The announcement was made at 4pm on Thursday – Pompey’s match at Bradford had been postponed.
Even Portsmouth residents witnessed the rare sight of snow starting to settle on Portsea Island.
But it was much worse in other parts of the country, with the ‘Beast from the East’ causing havoc and turning the Valley Parade pitch white.
So it was no surprise when the sensible decision was made to call the fixture off on safety grounds, ensuring Blues fans did not have to make a treacherous journey north.
Despite the apparent inevitably of the verdict, Joe Gallen insists Pompey were preparing for business as usual.
The assistant manager said: “We had the balls out on Monday and Tuesday and enjoyed a normal training session.
“But it was difficult today because the pitches were frozen, so we had to go inside for a lot of the time.
"Everyone was hoping it would warm up a bit, but that hasn’t happened."
“We were preparing normally for if we had a game on Saturday because that’s what you have to do until you hear anything.
“Everyone was hoping it would warm up a bit, but that hasn’t happened. It’s disappointing, although football’s a winter sport and you have to accept the elements.
“It always puts you off when your routine gets interrupted, but we were still mentally prepared to play and had arranged to train up at Leeds on Friday.
“After last week’s result we wanted it to be on – you want to get it out of your system as soon as you possibly can.
“But it’s not to be and so we have to make a decision about what we’re going to do over the weekend.”
Oli Hawkins would have been in line to feature against the Bantams, despite limping off with a knee injury last weekend.
Gallen said: “He was out there training normally with everyone else on Tuesday and was in the party to travel up to Bradford.”