Locals and tourists found something unusual as they went out and about in South Florida Tuesday: cold weather.
"Well, this is Fort Lauderdale, it’s against the law to be below 70 degrees isn’t it?” Fort Lauderdale native Joseph Csee asked Tuesday morning.
Temperatures dipped down into the 40s as Csee and others sought the comfort of heavier clothing and a warm drink.
"We kind of bundled up and like that, figured we’ll get us a nice hot cup of coffee but now we’re heading back real quickly," he said.
Csee chose to brave the cold, while others, like Makayla Fermin and her classmates, were forced out of their homes to go to school.
As she took shelter inside her dad’s jacket she had one wish.
"I hope it goes away," Fermin said.
Others said they’ve been to places where it’s this cold.
“I went to Iceland, my dad’s Icelandic," Reese Hrannarsson said. "I don’t like it.”
The weather also drove most customers at popular breakfast spots inside.
“They’ll all be inside today. But there are some hardcore people that will sit outside that have their dogs and they’ll be sitting outside," Linda Silvetti of the Floridan in Fort Lauderdale said.
For others, traveling to South Florida from the north felt great.
"You know what kind of temperatures they’re having up there now, I was talking to my daughter, minus 23 degrees," said Konstantinos Tsatsos, who moved to Canada from Greece when he was 19.
He said he’ll take South Florida beaches over Canada any day.
"I’m 74 years of age and I try to keep my heart pumping," Tsatsos said.
The cold temps lasted through Tuesday night – when full winter coats, hats and sweatshirts were suddenly the fashion on South Beach's streets. Despite outdoor heaters, there were few takers at normally crowded bars and restaurants.
"We were expecting to come home with a nice tan," remarked one visitor, who said she was staying warm with mojitos inside Mango’s Tropical Café.
