Lodi: Abigail Trapani didn’t think of wearing a coat to go Christmas shopping Wednesday.
The Ohio native, dressed in a skirt and sweater, has battled 30-below-zero temperatures for four years in St. Paul, Minn., where she’s a senior at Apostolic Bible Institute.
“When you get used to cold like that, this is nothing,” she said as other shoppers, most still swaddled in coats, passed by at the Lodi outlet mall.
By late afternoon Wednesday, the temperature hit 65 degrees at Akron-Canton Airport, although it might have felt chillier with on-and-off drizzle and a breeze.
Still, it hasn’t been that warm on a Dec. 23 in our area since 1957, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House and Elvis’ Jailhouse Rock was on Akron-area theater screens,
Christmas Eve temperatures, the National Weather Service said, will likely creep to 61. And there’s not even a chance of a white Christmas, with the thermometer expected to reach 58 degrees.
“It feels more like Easter,” Qualan Kulcsar, 46, of Cleveland, said Wednesday.
She and her family traveled to the Lodi outlet center — recently renamed Ohio Station Outlets/The Market Platform — for last-minute Christmas shopping because it’s less crowded than Great Northern Mall in North Olmsted, which is closer to their home, she said.
But the nice weather didn’t hurt, she said.
Her son, David Kulcsar, 19, was wearing shorts.
“But not because it’s warm,” David Kulcsar said. “I wear shorts all of the time. It doesn’t matter if it’s snowing … they’re comfortable.”
Other shoppers picking up stocking stuffers and last-minute goodies displayed hints of bare skin, too.
Kathy Bell, 55, of Wadsworth, showed off perfectly manicured blue toenails in a pair of thong flip-flops and capri pants.
But like Kulcsar in his shorts, Bell said she clings to her summer footwear, even in the winter.
“My theory is even if it hits 50 degrees, I can wear sandals,” she said.
Her daughter, Katie Bell, 24, disagreed. She stood next to her mother wearing warm argyle socks and moccasins.
“I almost wore my winter boots today,” said Katie, who moved to Hampton, Va., in September.
“That’s why we moved: To get out of the snow and now look,” she said.
This season’s generally warm weather has been good for business, with more people shopping than in 2014, said Trinity D’Andrea Elmiger, general manager of the outlet mall.
On Wednesday, a couple of stores even hauled racks of clothing out onto the sidewalks so Ohioans happy with the unseasonable warmth could shop al fresco.
Yet one person’s idea of winter can easily be someone else’s sandal weather.
Trapani, who lives most of the year in Minnesota, said Ohioans don’t realize how easy their winters are, even when they have a typical cold, snowy season.
“When it would be a Level 3 snow emergency here in Ohio — with 6 or 8 inches of snow on the road, when everything closes and you’re not allowed to drive on the road — that’s an ordinary day in Minnesota.”
Amanda Garrett can be reached at 330-996-3725 or agarrett@thebeaconjournal.com.