Sailors head to South Florida to escape winter, but this year the front that dropped record-setting amounts of snow in the Carolinas actually made it all the way down to Miami—and then refused to leave. With low temperatures very close to freezing and a high only a few degrees above 40, streets and boats and yards filled up with comotose iguanas, who had dropped out of the trees and wouldn’t wake up again until the temperatures got back up to Miami-normal.
Since the cold front arrived just in time to cancel the second day of sailing at the Comodoro Rasco (one of my favorite Snipe regattas), there was plenty of time to muse about how relative temperatures can feel. After weeks in Rhode Island where the thermometer didn’t get above freezing, you’d think 40 degrees would be a nice treat. In Miami, it felt more like 15 degrees: a temperature that sends even hardened New Englanders scurrying for warm hats and seats inside.
Part of that is local infrastucture: Miami’s tile floors and buildings are set up to maximize the cooling effects of natural air flow. Part of it was the clothes I didn’t pack, never imagining that I’d miss my fleece neck gaiter and wool leggings on Biscayne Bay. But by far the biggest aspect is mental. Miami means exercising in the early morning, before it gets too hot. Protecting skin from sunburn with the lightest layers possible. Holding a refreshingly cool hose over my head after sailing, to rinse off both salt and sweat. And dinners outside, surrounded by others also wiggling bare toes beneath the table.
Not donning wool socks and fleece hats, or dodging falling iguanas.
Florida locals always ask, “how can you live in Rhode Island?” I point out that I’m lucky enough to escape for a portion of each winter, but that’s missing the real point. “Feels like” temperature is decidedly relative, which is why the same number on a thermometer can feel totally different in a location where houses, wardrobes, and expectations are attuned to it.
Which means that when it finally gets up to 40 degrees at home, I’ll definitely be stripping off those wool socks.