I like a fleece jacket when I’m walking around on a cold day - if I wear a good hat, gloves, and socks, I’m good. Layers are important. I also always take my jacket off when I go inside, otherwise I’ll get sweaty and then I’ll get colder when I go back outside again.
I dunno about the ice- aren’t most of the dreaded multi-car pile-ups in the midwest? Or is that what you meant?
Just because I had a moment- avg hi/lo Jan
Boston: 36/22
Hartford CT 35/18
Syracuse: 32/16
Chicago: 31/17
Portland ME: 31/13
Burlington VT 27/10
Minneapolis 24/8
But in New Haven, a balmy 38/22
Guess the net net is go visit Yale and Harvard.
“I think some of us bristle when this conversation comes up because we see so many posts about people who don’t want their kids to go to college in, say, Chicago or the Twin Cities “because of the weather” but they’d happily send them to a school in Boston or New York.”
Exactly. It’s sort of - oh, give me a break already, it’s the same darn thing. Funny how no one ever seems to worry about how cold Cambridge, MA is. At one point you need a coat to go outdoors, and you need a hat / scarf / gloves. Done. Whether the temp goes to 5 or 0 at that point is rather irrelevant. There’s absolutely no difference in what I’d send my Boston-bound kid with and what I’d send my Chicago-bound kid with. Millions and millions of people live in these cold climates and do just fine; it’s tiresome when people make a big deal out of normal weather.
My second year of law school, Boston got 96 inches of snow and basically felt like Hoth all winter. Anecdotally, I’d say a New England coastal winter feels colder to me than the Midwestern winters of my youth because of the dampness off the water. But I managed to survive a mile-plus walk to campus every day and also learned how to XC ski. As the Norwegians say, “There is no bad weather, only bad clothes.”
No, I don’t think most multi-car pileups are in the midwest.
This is a list of the worst ones worldwide over the past few decades:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple-vehicle_collision
You can see that lots of weather issues can cause dangerous driving conditions–fog is bad, too.
We just don’t get that much ice in the upper midwest. Ice happens when the temperature hovers around 32 degrees and the snow thaws and then freezes again–so it’s more likely in places with milder winter temperatures. My grandmother lived her whole life in upstate New York and it seemed every winter she would face a couple of days where she was housebound because of ice, and often without power because of lines snapping or icy branches falling on them. I can only remember one day like that in all my years in the midwest. The power didn’t go out but it was treacherous trying to walk the dogs. The only times I have had scary driving experiences involving ice were in Baltimore and the NYC suburbs.
I know people who don’t want their kids going to college in cities- too dangerous. I know people who don’t want their kids going to college in rural areas- too dangerous.
Folks make their own choices, largely informed by their own experiences. When you tell people that there is far more binge drinking (and kids drinking and driving) at rural campuses vs. urban campuses (what kid can afford to keep a car at Columbia in NYC?) they think you’re nuts. When you tell them that federal crime statistics suggest that most college kids who are victims of a crime are victimized by a fellow student (i.e. not from a “scary” outsider who climbed up five flights of a fire escape to steal a laptop in a dorm room) they think you are nuts.
So no way will I wade into the weather debate! Yes, it gets cold in Boston, Hanover, Burlington. Yes, it’s humid in Miami, rains a lot in Portland, and you can’t go running at noon in Phoenix. And Buffalo and Rochester get lots of snow.
Big country here.
We visited Syracuse last year in February. It was very, very cold and very windy. Our feet and hands were fine - Our ears were a major issue - we both had hats, but ended up ducking into their store to buy those thick knit ear-warmers (that you wear like a hair band.) Definitely hat with flaps next time. It wasn’t the tour which was so cold - it was the walking to the campus from the parking garage, and back. We usually dress warm enough, but that day it was bitter on our ears.
It’s not snow or cold that are so bad, it’s the wind. Wind and cold that makes my nose run. I haven’t figured out how to get either to stop–whether on a college tour or not. Visit #2 for a final choice college scheduled for Monday. Canceled the first time due to an ice storm; now they are calling for 4-5" of snow here Sunday. Arggg.
Carry your own insulated mug on these tours. Many admissions offices provide hot drinks, but they won’t stay warm in those flimsy cups. It makes a world of difference when you can sip your drink on the tour.
I toured TCU in 35-degree weather this month, and the tour guides were freezing! They were racing us from building to building. The Chicagoans on the tour were chuckling because we’d left 5 degrees behind to come to Texas. (TCU admissions had one of the fancy machines that instantly dispenses cappuccino, multiple varieties of hot chocolate, etc. Well played, TCU!)
Layers, mittens (not gloves, if you’re a wimp like me) and “those warming things.” Also, if you don’t own snow boots, at least get yourself some waterproof hiking shoes. You can use those any time of year in any climate, so it’s worth the investment. Yes, guys wearing shorts in winter is a thing here, but most sane adults, and particularly sane adults from warmer climates, wear layers.
These are things that someone living in Connecticut should already have on hand, so no new purchasing!
2 pairs of socks and 2 pairs of gloves (or glove liners, or mittens over gloves, but never gloves over mittens!).