With more than a 10-degree drop in temperature over a 24-hour period, students are finding themselves preparing for even cooler weather to come.

On Tuesday, the Carbondale area reached a high of 78 degrees, but the mercury dropped, reaching only 63 Wednesday.

Tasha Nurczyk, a freshman in elementary education from Waukegan, said she expects the weather to get warmer, but anticipates the temperatures will continue to fluctuate into the fall.

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I didn’t bring my winter clothes with me, Nurczyk said. I have to keep doing laundry because I don’t have that many clothes for this type of weather.

I was told that it doesn’t get below 50 degrees here.

Pateska Woods, a junior in the college of education from Chicago, said she is used to colder temperatures but was not prepared for a change this soon into September.

Everyone said it would not get colder until late October, she said. All my heavy clothes are locked in a trunk in the top of my closet, and I can’t get to them.

I’m going shopping today for warmer clothes, and I am also going to find someone to get my trunk down for me.

Todd Chapman, a senior in sculpture and interior design from Carbondale, said he will not put his shorts away until the middle of October.

It’s a lot easier for me to ride my bike around campus in shorts than it is in jeans, Chapman said. I think the weather will mellow out and warm upI don’t think it will go directly into winter from these temperatures.

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The temperatures will remain constant through the weekend, as Saturday’s high will be in the 50s. Sunday’s high will be in the upper 50s and lower 60s, according to SIUC’s weather service.

Woods, who was bundled in a coat inside the Student Center, would not make predictions about upcoming weather patterns but said once the weather turns cold in Chicago, it only gets worse.

My personal opinion is that the weather just waited to turn cold until I got down here, she said.

Alutin Amirirusin, from Malaysia, said this is only his third week here in Carbondale, and he did not know what to expect from the weather.

The weather is very different here than in Malaysia, he said. We have two seasonsrainy and dry. It seems to be very gloomy here.

All I really knew about the climate was from the pictures in the SIUC brochure.