After committing to Northwestern, Communication freshman Avalon Bookstaver said she was warned about winter in Evanston. She’s from Los Angeles, but she said she was pleasantly surprised by the weather in Fall Quarter.
“I was expecting a lot worse,” she said. “And it wasn’t. It was in the 50s, 40s, pretty doable.”
But for many first-year students from warmer climates, their first Evanston winter was a shock to the system. Some even saw snow for the first time.
“Before Halloween, I don’t think I’ve ever seen snowfall in person,” said Hunter Bachrach, a Communication freshman from Gilbert, Arizona. “It was amazing. It was so much fun.”
This weekend brought extreme cold and wind chill advisories to Evanston, with highs in the single digits and wind chill factors in the minus 30s. Weather services advised Chicago area residents to stay indoors and bundle up in hats and thick scarves to brave the icy temperatures.
Medill first-year Mila Brandson is from Palatine, Illinois. She said despite being from the greater Chicago area, she was still shocked by the cold temperatures this weekend.
“It’s definitely windier and you have to bundle up a bit more here because of the proximity to the lake,” Brandson said.
Sub-zero temperatures and whiteout conditions require winter clothes, heavy jackets and gloves. Bookstaver, however, said she realized this reality too late. She didn’t have a heavy coat until well into Fall Quarter, she said.
Bookstaver added, however, that a change in climate “absolutely” factored into her decision to come to NU.
“To be honest, being from Los Angeles, I’ve never experienced seasons, and I wanted to see the leaves change,” she said
First-year Medill student Olivia Teeter grew up in the Minneapolis area and, having endured many midwest winters, advised her peers to have “a good hat, good gloves, and (to) layer.”
The University has resources to help face the cold, too. Frostbite shuttles run on the Evanston campus when temperatures are expected to be in the single digits, or if the wind chill factor is below zero. Information about the shuttles are available on the NU Transportation website.
“I’m not gonna lie, it is tough,” Teeter said. “What helps is knowing that the spring and summer are right around the corner, too.”
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