KTKA

When Private James Oxford looked out his window Tuesday, he saw something he’d never seen before, snow.

Oxford is from Texas and has been stationed at Fort Riley for about four months. As he gets ready for his first Kansas winter, he’s also getting used to the snow. The 8 to 9 inches Fort Riley got is 8 to 9 inches more snow than Oxford has ever seen.

"We don’t normally get snow like this, usually it’s just ice and sleet and stuff," Oxford said.

While the piles of snow may be impressive to look at, Oxford soon learned it’s not so fun to drive in.

"I was all over the road yesterday," he said. "I couldn’t keep control at all."

For Kansas natives, inches of snow isn’t such a rare sight and many children keep their fingers crossed that the giant snowflakes will mean a day out of school, but in Texas, when there’s no snow, that means no snow day. So when Fort Riley dismissed the soldiers at noon Tuesday and all day Wednesday, Oxford wasn’t complaining.

"It was nice being able to sit in the barracks and just relax for the day," he said.

He thought about enjoying the mounds of snow but quickly changed his mind.

"I thought I’d come out here and make a snowman, but came here and was like uh it’s too cold," Oxford said.

Although, he’s still considering trying some sledding. That is if the temperatures warm up because right now, Oxford isn’t a big fan of the cold.

"I don’t like it," he said.

While it was about 10 degrees at Fort Riley Wednesday, it was 34 degrees in Dallas Texas.