# Americans/Canadians\* are your states further divided by meteorological 'boundaries'? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 29, 2018, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-canadians-are-your-states-further-divided-by-meteorological-boundaries/818759 "2018-07-29T03:58:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-canadians-are-your-states-further-divided-by-meteorological-boundaries/818759/41 "2018-07-30T13:46:05Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I’ve often thought that was one reason that the south shore of Lake Ontario is mostly rural with only a few cities, while the north shore is heavily populated. The wind mostly comes from the west and northwest. (If there _is_ an east wind, it means rain…) Partly…but also, the cities that WOULD have developed along the south shore of Lake Ontario, developed instead along the Erie Canal, twenty or so miles to the south (inland), a critical trade corridor in the 1800s. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-canadians-are-your-states-further-divided-by-meteorological-boundaries/818759/42 "2018-07-30T14:06:20Z")
We live in what is called the ‘snow belt’. We’re on that strip of land with Great Lakes north and south of us and receive record amounts of snow often as a result. Cold arctic air blowing down over yet unfrozen huge lakes pick up tons of moisture. When that system hits land it dumps snow and lots of it! Streamers coming off the lake, carrying heavy snow, sometimes just stall in place, instead of blowing onward, causing really heavy snowfall. This effect is doubled when there are huge lakes both north and south. Whichever way the wind is blowing, it’s probably bringing snow! So, yeah, def meteorological region. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-canadians-are-your-states-further-divided-by-meteorological-boundaries/818759/43 "2018-07-30T14:08:29Z")
Canadian province are enormous, so can have wildly different weather depending where you are. My province, Ontario, is bigger than Egypt or Pakistan. It’s almost twice as big as Ukraine. The weather in the northernmost pats of the province is subarctic, while in the southernmost part, there are vineyards and wineries. Quebec is bigger still, and the northern part is honest-to-god tundra, with the south being temperate. I’m not sure, though, that weather is specifically the reason for most common regional distinctions. It’s usually geography - you might live in the Ottawa Valley, or BC’s Lower Mainland, or ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-canadians-are-your-states-further-divided-by-meteorological-boundaries/818759/44 "2018-07-30T14:11:59Z")
Yeah; even a little area like PA. We have three distinct snow/weather-lines depending on which way the wind blows that just happen to be along major roadways so if you are north of 90, north of 80, north or 90 your weather will vary and you know just how. Weather in the western half of the state is mostly east/west. Since the mountains separate us into an distinct east/west with the eastern half of the state being more north-south in terms of weather. Half the state is coastal and the other half “lake effect”. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-canadians-are-your-states-further-divided-by-meteorological-boundaries/818759/45 "2018-07-30T14:33:06Z")
I live in Wisconsin, and we have 3 main meteorological regions: the lakeshore (anywhere on the eastern side of the state that runs along Lake Michigan, from Marinette to Milwaukee to the Illinois border), the north woods (basically the northern half of the state, away from the lake) and “southern” Wisconsin. The north woods is primarily, well, wooded, and considerably cooler than the farmland in the south. The lake shore often has lake effect cooling, snow, etc. that makes them distinct from their neighbors 50 miles west. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-canadians-are-your-states-further-divided-by-meteorological-boundaries/818759/46 "2018-07-30T17:26:20Z")
The differences between the Eastern and Western halves of Washington State (the dividing line being the Cascades) are so large climate/culture/political/economy wise I wouldn’t know where to start. Oregon is in the same boat. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-canadians-are-your-states-further-divided-by-meteorological-boundaries/818759/47 "2018-07-30T18:37:00Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Heh. If you’re in Saskatchewan, the tree line is that area up north that marks where trees _begin_ to grow. 😛 Oh come on, there are trees in southern Saskatchewan. There’s that one just north of Swift Current, for example! \*I’m not actually making this up. Ask people in Swift Current about The Tree (it’s important to say it with capital letters) and they’ll know exactly what you’re talking about. Unfortunately for the story, it’s far from the only tree about, and it’s actually not that easy to find a spot where it looks as lonely as it reputedly is. [Not impossible, however.](https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.3550747,-107.7920352,3a,60y,5.85h,92.96t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s9SiuLjIvChN2ovrKuacURg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en) Just don’t pan to the left. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-canadians-are-your-states-further-divided-by-meteorological-boundaries/818759/48 "2018-07-30T19:16:18Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Yeah, but you left _this_ one (the one I reported) with a typo in the title. 😃 Well, yeah. I can’t let you have _everything_. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-canadians-are-your-states-further-divided-by-meteorological-boundaries/818759/49 "2018-07-30T21:21:07Z")
There’s a mountain range running straight through the state of Washington (it also goes into BC & Oregon) that divides the state into “Eastern Washington” and “Western Washington.” Because of the range, Western Washington has [rainforest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoh_Rainforest) and Eastern Washington has desert. It can be jarring when you drive from one side to the other and the landscape completely flips on you. There are sub regions as well, but that’s the very big, very impossible to miss one. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-canadians-are-your-states-further-divided-by-meteorological-boundaries/818759/50 "2018-07-30T22:09:36Z")
I don’t pay attention to anything else about various areas of my state, but I have noticed that the valley that Boise is in gives it a somewhat unique climate relative to the rest of Idaho: temperate with rather a lot of meteorological inversions. This is distinct from the rest of Idaho which I think of as “buried in snow”. Of course I gained these impressions over years of living here and now with global warming kicking in things might be different out there. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-canadians-are-your-states-further-divided-by-meteorological-boundaries/818759/51 "2018-07-30T23:16:36Z")
I don’t think so. New Hampshire is further broken into ten counties, but the divisions don’t really seem to be meteorological in nature. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-canadians-are-your-states-further-divided-by-meteorological-boundaries/818759/52 "2018-07-31T10:00:30Z")
> [@DinoR](#): > > Michigan, where I lived the longest, is two different peninsulas jutting into the Great Lakes system. Until they were connected by a long bridge in 1957 (120 years after statehood) the only land route to a portion of the state involved crossing through what is now three different states. The Upper and Lower Peninsulas are pretty easy to understand names, though. A visitor hearing “da UP” might be a little more confused. The lower peninsula is shaped like a right hand. It’s sometimes referred to as the Mitten. > > The northern lower peninsula is much hillier thanks to the glaciers that carved the Great Lakes. While not a geographical name I’ve known people in that area that referred to those of us down south as flatlanders. Likewise, I’ve heard reference to those living in the LP as trolls; we lived under the Mackinac Bridge. > > The Detroit River starts in the Detroit and runs south to empty into Lake Erie. The communities further along the river from Detroit are frequently referred to as collectively as Downriver or the Downrivers. It’s not an inventive name but it can confuse people not from the area. > > Lake effect snow zones get referenced in weather reports. Storms moving across the Great Lakes can have the air warm quite a bit and get saturated with extra moisture from the exposed water. That can make them primed and ready for an extra heavy snow fall once the make landfall. People who live there tend to know …or learn fast. The UP of course has bitter winter weather. In the Lower Peninsula, basically you have a band about 30 miles wide along the Lake Michigan shoreline that gets much more snow than the rest of the LP, but also is blessed with cooler summers and milder winter temps. The snow in the UP is colder and lighter, leading those without blowers to buy shovels with quite large and scooped blades known as “Yooper scoopers”. Inside the snow band you need to either be quite fit for shoveling or you need a decent blower, in the interior you can get by with a shovel most of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-canadians-are-your-states-further-divided-by-meteorological-boundaries/818759/53 "2018-07-31T11:44:15Z")
In Kansas the west tends to be flatter and windier and dryer than the east. Drive across Kansas on I70 and past Topeka you start seeing windmills everywhere. Why? The wind, coming off the rocky mountains, blows almost constantly. Then we get this weird effect called the “Tonganoxie Split”. Its a weird phenomenon that seems to happen around Tonganoxie Kansas where weather patterns split north and south. So here in Kansas City snow and rain coming west will go north and south of us and then oddly, re pickup to the east. A meteorologist said it has something to do with the jet stream and how weather patterns come off the rockies. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-canadians-are-your-states-further-divided-by-meteorological-boundaries/818759/54 "2018-07-31T14:13:12Z")
> [@Serenata67](#): > > I live in Wisconsin, and we have 3 main meteorological regions… [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21115602&postcount=22](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21115602&postcount=22) Great minds and all that! 🙂 (You added helpful climate facts). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-canadians-are-your-states-further-divided-by-meteorological-boundaries/818759.md?page=2)