On the first day of classes since winter break, girls aren’t showing off their new Christmas pea coats, and guys aren’t wearing the snowboarding coats they lived in over the vacation.

Instead, those guys are wearing Polo shirts they hadn’t planned on digging out of their closets for another three months, and those girls who insisted on wearing pea coats are sweating instead of shivering.

“This is spectacular,” said Michael Tully, a graduate student in landscape architecture of the weather.

With temperatures reaching 66 degrees Monday, the semester had a seemingly atypical first day.

But Ryan Boyles, associate state climatologist at the State Climate Office, said, “January thaw” is more common than people think.

“It’s not unusual at all to have temperatures in the 60s or 70s in some parts of January,” he said. “We typically have fairly mild winters.”

Unusual or not, Ashley Smith, a senior in communication, took advantage of the pleasant day by visiting Lake Johnson.

“It’s usually too cold and gray outside,” Smith said. “I just feel better when it’s sunny and warm.”

Boyles said North Carolina’s location plays a key part in its mild winters.

“We’re far enough north where we can get the colder air,” he said. “But we’re also in the south, where it’s relatively mild, and that’s what we’ve been experiencing these past couple of weeks.”

Tully, who recently returned from a trip to Massachusetts, said that it was “definitely chilly” there and that he is enjoying the weather here. “I just came from up north, so this is a vacation all in itself,” Tully said.

An alumnus of N.C. State, Boyles said this area has been “warmer than long-term averages” but added, “It happens about every year.”

Admiring the spring-like afternoon at the Court of North Carolina, Tully said Monday’s climate makes him appreciate landscape architecture even more.

“I like to see it in its constant state of fluctuation, but I still prefer sunshine,” Tully said.

Boyles had good news for students like Smith and Tully.

“I would expect at least one or two days with highs in the 70s before winter is over,” Boyles said.