Wind whipping against skin. Umbrellas turning inside out. Hair dripping and socks drenched. This was the scene on campus on Sept. 25, when a rare fall nor’easter greeted us with a wet and chilly welcome.
The East Coast storm continued through the weekend, with conditions finally clearing on Sept. 29. This was no ordinary shower, but a nor’easter, storms which get their name from winds that typically blow from the northeast, according to the National Weather Service. Now that campus has returned to picturesque fall foliage, I’m left wondering: How did Jumbos weather the storm?
Let’s start at a campus favorite: President’s Lawn. First-year Olivia Lutey made it clear that playing spikeball and studying with friends isn’t the only way to spend time on the lawn.
“Some of my friends and I went out at like 11:30 p.m., and we took trash bags and ripped holes in them so we could put them on, and then we put soap on them,” Lutey said. “It was very rainy and wet, so we were able to slide down the hill.”
As Lutey and her friends slid through the storm, others ventured off campus with the help of the Tufts Mountain Club. The nor’easter conveniently fell during Newcomer’s Weekend, when first-year and transfer students stay at the club’s New Hampshire cabin, called the Loj, and explore the surrounding nature.
Senior Sofia Seto was a coordinator for the weekend and learned about the nor’easter the week of the trip. Staff moved the first-year and transfer students from tents outside to beds inside the cabin to protect them from the rain. The coordinators, trip leaders and cooks were not so lucky.
“My friend’s tent got basically picked up by the wind, which was kind of insane,” Seto said. “I heard them scream at 4 a.m., because they were literally getting blown away.”
Luckily, the wind didn’t blow away all the fun. Most hikes were able to proceed as planned. Participants also voted which TMC coordinator would die first in “The Hunger Games,” with a warning to vote cautiously. The most-voted coordinator would suffer a whipped-cream-filled fate: getting pied in the face.
Don McLean’s “American Pie” reverberated through a speaker as participants danced. “It was nice to feel like we were helping create a sense of community,” Seto reflected.
The club also held TMC Local, with trips closer to campus for those unable to attend Newcomer’s Weekend. Junior Brynn McCarthy consulted with his co-trip leader, junior Dahlin Allport, when he first learned about the nor’easter.
“We were like, ‘Ah, what the heck?’” McCarthy said. But Allport and McCarthy ultimately let the club members decide. “If the participants want to go, we’ll go,” he said.
On Friday night, McCarthy and Allport’s participants unanimously agreed that the trip was on. The next day, the group biked to the Middlesex Fells Reservation to hike and spend time by a reservoir.
“When we stepped off the trail to go look at that reservoir, we were so wet and it was so cold,” McCarthy said. “As soon as you stop hiking, you’re freezing, just because the rain was so cold. I have a video of the wind just whipping across the water.”
Nor’easters can produce harsh conditions including flooding, crashing waves and wind gusts stronger than hurricane-force winds, according to the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service.
This storm wasn’t McCarthy’s first rainy rodeo. Growing up in Massachusetts, he would experience “one [nor’easter] every year at least, but of varying degrees.”
“All the nor’easters I’ve encountered have been feet of snow, so this was nothing,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy’s experience shows that nor’easters can occur at any time but are most frequent between September and April.
Now we have learned about some nature daredevils, but what about the good ol’ indoors? Have Tufts students lost the art of staying warm and huddling inside? For first-year Mallory Burton, gloomy weather meant an opportunity to rent a projector from Tisch Library and watch “Twilight” in Miller Hall’s lounge.
Burton and her friends walked to Tisch that Saturday night, holding up their umbrellas and seeing if they could fly away in the wind.
“It was just very fun and cozy [and] wholesome,” Burton said.
Heading across the Reservoir Quad to Houston Hall, first-year Tian Kongboonma and his friends warmed up with ramen they had gotten at H Mart in the hall’s basement.
“The storm did bring people together because you can’t go outside, so it was a lot of hanging out with friends,” Kongboonma said.
But nights inside still left ample time to experience the nor’easter’s daytime effects.
“I went to the gym with my slippers on because my socks were in the laundry, so I only had my slippers, and I was fighting it, dude,” Kongboonma said. “The rain [was] pouring on my feet, and it was so cold.”
From slippers to suits, the nor’easter complicated Jumbos’ fashion. First-year Grey Collins campaigned for the Tufts Community Union Senate during the storm, adorned in a suit instead of a rain jacket.
“When people see you sopping wet, wearing a suit, I think they are like, ‘This guy’s committed,’” Collins said. “‘This guy really wants to fight for me.’”
Collins, now a Class of 2030 senator, filmed social media videos during his campaign, including one during the nor’easter with some of his fellow candidates.
“There was a moment, I think before the weekend, where I was just like, ‘No matter what happens, I’m gonna just keep up the intensity, just stay out there,’” he said. “‘I don’t care what the weather is.’”
I certainly hope to share Collins’ tenacity as the days get shorter and colder. For now, I tread down the now colorful-leaf-covered steps of President’s Lawn and wonder what else the East Coast has in store for us this semester; and of course, how Jumbos will choose to spend it.
McCarthy, for one, plans to go skiing, snowboarding or sledding on President’s Lawn if a nor’easter brings snow.
“I could use [a nor’easter] for my homework, but that’s what midnight is for,” McCarthy said.
