<p>Hi</p>
<p>What is Duke's weather (mainly temp.) like from
August to May, can those months be divided into
seasons?</p>
<p>What kind of clothing should I bring for the fall semester?
Also does it rain there often?</p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>it will be HOT until Octoberish then should cool off but not much. moving here from new york will be a complete shock. I should know coming from Illinois I rarely ever get to wear my winter coats and scarves. Anyway, spring is nice but short-lived and then it will be HOT again....</p>
<p>do students wear a lot of shorts/tanks then?</p>
<p>When you say a shock do you mean a positive one?
Like nice sunny days everyday?</p>
<p>Does it get little chilly at night?
And are classrooms usually air conditioned
so that you need to bring a jacket to class?\
Thank you</p>
<p>NC is very hot and humid until mid October and then again by late April. You can wear shorts often up until December at times and again by March. Some days it can be in the 20's. My two teenagers wear sandals all year, shoes like topsiders on cold days. They wear a fleece jacket most of the winter but occasionally need a heavier jacket in Jan and Feb. We can get snow 3 or 4 times a year but it melts quickly and is quite an event. You seldom need mittens or scarfs or hats. Often they wear heavy sweatshirts even in winter. The first month in the dorms without ac is hot no matter what they try to tell applicants. Fall is notable for hurricane threats and winter can bring ice storms.</p>
<p>it's not nice and sunny everyday -- in fact, i strongly recommending a good rain jacket and an umbrella. but it's nice and sunny a lot (i'm from new york too) and has overwhelmingly been great change.</p>
<p>my biggest complaint/thing i had to get used to with durham weather are the temperature swings. there can be a 30+ degree change in less than twenty four hours. so it can get chilly at night, but quite honestly, it probably won't get too chilly at night like the first month you're there. </p>
<p>classrooms are always air conditioned but some are colder than others. unless it's brutally hot outside, i always bring something even as light and simple as a long sleeve tshirt since it fits in a schoolbag easily.</p>
<p>coming from ny, i never bring my heavy winter stuff until i come back after winter break. between thanksgiving and winter break you can honestly make due with a heavy duty fleece (like a ubiquitous north face) or a lighter pea coat. sometimes during winter finals it's in the 60s.</p>
<p>the weather here is crazy, it changes every day! it's in the middle of june right now and it's rainy and chilly. but then the next day its 90 degrees. just bring clothesf or every temperature except for the real hardcore blizzard-weather gear. that's just about the only weather we don't get.</p>
<p>b4nnd20 is right we'll go through a drought and then have non-stop rain. really it does get very hot but the good thing is when winter rolls around you probably won't need more than a north face fleece jacket. yeah definitely bring shorts if you're going to be walking to your classes come August you are going to be miserable in the heat. Trust me I learned that the hard way when I was touring carolina in jeans. BAD idea!!!! Had to go to the student store and buy some shorts. winter probably won't bring snow but hail. humid during the summer</p>
<p>Everybody thanks so much !
Guess I should go shop for some shorts first...</p>
<p>...and you definitely need to have sandals--everyone wears them nearly all the time according to S1!! He loves it (Duke AND wearing sandals!)</p>
<p>People who have lived in NC all their life do the sweaters/heavy coat thing in the winter. Those of us who migrated here from other locales (including Chicago for several years), can get by without wearing a heavy winter coat ever. You may become soft by the time you're a senior, but I suspect the first winter will be wonderful for you, especially when you keep an eye on the Weather Channel and gloat. (I still can't get over being able to plant pansies in the fall that thrive and bloom all the way until it gets too hot for them in May!) As far as clothes, layers are the key, and can get you through an entire chilly morning--nice day--chilly night and all the variations of inside temps.</p>
<p>what kind of sandals are best? do you mean flip flops?</p>
<p>^^i hope this also means i don't need to bring many socks/wash them^^</p>
<p>Do you ever get a little snow? I love snow, coming from California.</p>
<p>yes there are usually one or two days of snow each year: just a few inches that go away within the day.
although a couple years ago we had a bit of a blizzard and that was bad (by the area's standards)</p>
<p>rainbow flip-flops, they will be a staple of your wardrobe for sure.</p>
<p>Picture from one of the two times we got snow last year (taken from the 3rd floor of Few - these are dorms):
<a href="http://bygmester.org/duke/snow/snow1.jpg%5B/url%5D">http://bygmester.org/duke/snow/snow1.jpg</a></p>
<p>Walking to the engineering quad at 8:30 in the morning:
<a href="http://bygmester.org/duke/snow/snow2.jpg%5B/url%5D">http://bygmester.org/duke/snow/snow2.jpg</a></p>
<p>It's not especially cold at Duke, but coming from California, I love it when it does manage to snow enough to blanket the area in the morning.</p>
<p>How great to see the snow pictures! I'm at Duke today and it's supposed to be 95 degrees this afternoon.</p>
<p>Are winters like these normal? I sure hope so...</p>
<p>^expect that maybe one or two days a year.</p>
<p>^Freshelephant,</p>
<p>I've seen snow once my freshman year.</p>