I think about this all the time, because I hate the climate where I live. The sun hardly shines from November through March, and then in April May and June it’s ass-freezing cold with vile winds blowing off of the lake.
But I stay, and I’ll probably die here. There are gazillions of jobs, especially in my industry (insurance). I don’t make friends easily, and it would kill me to leave the ones I have. And my parents (first my now-deceased father, and now my less-than-robust mother) need my help.
So I look for consolation–the bug- and allergy-free winters, and curling in winter, which is hard to find in warmer climates.
One of the big reasons I left Texas for NYC a few years ago was that Texas was goddamned HOT all the time, except when it was goddamned COLD. The hot and cold there aren’t even a fun hot or cold, either. Brown, dead, decaying flora and slick ice on the roads with no snow or anything to make up for it in the winter and ground so dry it cracks the foundation of your house in the summer were not appealing to me. I’ve lived in NYC for more than 2 years now and I still bound out of bed to the windows like a kid on Christmas Eve if it snows outside and dance through the park in joyous bursts as the fall leaves change color and fall around me. Summer here can get hot but at least it is only for a couple of months and even then it doesn’t get up to the 110 degrees that is so common in Texas summer months. Fewer bugs, more jobs, more stuff to do in your down time…I am only sad that I didn’t move here sooner!
I don’t know about that my dad was telling me that a fairly common occurrence in Basrah, Iraq is 110+ and enough humidity that when a dust storm rolls in it begins raining mud. I’m not sure what clothing is adequate for that besides huddling in doors.
Houston doesn’t get as cold as central & northern Texas; we haven’t had a hard freeze in years. And the high temp record here is 109. Although this summer is hotter than normal–we usually don’t get into the 3-digit temps until August. We’re a bit south of Tornado Alley but do get the occasional flood or hurricane. But my power came back on the day after Ike came through, so I won’t complain. We have many nice days in Spring & Fall–and quite a few in Winter.
But weather isn’t the only reason people live where they do. Jobs & things to do can be more important than perfect weather. Financial limitations & family obligations also affect many people.
I HATE HATE HATE the weather in Tucson, although a lot of people move there just for that fact. But the job is here, so until that changes… it’s 112 tomorrow.
I know. My parents stay in Texas because having lots of space and being near my grandparents is really important to them. I never said it was wrong to stay somewhere the weather sucks ass, just that the weather was a big part of my decision making process when I chose to move. I also love not having a car anymore and reading on the train when I go to and from work. That is another big reason I moved that isn’t related to the weather at all. I was just taking this moment to express the joy I’ve found at having 4 seasons each year and a summer that doesn’t last for 8 months and make me feel like I’m melting. Texas is a wonderful place and I have many, many loved ones that live there but it isn’t the place for me.
If you can stand it, you can work bad weather to your advantage. Most of my friends are recent university graduates and a surprising number have ended up in northern Alberta - surprising because none of them are from anywhere near there and none work in the oil industry. They are so desperate to get young people who would actually be willing to live up there that they’re all making big bucks.
And your lifestyle really revolves around your climate, too. I moved from southern Ontario, with cold-ish winters and hot sticky summers to Victoria, BC, which has the best weather in Canada - mild all year round and reasonably sunny. And I don’t like it much at all, because all the little things I’m used to, the patterns of everyday life, are different here. There’s no coming in out of the snow and sitting in front of a fire with hot chocolate, and, what I miss the most, no evenings on the patio in the summer enjoying the only time of day when it’s not too hot to be outside. I really miss 35 degree days, which I never thought I would.
As troll (not the internet kind), I have to agree with all of these sentiments. Our main difference is we don’t have quite the same extremes as the upper peninsula, but other than that, Michigan is really the most varied, beautiful state that there is (and I’ve been all over the place). Unfortunately I live in SE Michigan, which means my daily life takes place in an area that’s 95% paved.
Well, now I’ve got to speak up on behalf of Tucson. Everyone complains about the heat, but there are places all over the Southwest that get much hotter (like Phoenix), plus there’s not much humidity most of the time. Besides the somewhat high temperatures, Tucson weather really has no extremes–especially nice is that we have no natural disasters. Then there are the little things, like the fact that every sunset is colorful, and that the rain smells so damn good.
10 years ago, my SO had several potential employers, all over the US, talking to him. We talked about it long and hard, and even visited a couple of areas. For us, it came down to wanting to be where our friends and family are. California, Boston and Georgia all lost out to Minnesota. What good was California weather if everyone we wanted to be around was 2000 miles away?
I live in Florida. My family lives in Florida. My husband’s family lives in Florida. Our jobs are here, our hobbies are here (my husband fishes for a fish that’s only found in the very warm waters.) Our jobs are here.
I can put up with impossible temperatures for a few months out of the year–by my reckoning, October through about May are quite nice.
I don’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 guess I probably qualify as someone living in place with bad climate, but everything really is relative. Calgary would be far too cold for six months of the year for most of you, but I’m from Saskatoon which is much colder, and it’s been wonderful for me to live someplace with milder winters.
Why do I live in Western Canada? Pretty simply because that’s where I’m from. My ancestors moved to Saskatchewan for religious freedom (they are Mennonites), and once you get a family established somewhere, you just get used to what you have. I don’t like heat (and Calgary summers are almost perfect), and I tolerate cold very well, so I have no particular impetus to leave.
Again, depends on your definition of "bad weather. Alabama is legendary for its high heat and extreme humidity during the summer. But when most people are wilting in a 100 degree day with 85% humidity, I’m outside playing, happy as a sweaty little clam.
It’s what you are used to. Some comedienne had the classic line about Norwegians moving to Minnesota
“They traveled for thousands of miles, thru incredible hardships, until they found the one place on earth that was just as fucking miserable as the place they left.”
Insofar as I grew up, it was in Wisconsin, and now I live in Minnesota. I like having four seasons. How could I survive a year without autumn?
