It really sucks living in Texas, where I don’t get to enjoy four distinct seasons like
everyone else. Wish I could move up north. What are seasons like where you live?
I’m thinking about moving to a state where you get four distinct seasons. What are the best states to go?
SoCal: warm and sunny except for two or so weeks late in summer where it is oppressively hot, and two or so weeks in winter where it rains, sometimes.
Not a General Question, Moved to IMHO.
samclem, moderator
I don’t quite get this - it’s often said that L.A. doesn’t have seasons, but it very much does.
Winter - temperature goes down to the low 50s, it rains fairly often, it gets dark early.
Spring (which generally starts around MLK weekend) - temperature is mostly around the 60s-70s, it rains more voluminously though not more often, it starts getting dark later.
Summer (which starts around mid-late April) - temperature is traditionally in the 70s with a few days in the 90s, but the last few years it’s gotten up into the 100s quite a few times. It’s not fully dark till 9ish.
Autumn (starts mid-august) High temperature days mostly go away, stays in the 60s-70s, starts getting dark earlier.
Not to mention the traditional CA seasons of flood, fire, earthquake, and riot.
Anyway, the point is, you may have to look harder for the change of seasons where you are, but I bet you’ll be able to find them. And really, why would anyone want to live somewhere that it’s uncomfortable 1/4 of the year or more?
Western Pennsylvania. (Sometimes it seems like we experience all four seasons in one week!) 
Winter usually starts around December, and REALLY hits in January, and when I say cold, I do mean cold. Ever had your boogers freeze?
Falls are nice and crisp, and the leaves here are gorgeous.
Springs, warm and breezy.
Summer, I confess, is my least favorite season. They’re hot and muggy. Like walking through mud.
The northeast does not have four distinct seasons either most years.
Winter - snowy, cold
Spring - snowy until some time in April. Then it’s muddy and rainy for two to three weeks. Then the temperature shoots up to summer warmth
Summer - hot, extremely humid (all but two states in New England and the Mid-Atlantic region average 90%+ humidity all summer)
Autumn - usually starts off warm, gets pleasantly mild, but most years begins to snow some time between Halloween and Thanksgiving. We often already have snow on the ground that won’t melt for months weeks before the winter solstice
Autumn is okay but spring is just a couple of muddy weeks between winter and summer
Again, what would be the best states to go to to experience four distinct seasons?
Wisconsin definitely has four distinct seasons, which follow the usual season stereotypes.
Spring can be beautiful and warming and flowery alternating with cold and wet/icy.
Summer can be lovely with sun, warmth, relatively ok humidity alternating with fierce thunderstorms and temps of 100 with nauseating dampness.
Fall has its classic fall colors and great football weather alternating with cold and wet/icy.
Winter can be 20 below zero with mountains of snow, alternating with just grey and dry and chilly, or anything in between.
That what you seek?
Anywhere east of the Rockies and north of the Mason-Dixon Line is likely to have a full four season progression that is the basis of the traditional American ideas about the seasons.
There aren’t any places in the south that get four seasons?
I’ve lived in every type of climate. Slogging through winter does not appeal to me.
Now in the Philippines, where every month is like New Orleans in summer. I’m fine with that.
here in the high desert of CA we get hot or cold rainy is just a sub set of hot or cold (its rained when it was 105 a year or two ago … local news was warning for people to stay indoors due the possibility of getting burned by the rain …)
Once every 5-10 years or snow we get snow but nothing over 3 or 4 inches since 86 or so
Hot can start in march and ends around thanksgiving cold goes from November to march
But we can get a odd mix of either in the interim like its been 80 degrees in January and 40 degrees for a few days in September ////
This is basically the answer.
West of the Rockies or east of the Appalachians (the coasts) are too close to the oceans, and that affects the weather. The Midwest does have the Great Lakes which moderate the seasons somewhat, but not enough to prevent having 4 distinct seasons. (Eurasia doesn’t have great lakes in the middle to moderate temperatures, so they get Siberia.)
The question asked for the best places, and I assumed they wanted somewhere that you’d get the typical progression where 2-3 months of the year there’s snow on the ground and yet there’s still a long stretch of the year for T-shirts and shorts. I referred to a vast number of places where it’s basically all the same in this regard, just with timings slightly off. The seasonal distinctions might be evident in the South, but not nearly as much as they are in North Dakota or Michigan. I don’t know exactly where the line tends to be for snow to last all winter, but the Mason-Dixon Latitude is a reasonable approximation.
All the Great Lakes do in terms of weather is bring a ton of snow to those living just east of it. There isn’t nearly enough water there to be much of a moderating effect.
You need to define to yourself what you want.
I live in the far northern California coastal region. Eureka being the largest close city. I personally consider this region as having four distinct seasons that indeed follow the traditional spring-summer-fall-winter model. But if you are looking for spring flowers, summer heat and humidity, changing leaf colors or snow, forget it.
Any long term (>5 year) resident will tell you “winter is rainy and overcast, spring is cloudy with regular clear days but warmer, summer is foggy in the a.m. which clears by noon and then gets hot (78F), fall is cooler, clear and wonderful.”
I do have a foursome of deciduous trees that do change color and drop leaves. But it is nothing like the northeast.
Climate-wise, I love it here. Mainly because it is never humid.
P.S. It’s fall here and the weather is exactly as I mentioned above. Yes!
So your distinct seasons are all moderate temperature, but it gets dark at different times and sometimes it rains?
Sounds more like you’re arguing for the idea that there aren’t seasons.
I live in Chicago. While we do get 4 seasons, you never know what you’re going to get. We had a remarkably warm winter, followed by an incredibly blustery spring with endless rain and swirling wind, followed by a pleasantly mild, somewhat rainy summer. Fall has started off warm, but will likely cool down by by next week. Who knows what the winter will bring? Another winter from Hell like 2013-2014 with 70 inches of snow and bitter cold from November-April?
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We had all four here today!
That’s what we have here in Santa Barbara, except mostly without the oppressively hot bits.
I will respectfully disagree. It seems as I’ve gotten older that spring and fall have pretty much gone away and we got right from winter to summer to winter again. I can’t remember when I last got to wear a windbreaker or really enjoy a protracted fall.