DeKALB | Mother Nature blessed DeKalb with a frigid reminder of winter Wednesday.

Simultaneous helpings of snow, sleet and rain made the normal morning voyage to class all the more epic for students.

The city of DeKalb averages 1.25 inches of snow in April, said Gilbert Sebenste, NIU staff meteorologist.

The temperature remained close to freezing during the storm, which caused the harsh conditions, Sebenste said.

“The flakes are so large because 32 degrees is pretty much the perfect temperature at which large snowflakes form,” he said. “The closer you are to freezing, generally the bigger the flakes.”

Kristy DePalma, a first-year clinical psychology graduate student, said the storm made her drive to campus on Wednesday more eventful than normal.

“I looked out my passenger window for a split second on First Street and my car veered to the right,” DePalma said. “My tire hit the snow in the middle of the road and I skidded back and forth for a few seconds. It was a little scary.”

The onslaught of precipitation presented less than comfortable walking conditions on campus.

“We’re getting a little bit of sleet mixed in,” Sebenste said. “That makes anything that blows in your face at 30 mph even tougher to bear.”

Mike Murphy, a freshman history major, said he particularly dislikes having ice blown into his eyes.

“I walked out the door and got slapped in the face by the horizontal ice storm,” Murphy said. “The storm made the walk to class very unbearable.”

Attendance in his morning lecture appeared to be slightly less then normal, but the majority of students made it to class, Murphy said.

It was predicted Wednesday at noon that DeKalb would receive an additional two to five inches of snow by the evening, Sebenste said.

The storm hit worse closer to the Wisconsin border, he said. Parts of Rockford lost power due to heavy snow falling on tree branches, which fell and broke power lines. Kishwaukee College did not open until noon Wednesday due to the storm knocking out power.

Though the weather is not atypical of April in DeKalb, Madison, Wis., was predicted to receive up to a foot of snow, which is out of the ordinary, Sebenste said.

As of 7 a.m. Wednesday, DeKalb had received 47 inches of snow in 2007, Sebenste said. There is a chance of snow again this weekend, but the temperature may bounce back into the 60s Tuesday.

The April record for heavy snowfall in DeKalb stands at 13.6 inches in 1938, Sebenste said. Over the last 100 years, DeKalb has endured an inch or more of April snow in 33 of those years.