safest weather state

Factual Questions
21

What do mountains have to do with it?

Anyway, when I lived in West Virginia, I always thought I had it made when it came to weather, and a lot of that had to do with the mountains. The only influence of hurricanes you’re going to get on the west side of the mountains is the occasional blowing-through of the remnants, like Hugo did in 1988. But the effects are hardly tropical…more like a docile thunderstorm with strangely warm rain. That’s what happens when you’re a hurrcane and you’ve traveled over 600 miles of land.

As far as other weather makers are concerned, WV is pretty safe, too. Let me enumerate:

– The whole state is too mountainous to worry about much flooding (except for maybe parts of the Ohio River valley). For example, I grew up about a half mile from the Monongahela river, but at least a hundred feet above it. Unlike a lot of flatlander states, the river valleys in WV are always deep, with a pronounced “V” shape. That’s because they’re all incredibly old Appalachian rivers.

– The entire state has an average of 1.84 tornadoes a year. ( Cite ) But more notably, the mode and median are both 1. That’s because there were a couple years where large outbreaks occurred, such as 6 in 1980, but were mostly part of a single weather event.

– Earthquakes, forest fires, mudslides, volcanoes, and other “left coast” penomena are non-issues.

– The seasons are very distinct, but not record-setting in any way. I saw 100 degrees Fahrenheit maybe twice growing up. Saw less than -10 once.

– I hear there are hail storms, like a lot of other places. But in 22 years as a resident, I never saw hail damage. 3 months after moving to Ohio, my apartment building had to get a lot of siding replaced because of sideways hail.

– The only real significant weather “disaster” a West Virginian is likely to experience is a blizzard. And not even as bad as those in the northeast get it. Every five years or so, WV gets the back end of some nor’easter, and gets 2 feet of snow at once. The thing about a blizzard, though, is that it’s not a house-wrecking, property-destroying, car-hurling event. You get stuck in your house for a few days, can’t go to work, and when it’s over, it melts and life is just like you left it. Hardly a natural disaster.

So my vote goes to West Virginia. Poor, economically depressed, and the butt of the rest of the country’s jokes…but kickass weather! Just hope you don’t like sunshine…because you won’t be seeing it from November to April.

*** And speaking of tornadoes, here’s a good map I found of tornado frequency distribution in the US.

22

That’s a map of the Atlantic basin. Here are the tracks for tropical storms in the year 2000 for the area around California: http://www.met-office.gov.uk/sec2/sec2cyclone/tctracks/nep00.gif

Year 1999: http://www.met-office.gov.uk/sec2/sec2cyclone/tctracks/nep99.gif

Well, Isis traversed Baja Calif, anyway: http://www.met-office.gov.uk/sec2/sec2cyclone/tctracks/nhem98/isis.gif

I did not check all the years, but it is apparent that tropical storms do get close to Calif., and the outflow surely must have affected that state, even if the center did not cross the state.

23

OK, only one tropical storm crossed California: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/whhcalif.htm

24

As of this morning, 7,501,104 acres have burned during this fire season in the USA.

Of that number approximately 200,000 acres have burned in the Lower 48. The remaining 7.3 million acres are all in Alaska.

Also, the ten-year average to this date is only 3,345,308 acres. It’s been very hot and very dry in Alaska. It will remain so until the snow finally arrive.

25

You would be more accurate to say the Pacific Northwest west of the Cascades is generally damp. The rest of the PNW is bone dry during the summer.

26

Lifelong resident of LA here. Yes tropical storms do affect California. Typically the result in LA of a nearby tropical storm is:

[ul]
[li]Thunderheads over the San Gabriel mountains[/li][li]Humidity[/li][li]Once in a while a thunderstorm with rain in the LA basin (maybe once every ten years or so) when this does happen usually less that 1/4" of rain.[/li][li]One time in my entire life (52 years) I saw some hail in Aug, from a tropical storm. about the size of baby peas. didn’t last long in the 90 degre weather we were having that day.[/li][/ul]
A baja tropical storm qualifies as a non event covered by tons of weathermen from TV. :rolleyes:

My vote for the best weathe goes to the California coast between Santa Barbara and San Diego (extend in either direction as you see fit) Very low high temps (rarely above 80-85) very mild low temps (rarely below 50). Please note: fires and earthquakes do not count as “weather”
I have camped on the beach in December and Aug. only difference is I take a sweater in Dec, and don’t swim as much.

27

:: muffled sob from the general direction of central Canada ::

28

OR and WA are very nice, but damp as someone mentioned. But they are also vulnerable to the periodic earthquake. And I might also add, I think they are the only 2 lower 48 where you might experience a volcano eruption.

My choice would be to live around Denver in the summer, and Fort Myers, FL in the winter.

29

I do believe New Jersey holds that dubious honor. :stuck_out_tongue:

Lamar Mundane and Barbitu8: The map that Lamar Mundane provided shows that we do get hurricanes here in the Northeast, and Class 3 hurricanes at that. While severe hurricanes may be “rare” as compared to Florida, they are a significant issue to those who live on Long Island, especially on the East End. (This site discusses the great hurricane of 1938.)

But New Jersey probably qualifies as a very safe state, weather-wise. We do get hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods, but less frequently and severely than many other areas. It doesn’t get all that cold–most of the state rarely sees sustained temperatures below 20F or so. We do get blizzards, but since it almost always warms up enough to melt the snow between snowstorms, we don’t have to deal with a huge build-up of snow. It doesn’t get all that hot, either. 90F is common enough, but it doesn’t go much above that. And whether wildfires and earthquakes “count as weather” or not, we don’t get them.

30

BTW, the great hurricane of 1938 was the subject of a TV special a few years ago, either on TWC or the History Channel, both great channels.

31

Very few tornadoes? Tell that to the people in Xenia. :frowning:

32

I have a nomination that few would think about:

[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent]West Virginia[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent].
I’m willing to bet, despite there being a Tornado, WV, that they have few tornadoes, no hurricanes, no earthquakes (not weather but still important), moderate temperatures, etc.

:smiley: [sup]If anyone from the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce sees this, I’m available as a marketing consultant.[/sup]

33

Damn, kniz, that’s a nasty tornado.

Did you happen to read posts #11 and 13 of this thread already?

It was a very bad day in Ohio.

34

No I didn’t stockton. I was scanning and noticed the post about Ohio not getting many tornadoes. I lived in Cincinnati at the time and the same tornado crossed the Ohio River, towards the western suburbs of Cincinnati, as twin tornadoes. I had just gotten home and found my wife and two sons under a bed. Hail started to fall and then stopped. I went to the front door and there in the distance was the tornado. The top seemed to be going faster than the base and the tornado got thinner and thinner. Then it twisted like a sting that you had twisted until the whole thing started making knots. Then it broke. It next set down in northern Cincinnati, then lifted again and then hit Xenia. Cincinnati had a lot of damage, but obviously Xenia got the worst of it. Thanks for pointing out those other posts and I didn’t mean to ignore them.

35

My company is headquartered in NJ. The standing joke is that second prize for an employee is 2 weeks in New Jersey.
Let’s see in the 13 years I have worked for this company, I have been back in NJ and experienced
[ul]
[li]blizzard[/li][li]flood (part of a huricane)[/li][li]drought[/li][li]humidity beyond belief (95degrees plus 100% humidity)[/li][/ul]
and you are going to tell me Jersey weather is good? :eek: :smack:
Guess again.
Since wildfires and earthquakes are not weather, give me California.

36

I’m a Jersey Girl (born and bred and will always call it home), and have been in California for four years. Northern California, which is cooler and wetter (in the winter) than Southern California, and I am going to have to agree with you there, Rick.

I’ll always love New Jersey, but you really can’t beat California weather, which might explain why so many people I meet here are originally from there. :wink:

37

If you read Mike Davis’s “Ecology of Fear”, you can read about his theories on how the weather in Southern California is among the worst in the world. Davis makes Southern California into a veritable Tornado Alley.

But Davis’ meteorological theories are subject to quite a bit of dispute.

38

If you’re going for all bad weather then really you’re answer has to be Hawaii. Hurricanes are fairly rare here. Most of them created in the east Pacific tend to bend back towards Baja California. The few that make it to the middle Pacific tend to cruise on past. As you can see there’s a patch of cooler water between us as North America. I suppose that protects us. In the 30 years I’ve lived here we’re only had 2. The both came up from the south on odd turns.

The trade winds really mellow things out. We don’t get major thunderstorms and lightning deaths like you do on the mainland. Where the people here live it’s never very hot or very cold. We just don’t get tornados and only very rarely water spouts. We don’t have those long drawn out floods like you get on the mainland.

Ooh, here’s a really good site & cite. NCDC Annual Summaries. I’ll make averages for each state from 1996 to 2003. Might take awhile.

39

Or maybe I wont. They only have combined data from 1998 onward. Plus I suppose you also have to take into account the various population sizes. Sorry.

40

Thanks for the tip! I’ll have to watch for that. I grew up largely in Hampton Bays, which is where the hurricane punched a hole in the barrier island to form the Shinnecock Inlet.

Rick: The thread is about safe weather, not good weather! I’m not gonna argue with you about southern Cali having better weather than Jersey. Sheesh. I may love Jersey, but I’m not stoopid. :slight_smile: