A northern high-pressure weather system paired up with a southern warm front created the snow that fell in Ames and central Iowa on Thursday.

Just a day after some students could be seen trekking across campus without their traditional winter gear, temperatures dropped from Wednesday’s high of nearly 60 degrees to the mid-30s.

William Gallus, professor of geological and atmospheric sciences, said while some ISU students celebrated Wednesday’s climate by donning shorts and T-shirts, they shouldn’t get too comfortable with the idea of consistently warm weather just yet.

“The first thing would be, I don’t know that anybody should’ve been wearing shorts yesterday,” Gallus said. “It’s fairly normal this time of year that if you’re having a warm day it won’t last very long, and if you’re having snow it won’t last very long.”

He said Iowans should be prepared to deal with instances of winter weather until mid-to-late April.

“Once we get into April, it’s fairly safe, but you don’t want to rule out the idea that we might see more snow [before then],” Gallus said.

Gallus said the wet, slushy snow that fell into the evening Thursday culminated from many different weather systems, but a cold front and a warm front that “pumped in moisture from the south” were the biggest factors.