Cold? What cold?

It might as well have been a fine summer afternoon in Western New York on Sunday.

Swimmers in Silver Creek waded into Lake Erie. Dozens of anglers along Buffalo's outer harbor fished in it, too. OK, more accurately, they fished on top of frozen Lake Erie.

But not even brutal wind chills could keep Western New York's hardiest souls — including some who donned nothing more than a bathing suit — from enjoying the great outdoors.

"It was refreshing. I love it. You get in the water, you come out and you feel like a million bucks," Bruce Tarnowski said after his dive into Lake Erie as part of the ninth annual Silver Creek Polar Bear Swim.