That’s the question.
Other than some family obligation, or a very well-paying job (two very good reasons), why do you stay where you are if you have the brutal winters and humid summers?
It’s (Southern England) where I was born and raised, I like it here. We sometimes get a lot of rain and wind, other times we get unbearable heatwaves. Variety is the spice of life.
I’d like to live somewhere that I could grow orange trees outdoors in my garden, but I think I’d miss that everything is always green here (there is no bare earth or anything approaching desert).
Also, there is no joy like the cessation of pain; coming out of a bleak, drab winter heightens my appreciation of being able to observe nature gradually coming to life, each day bringing something new to look at.
Music.
There’s lovely friendly people here, some beautiful landscapes and a generally laid-back atmosphere, but mainly it’s traditional Irish music and the scene around it which I’m completely addicted to. I’ve often rued how this particular hobby has fatally scuppered any plans to ever live in the sunshine. Sometimes I wish I was mad into, say, flamenco. 
DMark may I ask whether you have moved your permanent home because of the weather? (your location field is a little confusing)
Where is weather not crappy at least some of the time? I’ve lived on the Ctlantic coast, from FL to RI, in southern CA, in the midwest, on the Gulf coast - each place had good and bad weather. For me, there are more considerations than climatological when deciding where to live.
For the record, I’m about to leave Florida for Maryland, and the weather wasn’t a consideration at all.
Even in the tropics, it rains all the time.
I kind of like the winter, though. Being a nocturnal person, I really enjoy taking walks on a winter night when the air is cold and still.
But I do get sick of it after a while. Especially this year, where winter lasted about eight months.
When I’m rich, I’ll buy a weekend home on my own tropical island paradise.
I stay here because of family obligations AND a pretty well paying job. If it weren’t for them I would be so outta here.
I moved away from where the weather was crap.
“Today in L.A., it will be sunny and hot.” Yeah, just like it is every freakin’ day! I hated sweating while I started my bike. I hated not being able to sleep because it was 80° at night. Being a fan of weather events, I hated the monotony. So losing my job was a great opportunity to move where summer temperatures are much more comfortable, and where we can count on rain at least once a week.
There are places with worse weather than L.A. New Orleans in the summer is brutal. L.A.'s low humidity makes the heat easier to bear; but I still prefer a cool climate.
The only downside is that I can’t ride my bike as often.
I grew up in the Mediterranean region, where we have hot summers and mild winters. Then I spent most of the first 15 years of my adult life in the UK, and found the winters very miserable and heavy going, but enjoyed the summers immensely. My dream was always to ‘fly south’ for winter.
I fulfilled that fantasy when I was 35. I haven’t experienced winter since 1998-9. Where I live now, it is a little too hot and humid in the summer, so I fly north!
Money. lots of it and all tax free.
I’m in Northern Illinois, where the temperature varies in any given year from having wind chills at 30-40 below in the winter to having a heat index of 95-100+ during the summer. My ideal climate is very much Seattle like, or, perhaps, London-like. I’m not leaving, however, because I can’t afford to move somewhere else. And, even if I could, I’d have to put off grad school for another year to establish residency. So I’m stuck here for another couple of years.
We don’t really have bad weather here. It’s just something we say to keep the idiots out.
My wife’s family all live about a 1/2 hr. away. Austin’s not a bad place to live. The housing prices, while not the lowest, are reasonable compared to Ca. There is a great music scene, and lots of outdoors stuff to do. 100F weather in the Summer sucks though.
But damn, I miss Oxnard Ca. I spent 3 years there. I had an apartment right on the beach. 80F was an absolute heatwave there; mid-70’s was the rule. I’d ride my road bike all the time there. I’d ride up to Ventura and sometimes Santa Barbara. After work, I’d grab a bite at Neptune’s and head to the beach to unwind. Life was grand.
No way in hell I could afford my present house there, though. That, and a wonderful wife, are what keep me content in this oven I call home.
Because one person’s idea of “crap” is another person’s idea of “paradise.”
I grew up in an area that regularly gets 200+ inches of snow. Summer is a long time coming (especially this year - yesterday was beautiful, sunny, and 40 degrees. Brrrr! That was in the SUN, too.)
I spent 11 years in Colorado, which has some of the nicest weather in the country according to some. It’s pretty much always sunny and relatively warm. I could drive my convertable year round.
I moved back to MI because I found that I missed big winters and I missed the changing seasons. I like getting up every morning and looking out the window to see what the day will be like - in Colorado, I knew what each day would be like before I opened my eyes.
Winters are a quiet, mostly indoor time for me. I like that. I also like the outdoor part of them - snowshoeing through the woods. Skiing. Snowmobiling. Crisp winter nights with snow slowing coming down. Winter storms best watched from a warm room with a fireplace. I missed all this.
Summers can be cold, but they can be glorious as well. Rarely gets above 85 degrees, and when it does, if you’re too hot, head to the beach! Summer rainstorms are wonderful. Those not-so-hot days are the best for mountain biking or hiking.
To me, the weather here is GREAT. I suspect, though, that most people don’t agree with me on this one.
What crazy part of Colorado were you in? I’m in Colorado Springs and can definitely say we have all four very distinct seasons here, oftentimes all in the same week! Granted, it’s definitely a lot sunnier than where I grew up in nortwestern Illinois, but we still get our fair share of crazy weather. For example, last Saturday was 80 degrees and sunny, Sunday was 60 degrees and windy and partly cloudy, throughout the week the high temperatures varied from 40 to 65, and today I woke up to 3 inches of snow plastered on all sides of my car. Hardly boring with regard to weather events!
I grew up in NJ, so Chicago’s miserable weather is hardly anything new. And I don’t like the heat, so that doesn’t leave all that many places to move to. I would move, but now my husband is here and I have friends here, so it’s not as easy anymore to just pick up and leave.
You’ve got me there in one, friedo. Everyone complains about British weather but we get pretty mush every kind, save for hurricanes and the like. I can’t imagine having a beautiful summers day knowing that it won’t snow in the winter or that I wouldn’t be able to take a walk in a downpour again. (BTW I know the last one’s a little wierd but then so am I :p)
Because I love weather. All types of weather–freezing cold, snowy winters; grey and chilly springs; hot, humid summers; and warm lovely autumns. If I had to live in a place with no real seasons, I would go insane!
Oh yeah, and the musical theatre obsession kind of limits where I would live too.
Unfortunately, there’s nowhere in this country that the weather isn’t crap. It’s the sacrifice I make to live in the country I love.
I always say though that the only thing that would ever make me leave it is the weather.
Right now in Houston the weather is beautiful. It will be again in late fall. I try to overlook the few months where I can barely walk outside without collapsing from heat prostration.
Anyway, the people are friendly, the cost of living is cheap for a big city, the inner city is attractive and easy to get around, the mix of cultures is exciting, and I’m well paid.
As a native of Ohio, though, I miss the silence of the snow. Too bad it doesn’t know when enough is enough.