Out-of-state students adjust to Delaware weather changes

Junior Megan Hodges said she comes from a place where the weather stays relatively mild, so watching the leaves and snow fall through autumn and winter has been a novel experience. 

“When it snowed my freshman year, I ran outside, I was so excited,” Hodges, originally from the West Coast, said. “I don’t get to experience that in California. My mom said yesterday it was still 90 degrees outside.”

While students from the Northeast are accustomed to changes in the season, many students from warmer climates have to adjust to Delaware’s climate. 

Hodges said the arrival of a new season is a welcome change from the sunny climate she is used to. She said she wanted a change, and now that she has experienced fall weather, autumn has become her favorite season. 

Daniel Leathers, geography professor and Delaware State Climatologist, said many students from other parts of the country are more surprised by the humidity in the summers than the winter temperatures.

“The Mid-Atlantic climate is a bit unique as we have a distinct summer and winter,” Leathers said. “We have very sultry conditions in the summer here, so someone from California may not be used to the humidity.”

As the weather in Delaware is very similar to weather in New Jersey, Maryland and southeastern Pennsylvania, students from the Mid-Atlantic region do not experience much of a change when coming to the university, he said. 

According to Leathers, Delaware’s weather is not as extreme as other regions because of the state’s peninsula location. He said Delaware does not get severe winters due to the surrounding water that moderates temperatures. 

Senior Christopher Griffith, who is from Delaware, said he enjoys the weather here because of the lack of extremes and the variation between the seasons.

“We do get really hot summers,” Griffith said. “But we see all four seasons that are pretty visually appealing.”

Hodges said she experienced some surprises when she first came to the university. She said the winter was not as cold as she had anticipated and the weather was rainier. She said she did not own rain boots when she came to the university, and when she lived in Dickinson Residence Hall her freshman year she had a long, wet walk to class. 

Junior Jordyn Lee is from Danville, Ca., and said she has more negative feelings about the onset of cold weather in Delaware. She said she usually dislikes Delaware’s weather and often misses the warm, sunny days of her home state. However, she said she has got used to the weather of the Mid-Atlantic region after her initial adjustment to the seasons. 

Originally from right outside of San Francisco, Lee said she is used to mild weather that is never humid or very cold. Though she strongly dislikes the winter temperatures, the summer weather confused her more, she said. 

“It really threw me off,” Lee said. “When it was summer for the first few weeks and it rained, it was really bizarre to me. In San Francisco, it doesn’t get humid or rain in the summer.”

Now that she knows what to expect during a school year at the university, Lee said she has made some adjustments to her wardrobe.