<p>Trying to get a winter jacket as a bunch of stores in my hometown are having sales. Any models you would recommend? Do most guys wear the longer down style or just like a ski coat?</p>
<p>Appreciate it.</p>
<p>The warmth of the jacket matters more than the style. Choose the style you like. You can tell how warm it is by putting your arm up the sleeve. You want to feel the heat. Some winter jackets are not made for cold Wisconsin winters.</p>
<p>It’s nice to have two. One a more standard type winter coat good down to the 10 or so which will be fine 90% of the time as most days are between 10 and 30 degrees. But there are always those days with a high of 0 or less and that’s when you need the big gun–a real arctic type coat. But those are just too warm most average days and when you are walking briskly up Bascom you will sweat inside it.</p>
<p>I have a quality pea coat that keeps me warm most winter days.</p>
<p>Key word- “most” for that pea coat. Consider waiting for the prewinter sales closer to winter. By then you will have had time to learn more from people around you. You won’t to spend time outdoors if it is single digits or below, but you want to be warm enough and get a heavy enough coat to enjoy the outdoors.</p>
<p>It’s very unlikely you’ll need anything warmer than a fall jacket over a hoodie all the way through the end of the fall semester. It’s very rarely colder than the low 20s before the semester break (and that would be an unusually cold daytime high even in mid-December). Moreover, Wisconsin’s weather has been trending warmer in the winter (or less cold, anyway). Unless you are living way off campus your geographic range is limited, too, and you really won’t be outside for long stretches if you don’t want to be.</p>
<p>So don’t worry about a true winter coat until then. You’ll easily survive without it. Bring something warmer back for the second semester. The six weeks until the end of February you’ll need it at times, but frankly even then most students will be wearing some variant of a hoodie or a jacket and hoodie to move around campus. It’s not Antactica. A pair of gloves and some headgear will help, too, but they are easy enough to buy in Madison or online.</p>
<p>It’s good to have some good hikers or boots if it gets sloppy, of course, but again there usually isn’t heavy snow before January.</p>