‘I’ve never been so cold!’: Students reflect on Miami’s low temperatures

UM students warm up in the cold snap with winter coats and coffee.  CHELSEA MATIASH // PHOTO EDITOR.     UM students warm up in the cold snap with winter coats and coffee. CHELSEA MATIASH // PHOTO EDITOR.

Sweatshirts, scarves and shearling boots may be fit for the northeast, but last week’s unusually cold weather had University of Miami students bundled up in such attire on their tropical campus.

After winter break, students from across the nation flew back to Miami looking forward to warm, sunny weather. Those who came from states where heavy snowfall occurred and temperatures dipped down to one-digit numbers were not pleased to be welcomed back by temperatures in the low 40s and upper 30s. However, some did find ways to cope.

“This cold weather is still more bearable than the freezing temperatures back home in New York,” sophomore Delisa Winston said. “Since I get cold very easily, I’ve been spending a lot of time wrapped up in my blanket with the heater on the highest setting.”

“Hot soups have been part of my diet,” said sophomore Jonathan Bell, also of New York. “I’m not a big soup drinker, but it’s been keeping me warm all week long.”

Lauren Buck, a junior from Maryland, feels that students only think the weather is colder than it actually is.

“I’ve never felt a climate this cold in Miami before, but I think it feels colder just because we were all expecting to come back to warmer temperatures,” Buck said.

Many students made a 360-degree turn in their wardrobes as shorts and flip-flops remained in closets and out came the jeans and hoodies. But others, whose wardrobes lacked cold weather clothing, had to endure the winter weather in what little they did have.

forecast126“My feet were freezing so bad that I had no choice but to wear socks and shoes instead of flip-flops,” said sophomore Vanessa Hercules of Texas. “That’s something I never thought I’d do down here in Miami.”

“As a South Florida native, the cold weather is horrible,” junior Jarvis Lundy said. “I didn’t realize how cold it was until I was stuck walking back to my dorm at 2:30 a.m. from the University Village in a t-shirt and flip-flops. I’ve never been so cold!”

During January, the coldest month of the year in Miami, temperatures usually reach an average low of 59.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

Despite the unusually cold weather UM students have been experiencing this past week, it does not compare to what happened on January 19, 1977, when Miami received its first and only recorded snowfall. Though it consisted only of extremely light flurries, it was the first time the city was ever sprinkled with snow.

As part of a military lifestyle, senior Michael Gross has lived all over the country and has experienced a wide variety of weather conditions. He is one of the few that did not mind the change of climate.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love the warm weather Miami is known for, but it’s nice to be able to walk into class and take my jacket off and be comfortable instead of shivering through the lecture because the [air conditioner] is on full blast,” Gross said.

Some “cool” facts

January, 1917: At 27 degrees Fahrenheit, Miami hit its lowest recorded temperature on this day.

January 19, 1977: First and only snowfall in Miami’s history

February 13, 2006: Before last Wednesday, the last time the high at Miami International Airport didn’t break 60 degrees.

– Information from Weather.com and Wunderground.com.