What to wear in the cold and rain at Humboldt State University

By | Curran Daly

People have many clothing options to choose from on cold and rainy days. So do dogs. Teus is a dog who rocks a sweatshirt on a cold and rainy Humboldt afternoon.

While walking between classes Teus gets many smiles, stares and the occasional pet. When it is raining, Teus wears a sweatshirt to stay dry so he doesn’t get his owner’s apartment wet.

Teus’ owner, Kiara Pineda, is a junior child development major. She learned a few tricks over the years for the cold and rainy Humboldt weather. Warmth is important while walking between classes. When she’s not dressing Teus, Pineda has her own go-to clothes to stay warm and dry.

“I put rain boots on and a rain jacket,” Pineda said. “I’d recommend just like a turtle neck and rain boots and any warm pants that you have.”

Layers work especially well to stay warm when it’s wet and rainy. Desteny Gutierrez, a Freshman from Los Angeles, knows how important it is to be warm. She feels that layers work perfectly for cold weather. When you’re outside you can be bundled up and when you’re inside you can take it all off to enjoy the heater.

“You definitely need layers ‘cause, you don’t want to get wet and have nothing to take off,” Gutierrez said.

According to the National Weather Service, Eureka has already had 40.94 inches of rain so far this winter. That is 7 inches more than at the same point last year and 16.4 inches more than the historical average for this time of the season. This increase in rain also affects Humboldt State students. Students must walk through the rain to and from classes. Gutierrez doesn’t worry about the rainy weather.

“If it’s raining, definitely just throw on a rain jacket and anything under with some jeans and boots,” Gutierrez said. “If it’s just cold, I’d pull on a pull-over sweater with jeans and shoes.”

The shoes you wear are also important in wet weather. When it’s cold and rainy some elect to wear boots to keep their feet warm and dry while others, like freshman kinesiology major Conner Chappel, just wear regular tennis shoes.

“I need my jacket and then an umbrella, jeans, and some not nice shoes,” Chappel said. “Why would I want to ruin nice shoes?”

Chappel moved to Humboldt from Rocklin, Calif. He hasn’t dealt with much rain in Rocklin for the past few years due to the drought. Moving from a drier climate to Humboldt can make for a hard transition, but Chappel found the move easier than he expected.

“It was pretty easy to transition, especially compared to my roommate,” Chappel said. “He came up to school without a rain jacket, like he didn’t even have a rain jacket.”