OU Student Almost Has Snow Photos from All 50 States

By Rusty Surette, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A University of Oklahoma student became the talk of the nation Friday, and it all started with a tweet.

On Thursday, Patrick Marsh said it's likely by the end of the week snow will be on the ground in all 50 states. Marsh, a student employee at the NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, said he would try to document the historic event in an unique way.

"On Friday afternoon, I'm going to begin asking for photos of the snow," Marsh said. "Hopefully I'll get photos from all 50 states, and if I do, I'll put them into a Google Earth map and make a snow snapshot of America."

The meteorology student used social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to help solicit the photos, but his project also caught the attention of the Associated Press and NEWS 9.

Shortly after NEWS 9 aired Marsh's story, the popular website Drudgereport.com linked it to its main page. It wasn't long after that Marsh's phone began to ring.

"The Weather Channel called me at 5:50 this morning," Marsh said on Friday. "I've had calls from everyone including a radio station in Baltimore, a station in Florida, National Public Radio, the Wall Street Journal. Fox News also called."

Marsh said the response has been "incredible," and he's getting a new photo every three or four minutes.

"I've been so busy I haven't had time to eat today," Marsh said. "I've learned one thing from this and that's to respect the power of the Internet."

The state of Florida saw a dusting of snow in the panhandle, completing the snow-in-all-50-states theory, but Marsh said there is a bit of controversy associated with it because of Hawaii.

Here's his latest blog post from his site at www.patricktmarsh.com:

"Now have 49/50 [states] plus Washington D.C. as we grabbed a webcam shot from Wyoming. Looks like all that is left is Hawaii, and that's going to be really tough. Not sure if anyone will look for, let alone find, a sheltered valley that might have a snow patch left from the earlier blizzards (of which I have photos courtesy of the National Weather Service Pacific Region Headquarters). However, I won't give up complete hope, but realistically speaking, this may be as good as it gets…"

Marsh said it's very likely there is snow somewhere in Hawaii, it's just going to be very difficult to prove it.

"The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence," Marsh said.

More: OU Student Collecting Pictures of Snow in All 50 States