If you have to ask, you need a coat. A nice one. You might see others wearing sweaters around you, but if you don’t know how you’ll handle winter, then there’s almost no way your body will be conditioned enough to the cold to handle it in just a sweater and gloves. I have a friend from Hawaii who recently moved to Pennsylvania, and she is not handling this pre-winter cold well at all. Like she’s wearing a sweater and still chilly and fatigued sometimes in her heated house.

Also, the sweater people (I am one of them) often have to switch to a proper coat if it’s sufficiently cold or snowy enough. If the sun isn’t blazing in your face in February, it’s probably time to grab the big one. I go winter hiking, and if you’re going above 2000 ft of elevation, you’re going with at least three layers.

The good news is that our summers will probably just feel normal to you. I went to the Philippines in the summer once, and I came back home during a heat wave. It was actually a little bit hotter up here than it was there.