With expectations for 8 inches of snow Tuesday night, students awoke Wednesday morning to a snow day with only a few inches of snow on the ground.

Cameron Craig, a geographer and climatologist at Eastern, said Charleston did not get the snow he expected it to get because the weather system pulled out faster than he thought, “which was great because we didn’t need any additional chaos.”

In the Wednesday Feb. 1, edition of The Daily Eastern News, Craig said he expected Charleston to get a total of 5-8 inches of snow between Tuesday and Wednesday.

While Charleston received a layer of ice and some snow, the northern part of the state received about 20 inches of snow, according to the Feb. 2 issue of USA Today.

Craig said Charleston’s weather could have been different if the low pressure would have moved more to the south and east. He said Charleston would have received more snow than ice.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Craig said temperatures for today should reach a high of 15 degrees and lower to minus 3 degrees at night.

“Cold, cold, cold, cold, cold,” Craig said. “It’s going to be an arctic blast.”

Craig said with these cold temperatures, it might be difficult for road crews to get rid of the ice on the roads and sidewalks.

As for the weekend, Craig said Charleston might see some flurries, but nothing major. On Wednesday afternoon he predicted temperatures for the weekend to be in the 30s.

Darren Leeds, a senior geology major with a minor in broadcast meteorology said the next should not be like the past week.

“As for right now, the next seven days are looking pretty dry,” Leeds said Wednesday afternoon.

Leeds said Charleston had wind speeds of 20-25 mph On Wednesday morning, but said the “wind event” is pretty much over.

“They’re going to calm down and it’s just going to be very cold,” Leeds said.

Sam Bohne can be

reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]