I am thinking about moving into the relative wilderness… I don’t really know where. Probably Alaska or Canada. I don’t want to be too remote, just someplace in the woods that is still easily accessible by roads.
I am looking for someplace where it is cool all the time. Preferably somewhere where the temperature year round ranges from around 30 degrees Farenheit to about 60 degrees Farenheit. Someplace where it never gets too hot, and hopefully the sun is not out very often (as in cloudy, not as in dark). However, I do like snow, so snow on occasion would be good.
Also: How far North would I have to go to not have to deal with snakes, spiders & ticks? I was walking through some weeds the other day in Ohio, and no less than 15 ticks jumped on me. I spent the next few days carefully combing though my clothes and hair repeatedly.
This is an interesting question. I’ll assume you’re in Ohio in the USA, since you use the Fahrenheit tempeatire scale and mention Ohio.
You say you wany a cool climate without extreme temperature swings. The British Isles sound good, actually.
My first thought was for you to move north. By going north through Canada you’d bring your average temperature down, but you wouldn’t lose the seasonal temperature variations. These might actually increase as you left the moderating influence of the Great Lakes and entered a more mid-continental climate. By the time you got near another large body of water that would moderate temperature changes, you’d be in the Arctic. So that won’t do.
Next thought: the west coast, with its mild climate. Still has problems with seasonal variations though, but if you pick and choose, you may find a good spot. You have from Baja to Alaska to choose from.
Perhaps the ocean side of the San Francisco peninsula? It’s dramatically cooler than the Valley cities, and much less populated. I suggest Boulder Creek.
Or mayve Vancouver Island or the Olympic Peninsula. If you pick your rainshadow right, you can be either damp or dry according to preference.
I believe that seasonal varaitions are least near the equator. What you’d need then is altitude. Perhaps partway up a mountain in the Hawaiian Islands? The Andes in Ecuador?
Sounds like the Pacific Northwest to me. Check out Northern Oregon, Washington, Northern Idaho, and British Columbia.
Just as a representative sample, the temperature in Seattle ranges from an average low of 35 in January and average high of 75 in July (perhaps a bit warm for your taste but keep in mind it’s an average high and the temperature usually drops to the mid 50s at night). Seattle’s also one of the cloudiest cities in the US; you rarely see a day without some clouds and the sky is often completely overcast for days at a time. Precipitation is relatively high (around 36 inches a year) but the rain is light and steady and most residents aren’t bothered by it. Snowfall is light (about 11 inches/year average) but if you move a little closer to the mountains you’ll get all the snow you can handle.
As for wildlife, the PNW has tons of harmless garter and gopher snakes but nothing poisonous or life-threatening. I can’t say much about spiders and ticks but I haven’t noticed them to be a problem.
I think pretty much anywhere that is far enough north to be nice and cool in the middle of summer is going to be bloody freezing in the middle of winter; somebody mentioned the British Isles (and OK, fair enough, we’re into August and it’s pissing with rain everywhere), but we do have hot spells here most summers (hot enough to melt the tarmac on the roads in many a year).
Anyway, being adjacent to the ocean helps to moderate the extremes of climate; maybe somewhere towards the bottom end of South America would be the best compromise
Is it possible for a place cool enough to have highs in the 60’s to have lows in the 30’s? Here lows often go below zero, and highs into the 90s(and the ticks and spiders plentiful. Few dangerous snakes though). I realize that the Northeast is known for having temperature extremes, so it’s not a good measure of temperature nomality, but aren’t most of the places in the world with the little variant between their highs and lows typically hot climates?
The higher on the mountainside you go, the cooler it gets. At the right altitude, you get the exact climate you want. Wanna have instant summer? Go downhill. Wanna go skiing? Some years there’s snow on the mountaintop year-round!