<p>i'm from cali and (this is gonna stupid but...) my biggest fear about princeton is the weather. how many months does it snow? is it depressing to people like me from cali? also how long is your winter break? cuz if i'd be home in cali from december to mid-january or something and it only snows until february, i think i could manage. lol.</p>
<p>Well, tigertown got ~2-3 inches of heavy, wet snow today. It will melt away in a few days. Just a taste of things to come. February can be brutal. Good thing that it is a short month.</p>
<p>Yeah, Your Cadillac will be white in Jersey. hehe</p>
<p>Ha. It’s already melting. And they call this snow.</p>
<p>To answer the OP’s question, the weather at Princeton isn’t great. I despise the heat despite having lived in warm places all my life so the winter temperatures don’t bother me. Also, I’ve never seen them dip below the 20’s and they really don’t go into the 20’s all that often. I also like having the idea of four distinct seasons.</p>
<p>My pet peeve about the weather here is that it is very frequently overcast or rainy. Sunny days at Princeton are gorgeous, but in general, there seem to be a lot of clouds.</p>
<p>Winter break is short - only 2 1/2 weeks usually. We get away in mid December and return in the first week of January. However, this doesn’t take reading period (the week before finals) into account, so unless you have early finals or mandatory review sessions or a lot of Dean’s Date papers that you need library resources for, you can stay home for 5-7 more days and return closer to mid-January. However, this is often kind of hard to figure out beforehand when you’re actually trying to buy tickets for winter break.</p>
<p>I don’t attend Princeton University, but I’ve lived near it for years.</p>
<p>The seasons are well-defined (which I don’t think is the case in California). You have an autumn that starts like a cooled summer, then becomes chillier with changing leaves and such. Then, by mid-December, it’s usually colder and the first snow should happen. It doesn’t snow every day or anything, but I’m guessing that you’ll see up to ten light snowfalls and a couple of big snowstorms. We usually get at least one snow day (off from school because the snow is blocking roads) a year, so chances are that it will be more than a few inches sometimes.</p>
<p>But it’s a little different every year–for instance, this year, the summer was colder than usual, which led to a warmer fall/winter time. Ideally, April through October should be nice and warm/hot, while November through March should be cold, dry, snowy, etc.</p>
<p>My favorite months of the year are May, June, August, and September in terms of great weather. When you go outside during those months, it feels fresh and comfortable. So the beginning and end of your school year will probably feel wonderful.
In October, you should be fine with just a jacket and such. By November or early December you’ll probably need a big coat with a hood (and gloves if you’re going to have your hands exposed), all the way until February. March and April are kind of unpredictable, so I don’t know if it will be warmer by then.</p>
<p>I think that the cold, ugly months are worth enduring for the beautiful spring, summer, and early autumn.</p>
<p>And New Jersey really doesn’t have many natural disasters, so you don’t have to worry about horrible hurricanes and blizzards or anything. The “bad weather” is never disastrous, just inconvenient.</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>A girl from California just moved here, and she was incredibly excited about seeing snow for the first time. She thought it was awesome, so maybe you won’t be bothered either.</p>
<p>My friend, who was raised here, moved to California (bay area) a year or two ago, and she seems to dislike Cali weather for being so monotonous.</p>
<p>I came from Florida, and I’m good with the weather there and the weather here.</p>
<p>I’m from Orange County, CA, right by the beach.</p>
<p>If you like a Mediterranean, warm, temperate climate, there’s no place in the US like Southern California. Having been raised my whole life in Huntington Beach, I was used to the sun waking me up every single morning. However, I knew that I wanted to experience something different than what I was used to, and came ready.</p>
<p>I don’t mind the cold. I love seeing the leaves change color and fall. It snowed for the first time just yesterday, and I LOVED it. I still wear tank tops and t-shirts out (of course it’s cold… but not cold enough for me to let go of my old habits… that will come in January).</p>
<p>The only thing that sucks is the gloominess days when there is cloud cover. It can be kind of depressing at first when you come from somewhere as sunny as California. However, you just have to get used to it, learn to not let it get to you, and soak up the sun the next day.</p>
<p>The bottom line, is that if you come prepared with a north face jacket, a peacoat, shoes for the rain, gloves, hats, and scarves, it will be a fun experience living in a different climate. If you enjoy it, you will discover that you can live out of California. If you don’t enjoy it, it is four years well spent to further your appreciation for the SoCal sun.</p>