The only real benefit to having it be 110+ for half the year <wayyyy s. california, here> is that I’ve seen exactly one spider in the three years I’ve been here.
Also been outside, between April-November, maybe thrice in three years. For longer than it takes to get to the car, anyway. (This is a complaint, not a bonus)
I’ll appreciate the advantages, such as not having to warm up the car, EVER, or deal with scraping ice and snow off stuff, but with AC on year-round, it’s not as if it’s any cheaper. It’s just a LOT harder to go outside and do ANYTHING when it’s blinding sun and extreme heat. And this is without any kind of humidity; thank goodness for that, lol. Previous to this move, I was in Virginia for about 5 years, and it’s taken me this long to dry out!! Also, I don’t miss farking huge banana spiders hangiing out in the back yard <shivers>
So, short answer: I prefer four seasons. They do not have to include snow as long as they don’t include anything over 90* or below 40*
I was born & raised in Southern California, mostly San Diego and Ventura, with a few years in and around the LA area. left and lived in Phoenix for two years, and have been in Iowa for the past 11. If I could afford to live in in a nice part of San Diego or Ventura again, I probably would, but no way would I voluntarily leave Iowa for for hot, dry low desert country like the Inland Empire or Phoenix again. the only thing that bothers me about winter is the few days when driving is a problem, and I now have enough clout at work to be able to call and say I’m working at home when the weather looks crummy.
The pluses outweigh the disadvantages for me, although as we get older, I think my husband may be starting to disagree with me on this.
No, it’s because I hate hot weather. Especially with significant humidity. Even Michigan summers are unpleasant for me. I can’t figure out people who would want to live on the surface of the sun (Arizona) or in a sauna (the southeast.)
I have lived in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Arizona. I much prefer Arizona. I’m sick of snow and cold weather. You could not get me to voluntarily move back to anywhere with snow. Yes, it’s hot in the summer, but air conditioning makes it bearable to go outside and you could always find a swimming pool to dunk yourself in. And during the winter you can go long stretches without running the air conditioner or heat, so you spend almost zero on energy bills. I used to like winter when I was a kid, but now snow is just another inconvenience I can do without. Yay, Sun Belt!
I’m calling tolerable pain pain nonetheless. Gripping an icicle for 30 seconds in 30 degree weather is not like touching a very hot stove for a couple seconds, but it still makes it on the pain meter, even if it’s a 1 on a ten scale. This is about the level you’d also experience with very strong wind in 30 degree weather on your face.
I am not sure why intense heat was brought into the picture. I am talking about someplace in CA or TX that never escapes 50-95 except for rare occasions (e.g. San Diego or San Francisco or Austin – not too sure about Austin).
I am a Southern transplant to New England. The winters really do get to me. It isn’t that it gets really cold here. Massachusetts isn’t Minnesota. It is the length of it. It is March now which should be full spring in my mind but I have to remind myself that any warmish weather from now until mid-May is just a gift and tease from God. I will move as soon as my youngest gets outside of high school in 12 years and the weather is the major factor driving that decision.
I have never lived in a place with good weather though. I grew up in Northern Louisiana which is hotter than a whore on two for one night and then lived in New Orleans where Tarzan couldn’t even avoid heat stroke during the peak summer. I made the mistake of fleeing there to the area of New Hampshire where they have the Army’s extreme cold conditions research station. Talk about an over correction. I am moving to the low mountains of Costa Rica as soon as I can.
You really never have spent sigificant time anywhere cold, have you? Have you considered that maybe you’re just wussy when it comes to cold? Probably not as much as people who insist anything below 70F is cold, but your reactions seem to fall outside the norm. If it was really as bad as you think, everyone in the northern most sections of the country would have committed suicide after a couple of winters, leaving a vast white wasteland northeast and northwest of Ohio.
Anyway, your theory about family is a big part of why I live in New England. My English ancestors settled here over 300 years ago, and even the late comers (Irish, Portuguese, French-Canadian) all came to New England over 100 years ago. My family is hardly unusual, and you’ll find many whose roots go back that far. I hate snow, I really do, but like the people before me for so many generations, I find on balance that there are a lot more pluses to living here than that one big minus.
To answer the question of why not everyone lives someone warm, part of the answer is you were born there and it’s what you’re used to. I do cold just fine; it isn’t painful at all, unless I’ve done something particularly stupid, like going for a walk without a parka on (I don’t do that).
The other part of the equation is that you don’t have to stay where you live year round. You ever hear of “snowbirds?” I fully intend to become one some day - see you all in Arizona, three months of the year! I’ll spend the other nine months here, where the weather is beautiful.
Austin gets way over 95 for much of the year, and it is seriously humid. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the 10 years I lived in Austin. But it is really hot and humid.
My sister moved from Wisconsin to Texas, and it’s too hot for her. I know it’d be too hot for me! Why not something more mild, like northern California or southern Oregon? The weather out that way is pretty consistent, and I’d rather have a more-consistent 40-70 degree range than a place (like Texas) that goes from below freezing to 110+ in the same year.
Funny, I always thought it was the bullet that caused the pain, thus necessitating alcohol. Silly me ;).
I live in Minnesota. I like it here in any season. Warm, sunny weather is nice, but it’s absolute bliss when you have winter to contrast it with. I would like to visit Texas for a week in January sometime, but living in those sweltering temperatures would cause extreme pain, thus necessitating the consumption of copious amounts of alcohol.
Another thing I like about living in the Snow Belt is that most other people don’t want to live here. Cold keeps the riff-raff out.
I live near Albuquerque, New Mexico and I love it here. We are at 5000 ft. elevation so it doesn’t get nearly as hot as Phoenix or Las Vegas. It gets into the 90s a lot but the humidity is very low so it’s quite tolerable for me. It rarely gets over 100; I lived here for 3 years before I saw the temperature get that high.
I lived in the Midwest most of my life- several years in northern Wisconsin and 25 years in northern Indiana, close enough to Lake Michigan to get lots and lots of lake-effect snow. I’ve had enough cold and snow to last me a lifetime. But that’s not what got me down the most about Midwestern winters, it was the endless gray overcast days. It was depressing.
Here we have 300+ days of sunshine a year. It occasionally snows in the winter, but usually not more than an inch or two. Then the sun comes out and it melts away by noon. The mountains get a lot of snow, so I can drive up there in an hour, enjoy winter sports and drive back where it’s sunny and 40 when I’m done.
We get all four seasons but no extreme weather. It got into the 90s in the Midwest but had very high humidity and that’s what made it so uncomfortable. I’ve found a climate that suits me very well and I have no intention of ever moving away.
