Students who have attended even one class in the past three months are no strangers to the harshest of the winter elements.

From wind chills in the negative double digits to treacherous ice-covered roadways to storm cycle after storm cycle dumping unprecedented amounts of snow, this winter has been one for the record books.

In the city of Ames, the amounts of ice and snowfall have led to traffic accidents occurring much more frequently.

“It’s been very, very bad,” said Ames Police Cmdr. Jim Robinson.

In January 2008, there were 285 accidents, compared with 212 last January and 156 in 2006. Luckily, most of the accidents were not serious – “fender-bender type accidents,” Robinson said.

The ISU campus has been more lucky. ISU Police Capt. Rob Bower said lower speeds on campus make accidents less frequent. The biggest spike came during an ice storm two weeks ago, when there were four to five accidents that took place in ISU parking lots.

“We haven’t had anything too unusual,” Bower said, crediting Facilities Planning and Management for its work keeping the campus roadways treated with salt and sand.

FP&M has also had a tough winter. Chris Ahoy, associate vice president of FP&M, said the university’s annual $30,000 budget set aside for snow and ice removal was exceeded in January. The city of Ames also exceeded its budget. Both had troubles acquiring the amount of materials needed for road treatment.

“Initially, we had an outlet to get salt here, but they sent it elsewhere,” said David Cole, Ames street maintenance supervisor. “We were actually without salt for three to four weeks.”

The city resorted to other means to treat the roadways during the shortage, but did end up receivingsalt from a local source – so much that the usage of the materials broke records. The city used 30 to 40 percent more sand and doubled its use of calcium chloride compared to last year.

Lester Lawson, campus service manager, said the Ames Department of Transportation also asked Iowa State’s FP&M to conserve salt. The mixture being used by the university is now three-fourths sand and one-fourth salt.

Ames’ snow removal services have been used in 26 snow events this winter in which the roads were treated in some way. The city has enacted its snow ordinance 11 times, Cole said. Last year, there were 13 snow events and 5 snow ordinance activations.

The severe winter weather has also been the cause of many injuries.

“There have been broken legs and dislocated shoulders,” said Marc Shulman, chief of staff at Thielen Student Health Center, regarding injuries caused by students falling due to ice-covered sidewalks.

The weather can also be partly blamed for the severity of the flu outbreak on campus.

“Everybody huddling together for warmth leads to the spread of the germs,” he said.

Meteorologically speaking, this winter has been atypical. Currently, the United States is in a La Nina system, which usually means a drier winter for Iowa, said William Gallus, professor of geological and atmospheric sciences.

“The wet weather is usually centered over the Kentucky area, but for some reason it’s moved to the north and the west,” he said.

Gallus said the official projections are that March will see more cold weather, but La Nina systems produce warm summers and threaten drought.

“We just need to get through it,” Gallus said. “There’s warm weather coming if we stick in there.”