# Why do people live in places with bad climate? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 10, 2009, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543 "2009-07-10T12:01:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/61 "2009-07-10T21:18:42Z")
Minn has 4 seasons but the summer lasts what, 12 hours? šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/62 "2009-07-10T21:22:56Z")
> [@Shamozzle](#): > > I donā€™t know about that. Winters in Toronto tend to be punishing and the summers, while hot, are very humid and sticky. Contrast this with the West Coast (Vancouver, Victoria), where summers are quite pleasant and winters, while wet and rainy, are very mild compared to the rest of the country. Scooter and motorcycle use is not uncommon on, say, Christmas Day. This would be unthinkable pretty much anywhere else in the entire country. I live in Toronto, and sometimes I think it has the worst possible weather - all the fun of too cold in the winter _and_ too hot and humid in the summer. šŸ˜ƒ OTOH, there are days (particularly in the early fall) when the weather is absolutely perfect, and the beauty of the southern Ontario forests are unmatched. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/63 "2009-07-10T23:40:56Z")
In the United States and Canada, thereā€™s not too many places where the temperature is more-or-less comfortable throughout the year, interrupted only by mildly-cold or mildly-hot winters. The very limited areas with a Mediterranean climate have an extremely high cost of living. Areas in the Rocky Mountains with plentiful sunshine, comfortable summers and winters on the milder side (compared to other cold-climate cities, that is) are remote. Why do people still tolerate the climate in Buffalo, which has the gloomy skies of the of the Pacific Northwest and the UK, and winter cold and snow with a world-wide reputation for its brutality? Inertia. Buffalo was established where it was not because of its climate, but because of its location at a break-in-bulk point ideally located between the natural resources of the Midwest (farms, iron mines in Michiganā€™s Upper Peninsula), the large markets of the Northeast Corridor, and energy resources (Niagara Falls in the back yard, coal in West Virginia). In the day, it was an ideal place to put a factory. Weather wasnā€™t considered in the robber barons or industrialists of the area, but rather the most economical location to make steel and widgets, given the high cost of transportation in that era. Why do people stay there? Because their family and friends are there. In fact, many expats are struggling to return to Buffalo, despite the climate and Rust Belt vibe. Summer and fall weather in Buffalo is spectacular; sunny, mild, and a constant light breeze. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2009, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/64 "2009-07-11T03:15:05Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > Why do people stay there? Because their family and friends are there. Heh. Not me. I live here in spite of my relatives, not because of them. ---
**Author:** ![Victory\_Candescence](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Victory\_Candescence](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Victory_Candescence)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2009, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/65 "2009-07-11T14:55:04Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > There are a few places where the temperature can get up to 130+ degrees. Not sure what would constitute adequate clothing for those places. I suppose you eventually reach a point where being completely naked in the shade is still too hot, and you need to switch over to some kind of liquid-cooled NASA astronaut suit. šŸ™‚ Bonus fact: The Dasht-e Lut desert in Iran has hit a surface temperature of 159 F (70 C). I remember reading somewhere (too lazy to google it now, but it was an unreliable source anyway) that itā€™s so hot that decomposing bacteria canā€™t survive, so dead animals donā€™t even rot. Also, to answer another poster: no Iā€™ve never been to Wyoming. You seem to indicate that Iā€™m missing out on a great thing, so Iā€™ll have to check it out one day. ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/66 "2009-07-11T15:32:20Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > One of the main reasons we moved away from Texas was the heat- after living there most of our lives, snow has taken on a fairytale property. Weā€™ve been back to visit once or twice, and as soon as I stepped off the plane I remembered exactly why I left. > > My family told me it hit 107 the other day in Austin. It made me really enjoy the 81 degrees we had here. 81? Rub it in why donā€™t ya? šŸ˜› Iā€™m in Wichita Falls, and I curse my grandparents almost every day for choosing this place. Because of relatives here, and my business is why I stay. But it does get hotter than a Christianā€™s Hell. 109 Thursday. 108 Friday. Expecting the same all week. Most school teachers and others than can get out do so in the summer, by heading to the Colorado mountains. I can take our heat though. Donā€™t think I could take Bagdadā€™s 130ā€™s for long. Not sure how our soldiers survived it with all of that gear, and the sun bearing down on you. When I hear of those temperatures, I stop complaining. Despite the heat, our summers have some advantages. Generally the higher the temperature, the lower the humidity. Mosquitoes are pretty much fried, along with other annoying pesky insects. No major natural disasters to deal with except tornados which again generally occur in the spring, but we havenā€™t had a big one since ā€™79. The wind finally stops blowing like hell. 30 mph plus winds are very common in the spring, with some days expect sustained winds of 50 mph or more. That drives me more crazy than anything else. So all in all, Iā€™ll still take our summer over spring. And our winters are quite mild, and rarely do we have to deal with any bad road conditions. Maybe a couple of days out of the year, and that is it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2009, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/67 "2009-07-11T18:43:07Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Thereā€™s no such thing as bad weather, just inadequate clothing. As my cousin found out on one of those chilly 85 degree days. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/68 "2009-07-11T18:48:34Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > In the United States and Canada, thereā€™s not too many places where the temperature is more-or-less comfortable throughout the year, interrupted only by mildly-cold or mildly-hot winters. Or, what I should have said was that thereā€™s relatively few places in the US and Canada, at least compared to Europe, where thereā€™s not at least one extreme season, if not two. ---
**Author:** ![Jenny\_Linsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Jenny\_Linsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenny_Linsky)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/69 "2009-07-11T18:51:23Z")
It really is subjective. I moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to interior Alaska, and I like it better here. Sure, those two weeks with an average temperature of -40 last winter kinda sucked, but when it broke 90F this week, it broke a couple records. The newspaper said it hadnā€™t been that hot since 1994 or something. Itā€™s rarely too hot to run in the summer, and we have practically a full 6 months of cross-country skiing, if youā€™re into that sort of thing. Plus, our economy is tanking. . . less quickly than many other places, and I have a nice government job and a cabin with a yard and raspberry bushes. Plus, 6 months of _no bugs at all_! ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/70 "2009-07-11T19:00:49Z")
Short answer (as **apollonia** said already): everyoneā€™s definition of ā€œbad climateā€ is different. I absolutely detest super-hot weather. When the temperature hits 90 (F), Iā€™m miserable: sweaty, lethargic, and grumpy. If Iā€™m forced into 100-degree weather, I get heat headaches. When I get up in the morning and itā€™s 20 degrees (F), Iā€™m good with just pulling on a robe and slippers to go outside and feed the horses or take out the garbage. If Iā€™m going hiking, 55 degrees is a perfect temperature. Working outside at zero degrees (F) just requires having the right clothes. There _ARE_ no right clothes for working in 90-degree heat. My sister-in-law, on the other hand, wears a down coat when itā€™s 55 outside. Sheā€™d be perfectly happy in Tucson in August. A hundred degrees is comfy for her. > [@Victory\_Candescence](#): > > Personally, I live near NYC because thatā€™s where the jobs are and itā€™s near family and friends, but Iā€™m not sure how you would justify, say, Wyoming. I was born in New York (a couple of hours outside NYC), and I currently live in Montana, not too far from the Wyoming border. Iā€™d say the climate is _much_ better here. The other factor is that you may _love_ the weather in a certain place during your favorite season, and that makes it worth putting up with the season(s) when youā€™re not so keen on the weather. If thereā€™s anyplace nicer than the Montana mountains in the springtime, I havenā€™t found it yet. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/71 "2009-07-12T02:41:34Z")
> [@Jenny\_Linsky](#): > > It really is subjective. I moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to interior Alaska, and I like it better here. Sure, those two weeks with an average temperature of -40 last winter kinda sucked, but when it broke 90F this week, it broke a couple records. The newspaper said it hadnā€™t been that hot since 1994 or something. Itā€™s rarely too hot to run in the summer, and we have practically a full 6 months of cross-country skiing, if youā€™re into that sort of thing. > > Plus, our economy is tanking. . . less quickly than many other places, and I have a nice government job and a cabin with a yard and raspberry bushes. Plus, 6 months of _no bugs at all_! My Wife and I got home from Denver today where we saw temps of 90. At 4pm it was 45f outside. Itā€™s a rainy day so thatā€™s not a surprise. We rarely break 80f at our house here at altitude. Though the sun is a bit like a laser. 60-70 in the summer. But what is strange, In January in the middle of white and 30 feet of snow on the ground, you can wear shorts. The sun is so hot with the reflecting snow that the air gets up in the 40-50ā€™s. If you are sitting on a deck you got it made. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/72 "2009-07-13T07:02:00Z")
I grew up in the Bay Area and moved to the Midwest when I was in my twenties (three years in Chicago, two years and counting in SE Michigan). People in both places regularly register disbelief that I would intentionally leave somewhere with ā€œperfectā€ weather to freeze in the winter and broil in the summer. There are, of course, a lot of other factors at work. It wasnā€™t a big deal when I lived in Chicago because I LOVE Chicago and will put up with a lot to live there. I grew up in a dull suburb and the fact that it doesnā€™t snow there doesnā€™t exactly count for very much when matched against the awesomeness that is Chicago, snowy winters, humid summers, crazy people on the el and all. Now I live in Michigan and while Ann Arbor isnā€™t my _most_ favorite place in the entire universe, itā€™s pretty cool and Iā€™m just there for school and wonā€™t be there forever. I know I could have gone to grad school in California if Iā€™d wanted, but there was no fucking way I was paying out-of-state tuition to go to school in a state where I lived for twenty-two years, just on principle. And I like snow! Yeah, it gets tiresome come March and youā€™re like ā€œwhen will this END?ā€ but itā€™s not that big of a deal. Plus you get the beautiful falls and itā€™s fantastic in spring when the trees start budding and the crocuses start peeking up out of the ground. Itā€™s actually summer that is my least favorite season. Humidity can bite me. Living so far from my family does suck, though. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/73 "2009-07-13T09:01:59Z")
Iā€™ve never lived outside of the Los Angeles area (farthest away was Riverside) but Iā€™d assume that itā€™s because living here is _expensive_. Per [this site](http://www.housingtracker.net/), the median house in L.A. is $389,900ā€¦in Omaha, itā€™s less than half that. If we lived anywhere else in the country, weā€™d likely have bought a house by now. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/74 "2009-07-13T19:12:36Z")
Iā€™ve lived most of my life in \*\*Milwaukee \*\*(the only exceptions being a summer in northern California in high school and a semester in Tokyo in college). Over a quarter century, and I still hate-\*hate-\*\*hate \*\*\*the winters here. I freeze for months (and no, it doesnā€™t matter how many clothes I wearā€“I still freeze), and while snow can be pretty, you also end up with weeks of interminable monochromeā€“gray sky, gray lawns, gray streets, gray cars, gray buildings, gray peopleā€¦ The summers arenā€™t the greatest, eitherā€“often hot and muggy with too many bugs. I stay because: a.) Some of my best friends still live here; b.) I have pretty much the best-paying job I could get with nothing more than a B.A. in English, and not only that, but I work with amazing people; c.) Milwaukee is actually pretty cool these days (music, food, culture, etc.); and d.) I have family here. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/75 "2009-07-13T19:21:11Z")
> [@Busy\_Scissors](#): > > Scotland wouldnā€™t be high on many peopleā€™s appealing climate list, but I love it. Four seasons and no extremes of hot or cold, day to day. You can get the extremely cold out in the hills, but youā€™ll never get to feel real heat. South Eastern Scotland is dry for the UK, so enough rain to make things interesting but not enough to make you feel deluged. Iā€™ve only experienced it for a year, but for me it was better than the climate in the Spanish town where my family lives (except when there was Too Much Snow Everywhere). ā€œBack homeā€ is too hot for skirts: going to Scotland lets me have legs! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/76 "2009-07-13T19:38:26Z")
> [@Spiff](#): > > Yes, but for excessive cold, you can get comfortable by adding layers. > > For excessive wet, you put on a slicker. > > For excessive heat, you take off layers, but after you reach bare skin, you canā€™t do any more. A summer in Houston would be unbearable for me, even if I were nekkid all the time.\* > > Thatā€™s why I live in the northern U.S. ā€“ Minnesota. Here I can deal with the cold with proper clothing choices. > > - BTW, Iā€™m a nudist, so Iā€™m nekkid a lot, but only nekkid outdoors in the Minnesota summertime. šŸ™‚ Actually, for really, really hot climates and specially if youā€™re white, what works best looks a lot like a burkaā€¦ or for any color, lots of siestas. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/77 "2009-07-13T19:54:16Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Tell me about your _dreadfully_ hot, sticky summers, Ontarioans. I find that the weather is all over the place , not that I expect nature to be repetitive but I dont find those really hot muggy summers any more, couple of days here and there. Same with the winter, some years we are getting snow almost daily , and other years outside of January, its almost non-existent. Declan ---
**Author:** ![Sudo\_Intellectual](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sudo\_Intellectual](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudo_Intellectual)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/78 "2009-07-13T21:53:25Z")
I live in Chicago because this city is amazing. The weather sucks, my family is far away and I donā€™t particularly love the job that I have. (Although I am very grateful to have one). But this city is freaking fantastic. I grew up in San Diego, went to college in Los Angeles and you couldnā€™t pay me to go back. Yes the weather in California is better, but I never appreciated it. One thing about Chicagoans, we take advantage of EVERY beautiful day. As soon as it hits 50 the lakefront is filled with people. I love that. I am convinced the reason they have so much that goes on in the summer time here, is to make everyone forget the long boring winter. So yes, there are many days when I have to wear 3 pairs of pants in order to walk outside for more than 4 seconds, and yes it has rained every other day this summer so far, and yes the ice is SUPER fun to dig my car out of in winterā€¦ but thatā€™s just weather. It is what it is and I wouldnā€™t change it. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/79 "2009-07-14T04:16:56Z")
Having lived in the northern parts of Vermont and the hot and humid midwest and deep South, I will take the hot/humid over the cold of Vermont. Any time. But if there was no A/C, I think I would choose Vermont. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543/80 "2009-07-14T13:35:59Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I have heard similar complaints from other Ontario residents. As someone who used to live in the Houston area, my reaction is generally :dubious::D. > > Tell me about your _dreadfully_ hot, sticky summers, Ontarioans. I think in part it is the contrast. No doubt the summers are not hot and humid by Houston standards, but there is a lot of variance up here between icy cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Mind you, so far this summer hasnā€™t been hot or humid, particularly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-live-in-places-with-bad-climate/502543.md?page=5)