St. Thomas students enjoyed an early taste of spring Tuesday with highs soaring 20 degrees above average in the mid-50s. The temperature reached 55 degrees at 3:45 p.m., according to The National Weather Service. On this day in 1890, people were forced to stay indoors due to the minus 16 degree weather.

Despite the warm winter weather, Tuesday did not hit a record high. Pete Boulay, a climatologist for the Minnesota State Climatology Office, said the temperature reached 69 degrees on March 6, 2000, and even hit 73 degrees the following day.

Students, including sophomore Lauren Truong, were spotted outside soaking in the sun.

“I love it. It just made my day better; it’s going by faster,” Troung said.

Sophomore Joe Anderson decided to ditch his winter clothes altogether, assuming it would be warm today.

“Actually I left the house not wearing a jacket thinking it was going to be warmer. Just thought I would wear a T-shirt today,” Anderson said.

Boulay explained that the unpredictable weather will continue to stay relatively warm over the next 14 days.

“It looks like we are entering a warm spell, a lot of snow will be melting,” he said.

However, the climatologist said not to be fooled by the repeatedly high temperatures.

“April can surprise you. We did have snow in April 2002,” Boulay said.

On Wednesday, the high is expected to be 43, 39 on Thursday and 56 degrees on Friday.

“It’s delightful,” sophomore Alex Rollins said. “It’s warm, but I’m not looking forward to a sloppy mess when the snow melts. I hate snow, not looking forward to it.”

Still, the overall consensus among St. Thomas students seems to be positive for a myriad of reasons. Sophomore Zach Franz is elated for being able to play baseball outside.

“I’m excited because the sooner it gets hot, the sooner the snow will melt and the baseball fields will get dry, and we can play outside and not in the AARC.”

Terese Quarberg, Briggs LeSavage, and Meghan Sheldon contributed to this story.

Geena Maharaj can be reached at maha8007@stthomas.edu.