The pit thread wherein everyone bitches about the weather where they are got me thinking about how miserable I am for half the year. So I’m soliciting your opinions on which state I should move to.
I’m currently in Michigan, and while the fall and spring are grand, winter is disgusting and the summers aren’t all that great, either. I want to live somewhere that is a lovely 65-75 most of the year. Maybe a day or two of 85 so I can take the dogs swimming and a few snowfalls but not the evil gray slush that is February-March here. I get downright depressed each winter but also hate the scorching sun and humidity is a disaster for my skin.
I’m a liberal feminist vegan with tattoos and piercings, so I think I’d be out of place in red states, but that’s just a guess? I like diversity in both my community and my entertainment. I don’t have, or plan to have, kids, so schools and such aren’t a factor.
Ideally I’d be within a day’s drive of lower Michigan, as my family is here.
The reality is I’m probably going to buy in Hamtramck in the next year, but if my fantasy location exists I’d set my sights on it instead.
The coastal communities of Southern California come pretty close to what you are looking for. I live just south of Los Angeles and we consider anything above 80 degrees to be hot. Winter time temps are usually over 65 degrees.
San Francisco. It has an ideal climate that is fairly constant year round, and people won’t look at you funny because you look funny. The cost of living might be a problem, though.
NC gets pretty hot’n’heavy during the summers, and there’s maybe 2 weeks of winter in February, but when I visited it’s downtown, the crowd there is surprisingly liberal (lots of dreds, funky shops, tats, gauges, etc.)
Weather wise I think it’ll skew a bit hot to what you were talking about, but it’s no where NEAR those midwest winters, plus it’s probably 13-15 hours from Michigan. The time is a guess, but I was 10 from Northern Indiana, and we aren’t THAT far from Mich.
ETA: I have no idea the difference between a red or a blue state since I pay literally zero attention to that stuff
Hawaii has the perfect climate. It even snows up on Mauna Kea on the Big Island. And there’s not much humidity, as it pretty much gets blown away by the Trade Winds.
I live in Oregon and you’re basically describing our weather. It get’s hotter than 85 in the summer (sometimes), but it’s very dry and yeah, most people don’t have or need A/C.
The downside is that the winters are wet. Mild, but wet. Lots of rain. Snows in the mountains and east of the Cascades, but Portland, Olympia, Seattle/Tacoma… basically rains during the winter.
Additionally, Portland is very liberal and not being a liberal feminist vegan with tattoos and piercings would be out of place. The rural areas of Oregon and Washington (and California, for the most part) are very conservative, the urban areas very liberal. Like Texas.
I think weather-wise, the Bay Area or San Francisco fits your description to a T—or as previously mentioned, Hawaii.
Awesome, thanks for all of the replies! California is appealing, although the cost of living scares me. It’s farther away from my folks than I’d like to be, but if I live somewhere great they’ll want to come visit! Especially in January
Mind if I ask why you’re moving there? Work? Or just the pretty ladies?
Oh no, you’re not keeping me away that easily. You’d have to tell me about giant bugs or $27 coffees or the annual elephant slaughter or something to really deter me.
"… 65-75 most of the year. Maybe a day or two of 85 so I can take the dogs swimming and a few snowfalls…
I live in coastal Humboldt County, California, some miles south of the Eureka area. Your ideal scenario describes the weather here rather accurately. Housing costs are far lower than the S.F. Bay area but other living costs are about the same. It has snowed once in 21 years and lasted two days. Spring and Fall are best, winter has perhaps 5 frost days per year and summer temps might reach 85 degrees if the breeze dies on a sunny day. Again, this is within 10 miles of the coast and depends on exact location. Our mountainous terrain makes many microclimates.
Adequate but not overwhelming rain. If overcast weather is a big deal then perhaps not a place for you. We’re not Seattle but neither are we Los Angeles. And we certainly are rural. If you don’t want a small town, don’t live in Humboldt, except for Eureka or Arcata “metro.”
We just moved to the Puget Sound area, mostly for the weather but also for the awesome culture. I’m well familiar with the Michigan-Indiana-Illinois part of the world, having lived there for thirty years. People up here are way friendlier and the weather, mein gott! the weather. It’s (checks calendar) July 24, and I had to sleep in sweats last night. Days are gorgeous; topping out somewhere in the 70s with low humidity and plenty of sunshine.
I understand it will rain all winter, but I’ll happily take that over snow and ice.
As for A/C, I never had it in Hawaii. Few people need it. Again, those Trade Winds keep it nice and comfortable.
But if Hawaii is too far away, I lived in Albuquerque awhile, and that was ideal too albeit in a different way. Very dry. Very low humidity. It did get cold in the winter – I later learned that I’d experienced the coldest winter there in a long time – but it stays sunny most of the time. The state’s tourism board always likes to natter on about having 300 days of sunshine or 360 or some high number like that. I recall it was uncomfortably hot for a week to 10 days in the summer, then not so bad the rest of the season.
Indianapolis is a mix culturally (not ideal but a better fit than a lot of the midwest due to the differences of being in an urban area) and has shorter winters with less snow and cold. Columbus, OH might be an option just on the usual cultural skew of of more urban areas and also being far enough south to have shorter and less harsh winters. They are both midwest though.
Be careful of the band where you end up in winters that are mostly in the high 30’s and low 40’s though. I spent a winter near Louisville. It was brutal. In some ways I would have rather been home in Michigan. Instead of 25 and snowing at home it tended towards high 30s and rain. Cold and wet sucks more than a little colder and dry. The only advantage was the winter was shorter.
Small town isn’t a negative unless it’s so small that I can’t make a living! Overcast may be a deal breaker, though. Too many days without sunshine starts to wear me down.
I’ll buy the dogs hardhats!
Probably what I need to do is travel more and check out different communities!
