Minn has 4 seasons but the summer lasts what, 12 hours? 
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. 
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.
In the United States and Canada, there’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 Michigan’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 wasn’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.
Heh. Not me. I live here in spite of my relatives, not because of them.
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.
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 it’s so hot that decomposing bacteria can’t survive, so dead animals don’t even rot.
Also, to answer another poster: no I’ve never been to Wyoming. You seem to indicate that I’m missing out on a great thing, so I’ll have to check it out one day.
81? Rub it in why don’t ya? 
I’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 Christian’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. Don’t think I could take Bagdad’s 130’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 haven’t had a big one since ’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, I’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.
As my cousin found out on one of those chilly 85 degree days.
Or, what I should have said was that there’s relatively few places in the US and Canada, at least compared to Europe, where there’s not at least one extreme season, if not two.
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 hadn’t been that hot since 1994 or something. It’s rarely too hot to run in the summer, and we have practically a full 6 months of cross-country skiing, if you’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!
Short answer (as apollonia said already): everyone’s definition of “bad climate” is different. I absolutely detest super-hot weather. When the temperature hits 90 (F), I’m miserable: sweaty, lethargic, and grumpy. If I’m forced into 100-degree weather, I get heat headaches. When I get up in the morning and it’s 20 degrees (F), I’m good with just pulling on a robe and slippers to go outside and feed the horses or take out the garbage. If I’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 it’s 55 outside. She’d be perfectly happy in Tucson in August. A hundred degrees is comfy for her.
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. I’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 you’re not so keen on the weather. If there’s anyplace nicer than the Montana mountains in the springtime, I haven’t found it yet.
My Wife and I got home from Denver today where we saw temps of 90. At 4pm it was 45f outside. It’s a rainy day so that’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 40-50’s. If you are sitting on a deck you got it made.
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 “perfect” weather to freeze in the winter and broil in the summer.
There are, of course, a lot of other factors at work. It wasn’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 doesn’t snow there doesn’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 isn’t my most favorite place in the entire universe, it’s pretty cool and I’m just there for school and won’t be there forever. I know I could have gone to grad school in California if I’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 you’re like “when will this END?” but it’s not that big of a deal. Plus you get the beautiful falls and it’s fantastic in spring when the trees start budding and the crocuses start peeking up out of the ground. It’s actually summer that is my least favorite season. Humidity can bite me.
Living so far from my family does suck, though.
I’ve never lived outside of the Los Angeles area (farthest away was Riverside) but I’d assume that it’s because living here is expensive. Per this site, the median house in L.A. is $389,900…in Omaha, it’s less than half that. If we lived anywhere else in the country, we’d likely have bought a house by now.
I’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 doesn’t matter how many clothes I wear–I still freeze), and while snow can be pretty, you also end up with weeks of interminable monochrome–gray sky, gray lawns, gray streets, gray cars, gray buildings, gray people… The summers aren’t the greatest, either–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.
I’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). “Back home” is too hot for skirts: going to Scotland lets me have legs!
Actually, for really, really hot climates and specially if you’re white, what works best looks a lot like a burka… or for any color, lots of siestas.
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
I live in Chicago because this city is amazing. The weather sucks, my family is far away and I don’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 couldn’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 winter… but that’s just weather. It is what it is and I wouldn’t change it.
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.
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 hasn’t been hot or humid, particularly.