Emerson students woke up Friday morning to snowflakes outside their windows, an unexpected—and for many, unwelcome—sight after a spell of relatively dry and warm spring weather.

While ground temperatures in downtown Boston remained in the low 40s throughout the day, a light snow punctuated the morning’s rainfall, brought on by a Nor’easter cooling the upper atmosphere, according to The Boston Globe. While central Massachusetts was blanketed with several inches, Emerson students saw only a trace of accumulation—but more than a trace of frustration.

“I was very disappointed,” said Ashley Miller, a junior visual and media arts major. “I texted my dad, ‘Guess what, it’s snowing,’ and he said, ‘Happy springtime in Boston.’”

April snowfalls, while unexpected, are not unusual in the Boston area. The city has experienced some level of snow every April since 2013—including 7 inches last April 18, according to Boston-based meteorologist Dave Epstein.

“The sidewalks aren’t salted or anything—they definitely weren’t prepared,” Miller said, “Everything’s a lot more wet and slippery.”

After April 10 brought a sunny day in the mid-70s and students acclimated themselves to the blooms and generally temperate weather, the snowfall’s wet and slushy nature exacerbated their irritation. 

“It’s not like your typical snow,” Samson Malmoli, a first-year creative writing major, said. “It’s hard to even walk.”

Sophomore writing, literature, and publishing major Jose Barrera Aguirre said that, because he hails from Los Angeles, seeing snow is “always an experience.” Nevertheless, he echoed Malmoli’s pessimism.

“I hate this kind of snow,” Barrera said. “It’s in between snow and rain, so it just makes you feel more wet than anything else. It’s not necessarily enjoyable. You kind of just have to trudge through it.” 

The unexpected storm has also wreaked havoc for some students. Less than three days after the college gave the go-ahead for student film shoots to resume, sophomore visual and media arts major Giovanna Moralishvili found the inclement weather disrupting her shooting schedule.

Moralishvili is trying to reschedule her production for next weekend, but said she was running into conflicts with previously scheduled events. Next weekend will be the last of the spring semester for most on-campus students, as the dorms are slated to close on April 30.

“Now we have to reshoot [today’s work],” Moralishvili said. “We needed the lighting from the sun for a specific shot. We can’t [incorporate the current weather] and make a mystical look with the sun shining and everything—the snow and rain is the opposite of that.”