Scanned back through this thread to look for the OP's location but all I found was that it gets cold. I've had my Jeep with both hard and soft tops in freezing weather and as long as the heater works it didn't really matter. Only thing with the soft top is that you don't want to be scrapping ice or sleet off the plastic windows, they can scratch and/or crack.
While I love my rig with the top off I usually prefer the hard top for long road trips (500+ miles) where I might be staying in motels and such. I just like the idea that someone is going to have to break glass to get inside. Around town I garage the Jeep at night but usually have either the soft top or a bikini top on and I do have a paging alarm system with multiple motion detectors that lets me know if someone is dickin' with my rig while I am (within a reasonable distance) away.
My point is that the hard top not only helps to protect the junk inside your rig but here in SoCal, Jeeps are a very high risk vehicle for auto theft. Anything that can slow down or deter a thief even a little is just a bit more piece of mind to my way of thinking. Hopefully if I make mine such a pain in the arse to steal they will leave it and take yours. Just kidding. Well, not really. :lol:
