December how cold is it
 

OK, I know that we cannot predict the weather. But my wife, daughter and I are native Floridians, who want to spend a few days in New York December 26-30th. We want to walk around the city and take in the sights. Do a little shopping and see some of the museums.

So how cold does it get?
I do not mind the cold, but my wife gets cold real easily. Heckwe are from Florida where it is 85 December 25th.

chances are it will be pretty darn cold. You just never know what you're going to get, but plan on it being COLD. Probably in the 30s, but you just never know. Windshield factor also plays a rold (could be 35 but with the wind feels like 30). or you could get a great stretch of miraculously glorious days.

Assume it will be cold and windy.
It could be 20F, 30F or 40F.

On the average, in December, it is 30 degrees cooler in NYC than in Miami, but cold will not keep you from walking around town if you are dressed properly. Bring plenty of layers, gloves, and a hat that covers your ears. Also, bring long underwear, or be prepared to buy some.

It will probably be damp and windy in addition to cold. Daytime highs cuold be in the low 40's - or could be in the 20's. If you get a real cold spell it can be zero at night.

If you plan on being outside for more than a couple of minutes (and esp at night and/or on the water) you need:

heavy winter coat
hat
scarf
gloves
warm sweater plus layers
warm pants (cords or hevy jeans)
waterptoof shoes or low boots

(A lot of snow is unlikely, but sleet or some snow is certainly possible - a couple of yers ago on Christmas we had 10").

Frankly, there are very few days (only if temps are 10 or below) when I'm ot comfortabel walking around the city for fairly long periods of time. (And no - not wearing long underwear - which can be stifling once you go indoors.)

But then I find FL unbearably hot except in Jan/FEb.

So - I guess it's what you're used to.

I agree with nytraveler. Unless it's windy, which can really make things uncomfortable, a cold, sunny 20 degree day is still ok. but, i guess it's what you're used to.

My experience with native Floridans is that they do not do well with northern winter temps. Make sure that your wife has a high quality cashmere scarf to fight off the winds. At least it is New York and not Chicago, which is *really* cold! :)

You will not be outside all the time, of course, but be prepared to shiver, based on what you are accustomed to.

It is normally very cold in December in New York.

It'll be cooooooollld. There'll be snooooow. It will freeeeeze. Then it will thaaaaw. There will be puddles/lakes at every crosswalk. Then it will become ice. The wind will blow in your face. Tears will come to your eyes. You'll have 2nd thoughts. But that's NYC. You will have a great time. And stories to tell when you get back to the southland.

Bring layers of clothing but don't miss NY at Christmas time.

It will be very cold and very crowded.

A few years ago I was in Miami for Christmas and visited the Everglades. I got bitten several times by mosquitoes.

Give me cold anyday.

:)

For reference my friend from Australian visited me in NYC a few years in March, and while she wasn't suffering, she was uncomfortable and commented on how "cold" it was at 40-45 degrees F.

This reminds me of my trip to SF in August, when one night it was a little chilly, but not cold (to my mind). Saw a family of Australians walking around in full-length winter coats, hats, scarves, mittens, etc. It was around 50 degrees, my ideal temperature!

Just dress for it with the suggestions here, and prepare your head for it and you'll be fine.

Remember! You can BUY anything you need to fend off the:
Cold
Rain
Snow
Wind

In any of a thousand upscale and discount stores in NYC.

And if you want to pass up the stores, the "Street Vendors" will help you "accessories"!!

And by the time you come you will have "real bargains" on the shelves as the retailers try to recoop a very poor Holiday buying period!

The proble is that by the time you come many of the stores will be featuring resort wear - and anything left of winter stuff will be very picked over. If you don't have any winter clothes you can wait and buy things here. But, that won;t work for shoes 0- whcih MUST be broken in - since typically in NYC you walk a LOT. (No malls, no places to park - everything is foot or subway - or cab if your feet give out.)

We often walk 4 or 5 miles after Sunday bruch - to work off the calories. Don;t mind the cold - but won't do it if it's more than 75.

I was in NYC around 1st of Dec 07 and it was FREEZING (low 30s) don't know if this was typical or not. There are underground tunnels with food and shops under Rockefeller Center which I didn't discover until a later trip in June. Wish we had known of them in Dec. They would be a good place to sit down and warm up. NYC is an awesome place, enjoy!

While low 30's is literally freezing - it's perfectly normal for that time of year. And nights are frequently in the low 20's or teens.

But if you dress properly - it's not really an issue. (Just have a look at al the people ice skating at all the outdoor rinks.

Thank you everyone.

I will break out the Lands End Catalog and give it to my wife for her to buy those items she needs.

Thank you for all of the responces

I have been to NYC during Dec. and it is cold, very cold. We recently spent a winter in Argentina and as Californians we were miserable. We came prepared, bought heavy winter jackets from LL Bean, bought gloves and hats in Buenos Aires, but we just were not comfortable. The cold air seemed to penetrate our bodies and our faces froze. Also, my husband caught a whopper of a cold, since winter is cold/flu season and once indoors, there is no escape from the sneezes.But even given the cons of visiting a cold climate when you are not used to it, I would do it. Tell your wife to get a hat, it really helps fend off the cold, since so much heat escapes through the head. Even with the misery of the cold weather , I would go, given a chance to visit NYC it would be worth it. Who knows, you might be lucky and have unseasonably warm weather. Good luck.

I grew up near NYC, have lived in Boston for 30 years. I hate the cold. No amount of clothing will make me comfortable and still be mobile. I have walked around NYC in December-Jan-Feb and been close to tears from wind and cold. Absolute misery for me. I know others will consider this over-reacting, but that is how awful that cold makes me feel. And even if it is not especially windy, you get gusts between the buildings that make it worse.

Wait until spring or go now.

Gail, I don't think you are over reacting, the cold in NYC is very, very cold. I was there in Dec. yrs ago, and the wind blowing off the river seemed to penetrate every inch of my body. I was VERY uncomfortable, however if given the chance of ONLY visiting during Dec., I would still do it, but then I really want to visit NYC. I guess it depends on how badly you want to visit and if Dec is the only choice you have. My husband, on the other hand, has no real desire to visit NYC and he would say forget it, since as a native Californian, he finds Eastern winters incredibly unpleasant, actually more on the torture side, so I guess it all boils down to how enthusiastic Bon_Bon' wife is about spending time in NYC versus how important the weather issue is. I think in all likelihood, the weather will be uncomfortable for her. There is no getting around it. Will visiting NYC compensate for the weather? Only she can decide.

Annetti...Just how cold was it in Buenos Aires? I just cashed in my frequent flyer miles to go there at the end of August 2009. I asked around about the weather and from what I was told, I thought it would average out to the 60s. I'm from L.A. County and detest the cold,too.

I'm in Paris, nearly every spring, and this past spring it was so cold until I didn't come out of my rented apartment until the third day there. It was a little below 10C and my body was having a really hard time adjusting even with socks and knee boots, my huge, wool- lined Burberry coat (The British can make a coat), thick gloves, and cashmere muffler around my neck. I can't even imagine, in my wildest dreams, or nighmares, EVER being in Chicago type of cold. Smiles. Happy Travels!

I don;t blame anyone for not being able to take the cold. It's like me and heat. Anything above about 75 and I am just miserable. Start to sweat, can;t bear it - and just want to go indoors to the AC. I don;t know if it's genetic or learned behavior or what - but my entire family is this way.

We usually do vacations in May - so I'm still comfortable and want to tour around. And I can bear FL and New Orleans only in midwinter. And I've been to Arizona in March - and it was TOO HOT. I don;t care about dry heat - it was just way too hot to go outdoors - except to an AC car to an AC mall or restaurant or museum or whatever.

My dad is in his late 80's and takes a blood thinning medication - and only now is he comfortable when the temps go over 80.

As for colds/flu - IMHO the biggest risk of picking up either is on the plane - with all that recirculated air - not in NYC.

Oh- and I've been out in the cold when my eyes were watering (not crying, but watering). But it was late one night - the THI was about minus 10 and it was really windy as well - and really uncomfortable walking more than a few blocks.

Personally, I don't voluntarily go North of about 35 degree latitude past around mid October, and do not venture back to that latitude voluntarily until after mid April.

I used to live in the Northeast (for college) and the Midwest for a few years.

I found walking around a city in the winter to be miserable. Even if it's sunny, the skyscrapers cast shadows (due to the low sun angle), so you really can't get any sun. The wind tunnels that are created between skyscrapers make the temps extremely uncomfortable. Even if it was a bearable temperature, I don't like lots of wind, like the fly your umbrella away kind, and that seems to persist in big cities in the winter, due to the different wind tunnel effects.

They say dress so that you are warm, but for me to stay warm in those conditions, I need long johns, a few layers and a sweater, gloves, hat, scarf. However, then I feel really restricted and frankly fill like a big balloon walking around.

Then, if you dress for the outside, when you go inside, prepare for overly heated buildings (some around 75 or so), and you sweat. The other alternative is to underdress, but then you freeze outside and can't even warm up if you go inside.

My solution is to not go to Northerly climates until mid April, then I'm fine. I would rather a sticky humid day in NYC than a bitter cold windy day, but that's just me and I understand it.

I take trips in the winter to the Caribbean, Australia, and other warm climates. So I still have plenty of winter traveling opportunities. I don't like snow or skiing either.

Right now it is glorious in Central Texas (low humidity, cool nights in the 50's and mild days in the low to mid 80's). Why would I leave here to go to a place where it's not nice?

Now, if I have a business trip up North, I go because I have to, but I usually am yearning to go back the minute that arctic air hits my skin and dries it out.

That's another thing I never got used to. When I lived up North, I always seemed to have dry skin and ecsema/etc... Since I've lived back South again, I only rarely get dry skin, and that's usually during one of the nasty cold fronts that we get down in Texas. And even when they hit, I'm miserable during those days until the temps warm back to tolerable levels.

Different strokes for different folks. I'm about as opposite of nytraveler as you can get.

Guenmai: We were in Buenos Aires (about 5 wks) from July 21 until August 29th in 2007. We were told it was unseasonably cold, perhaps, it was. But in NO way was it in the 60s, more likely in the low 30s.

We only had two temperate days while there, where we could remove our gloves and unbutton our coats. Perhaps, if you arrive at the end of August, it may start to warm up as you work your way to September and spring.

By the way, NYtraveler,my husband caught his cold around the third week we were there, so we can't blame the plane, more likely it was the crowded enclosed buses and subtes. He often suspects that a meal at the Four Seasons where the waitress had a cold was the culprit. Who knows? He was miserable for about 3 weeks and it did put a damper on his trip, but he was pretty stoic and it did not slow him down. It is definitely a hard adjustment for a Southern Californian, especially when you are given the expectation like we were that the weather would be in the 60s. It definitely was notin the 60s in July/Aug 2007.

Best wishes to you. Weather aside it is a wonderful place to spend time.

Hi

I went to NYC in December last year and it was pretty cold. Here is my trip report with pictures and links http://gardkarlsen.com/NYC_travelogue_2007.htm

You can seaa weather stats on http://www.weatherbase.com

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

December 25, 1984 - Just bought an eldorado convertible - 76 degrees!!! top down to midnight mass....

It will be COLD (whether it's 19 or 27 or 39 degrees hardly matters)... everyone will still need a hat, gloves, & scarf for sure. Along with some kind of decent coat and good walking shoes or boots.

Definitely have thick-soled shoes, as you will freeze your feet without a good bit of insulation from the frigid pavement-- leather soles won't do the job.

Lands End "all weather mocs" are a good choice for something comfy, warm and inexpensive (or similar from Merrill or LLBean). They are the shoes I always take for winter travel. In a dark color, with dark slacks, they can be appropriate for just about any destination (all but the dressiest).