So I really feel like Rochester has gone through a climate change in the matter of one year. It is well into January, and every day has been sunny and relatively warm. And when I say relatively warm, I mean like 40 and 50 degrees, compared to the teens and negatives. It has even rained! Maybe that doesn’t sound so crazy to some of you, but for us here in Rochester, rain that isn’t frozen in the middle of January is just abnormal.
I am from Rochester, but I still cannot get used to the weather here. Every year is different, but this has been the strangest yet. There was literally a week in January where it started in the negatives but ended with a high of 54 degrees. Last year at this date, there had been 58 inches of snow total, and this year we have barely broken 7 inches. When it has snowed, it has just melted the same day or the next because it warmed right up. There have been reports of Rochester being one of the snowiest cities in the nation, and I know many students were expecting to get a crazy amount of snow during their time here, but it has not happened for them. Whether they are happy about this or not, it is just strange for a native Rochesterian such as myself driving around the city not bundled up with gloves, a heavy wool coat, scarves, and boots in the middle of January. Even at the end of our fall semester in December, I was going out in hoodies and would be uncomfortably hot some days because it was so nice outside.
I am sure eventually this season, the city of Rochester will get its normal snowfall, blizzards, and chilling temperatures, but for now I guess we just have to enjoy the spring-/fall-like weather we are getting!