Many Florida A&M students returned from the winter break surprised by the unusually cold weather that hit the city during the holidays. According to the weather.com, since Jan. 3, the city has experienced a severe low of 22 degrees and a maximum high of 43 degrees.
Temperatures reached as low as 13 degrees last Monday. Around campus, one will find bundled in layers of clothing trying to stay warm. Although some enjoy sporting winter clothes, others find changing their style to be an inconvenience.
“I don’t like having to stack all these clothes on,” said Tre’lisa Lee, 20, a second-year elementary education student from Hollywood, Fla. “It makes for more dirty clothes to wash at the end of the week.”
Students living off campus have noticed a difference in their utility bills.
Aaron Jackson, 20, a third-year political science student from Baltimore, Md. said his utility bills this winter have increased dramatically.
“Before the temperature dropped, my electric bill was like $200,” Jackson said, “and now it’s around $490 or $500 and there’s only two of us.”
Jackson stays with a friend at a townhouse off of McElroy Street, near campus.
Jamar Robinson is the manager at the Oasis apartments on Old Bainbridge Road. He said nearly 45 percent of the students living in his complex complain about an increase in price of their last utility bill.
Robinson said he notices students who do not turn on their heat, maintain low-costs when the utility bill comes.
“I would say a good 10 percent of the students have seen a decrease because they haven’t even turned their heaters on at all,” said Robinson.
Students living on campus seem to have the best escape from the cold.
Devora Wills, 17, a freshman pre-med student from Miramar, Fla., lives in Phase III apartment complexes where she says the building stays warm.
“The heating is awesome,” said Wills. “When you first turn on the heater it gets hot fast. It gets warm so quickly that I don’t have to keep it on for that long.” Wills added that her roommates actually complain about the extremely hot temperatures in the apartment.
Lisa Marie, 19, a freshman from Miami, said the McGuinn dorm halls heaters are working as well.
“Sometimes I have to open my window just to cool down the room,” Marie said.
Some FAMU students who left Florida to head north for the winter break were disappointed when they came back for the spring semester.
“I think it’s ironic because I spent my break in New Jersey and I complained the whole time about getting back to the Florida weather. But now that I’m here, it’s just as cold as it was there,” said Lorielle Jackson, 20, a third-year environmental science student.
The North Carolina native said she was no surprised by the drastic change in weather in Tallahassee.
“I’m not too taken aback by these drastic temperature changes,” Jackson said. “Climate change is happening and it will affect all regions sooner than we realize.”
The National Weather Service has been issuing hard freeze warnings throughout the week, and temperatures will be in the teens, 20s and 30s until Friday.