Beach day or winter trip? Cold snap affects business and vacations on FMB

FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla — When you go to the beach, you expect warm sand and watching the waves roll in from a beach chair, but that is not what people got on Fort Myers Beach this weekend.

The cold wind was whipping sand across the beach on Sunday. Jet skis were beached, chairs were stacked, and the shoreline was deserted.

Still, a few brave souls said this weather doesn’t bother them a bit.

“Not as warm as we expected here, but it sure beats 7 degrees,” Kevin Knobbe said, while holding an ice cream cone.

“We just got in on Friday night, and this feels great to me,” said Bob Foster. “At least we have sunshine, that’s helpful, said a Michigan couple. “Yes, at least we got sunshine, and it’s great to see palm trees.”

Another woman said that enjoying the beach took a little extra planning, and layers.

“I had to go to Burlington Coat Factory to buy these gloves, hat, jacket because I own no winter clothes here,” she said.

There was something else missing from the beach, or rather, the sky. The iconic, yellow smiley face parasail was nowhere to be seen.

“People don’t want to be getting into the water to get on a boat when the air temperature is 40, 50, even 60s can be chilly for people,” said Paradise Parasails owner Chase Hussey.

Hussey said the wind and cold have kept them grounded, with the business only open five days over the past two weeks. And when the weather shifts like this, he says tourism shifts with it.

“You get the people stuck at the hotels on their vacations, you know the Pink Shells, the Diamond Heads. They’re here. They spent the week they’ll be here and tough it out. But those day trippers, they kinda plan other things,” Hussey said.

Hussey says the timing worked out, this cold snap hit just ahead of spring break. While we wait for a warm-up, it’s still paradise there, just with fewer footprints in the sand.