two-hour delays–so many that students began to question whether or not extra days would be added in June to make up for lost time. Thankfully for summer-lovers, this did not happen, and instead many fun-filled snow days were passed happily without compromising days in the sun. But it’s a new school year, and yet another furious New Jersey winter may be upon Moorestown. As anyone who has tried to pick a good day to go down to the shore in the summer can attest, predicting weather is a tricky business, and MFS students are desperate for some definitive answers as to this winter’s severity. When asked how she expected this year’s winter to be, freshman Anna Immineni said, “I don’t know. Hopefully better than last year!”

On a statewide weather level, leading New Jersey meteorologists remain unsure of what this winter will bring, but they have made some educated guesses. The Climate Prediction Center (CPC), a government-sponsored organization, maintains that there is not as of yet any definitive evidence to predict for certain whether or not this winter will be frigid or mild. No doubt the CPC has been humbled by their erroneous prediction last year, where they anticipated a mild winter in a year that was anything but. However, they have still made some tepid predictions this time around. While the CPC does not expect a repeat of 2013-2014’s freezing winter, instead anticipating mild temperatures, they do anticipate above-average precipitation—good news for those legions of students hoping for snow days. Private weather companies such as AccuWeather have been much more effusive, predicting storms, nor’easters, and bouts of extreme cold to rival last year. This prediction is echoed by WeatherWorks, a local New Jersey weather firm that accurately predicted last year’s frigidity. Climate experts throughout the Eastern United States warn that El Niño, a changing of surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, could lead to major coastal storms along the Atlantic coastline.

While the official sources are somewhat mixed, though leaning towards a fierce winter, students themselves seem to be wholeheartedly anticipating another winter to remember. Sophomore Elijah O’Neil said, “”It’s gonna be cold and snowy”, while Junior Billie Rae Brandt added , “I think that there will be a lot of snow days.” Sophomore Alyssa Klier echoed the sentiment, saying this year will sport “below freezing temperatures with snow and hopefully a lot of snow days.”