As soon as I stepped out of the subway, in the elevators and in the lines, New Yorkers warned me: “It’s going to be cold. Very cold.” If I were to believe my friend Ashley, I should give up any concern for style until the beginning of March. “Go for Gore-Tex shoes, mittens and down jackets,” she advised me, with the calm of someone who knows how to avoid frostbite.

After hearing these chilling predictions over and over, I ended up fearing winter more than rising sea levels, and, like many New Yorkers, I hopped on a plane to spend a weekend in the sun in Miami, Florida. After just over three hours in the air, it was a shock. It was 28°C on Ocean Drive. Athletic figures weaved between each other on rollerblades, some played volleyball, others strolled by in bikinis.

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