PASADENA, Calif.—Fans who lined the Rose Parade route Thursday bundled in blankets, hats, gloves and sipped steaming cups of coffee and cocoa as the day dawned unusually frigid.
A cold snap that hit the West had temperatures a notch above freezing hours before the start, but not cold enough to snap the 1952 record of 32 degrees.
“I dressed in four to five layers,” said Paul Josephson, who worked as a volunteer to clean up after horses. “The problem with LA is that it’s cold in the morning, then hot. So you’re going to want to strip out of that down coat after a couple of hours.”
Spectators may have shed some layers as the sun lit up the bright floats woven together with roses and carnations and other plant material, but signs of the chill were abundant as marching bands, and color guards danced their way past hundreds of thousands of spectators and a live TV audience.
The University of Southern California mascot, Tommy Trojan, wore a long coat over his roman armor and gladiator sandals. Members of a high school color guard from Maui wiggled their hips in pink skirts and bare shoulders. Florida State University Seminoles dancers looked freezing in their tights and leotards.
