I’m here because of family and roots too. I’ve lived in Lexington for about seven years now, and I think the weather’s pretty nice. I’ve also lived in Cleveland, Detroit, Washington DC, and Laramie, Wyoming. All of those places have worse weather than does Lexington. Denver’s, Pueblo’s, Oakland’s, and Charlotte’s are probably all better (IMHO of course).
I guess if I were still living in Laramie, I’d have to answer the OP’s question ( Why Do You Live Where The Weather Is Crap? ) with “because nobody else does”. There’s lots of wide-open spaces. 7200 feet of altitude, unrelenting wind, ground blizzards, and days on end of subzero weather does tend to chase most folks back out. BTW, a “ground blizzard” is when the super-dry Wyoming snow gets lifted up off the ground by the wind and snows sideways. Sort of like a duststorm/sandstorm. The sun will be out, you can look straight up into deep blue skies, but all the roads are closed because there’s no visibility at ground level. FWIW, I loved living there too.
I’m surprised that anyone would think of the weather in New Jersey as “crap.” Some may think our winters are cold, but (at least in the coastal plain where I live) the weather hovers around freezing and almost never gets into the single digits. As a gardener, it’s great. They don’t call us the Garden State for nothing, yo. Our summers are humid and too hot for my tastes, but compared to places like Houston, they’re nothing. And there are non-humid days here and there. And those wonderful cold rainy days at the beach…ahhh. But I digress. Most places do have air conditioning, but it’s not like you can’t live without it. Going from air conditioned house to car to work sounds like “crap” to me! I like to be outside!. And our springs and falls are wonderful.
Sure, where I live the summers are 100+ F and the winters drop as low as -30 F. There’s snow and ice and hail and rain and, oh, yes, I’m on the north end of “tornado alley”. On the other hand, we DON’T have hurricaines, tsunamis, volcanos, hardly any poisonous vermin, and most of the wildlife hides when it hears us coming - no tigers stalking folks for dinner. We also have a distinct lack of malaria, guinea worms, and other tropical parasites.
Anywhere you choose to live there are good things and bad things. Having lived in the upper American Midwest all my life I’ve got good coping skills for the weather. Now, when I visited Arizona the idea of having to check my boots for scorpions prior to putting them on just blew my mind, at least at first. So yes, what you’re used to has an impact, too.
Truthfully, though, I think I’m one of those people who can be happy living just about anywhere given a little while to adapt
Now calm down, Maureen. I didn’t say that the Bay Area was Hell on Earth – I just said that the influx of people has lowered the quality of life from what it was previously. And I think most people would agree with that – I visited the area in both the early 80’s and the mid-90’s and there was a noticeable difference.
Real estate prices are still much higher in the Bay Area. I’ve compared notes with friends in the area. We both paid way too much for mediocre houses, but they got theirs on a lot that’s just big enough for them to walk around the house without trespassing on their neighbor’s property, and I got mine on four acres of land.
Anyway, I hold with my thesis. The OP asked why people don’t all move to where the weather is not “crap”. The answer is that a lot of people * do * move there. And competition for housing and jobs makes those areas expensive and crowded to the point where the weather is no longer the dominant factor in determining whether to move there.
Now, THIS is a fact. Once a week, the Chronicle has a column called “Surreal Estate,” talking about the travails of the outrageous Bay Area real estate market. One woman paid upward of half a mil for A CONDEMNED HOUSE. And then had it moved to the East Bay hills from the original nasty urban location for another $25,000. I feel pretty fortunate that I purchased my home before the boom really went insane.
[QUOTE=CrazyCatLady]
Hey, if you don’t like the weather in Kentucky, hang around a day or so. It’ll change.
Now that is the mantra of we hardcore Oregonians! Just when you think you can’t stand another rainy day, Viole’ the sun comes out, the birds start singing and all is well with the world! In the Summer when we get a bit warmer there is very little humidity so not too hard to take. Fall is gorgeous and Winter brings an occasional little skiff of snow just to keep the kids happy. Spring…well, it is admittedly rather moist
We live an hour from the beach (and our coastline is pretty spectacular) just over an hour from the mountains (sking, camping, hiking, etc.) and thirty minutes from the city with enough cultural happenings to keep you from turning into a turnip. Even though I whine about not having sun every day in the Winter, the truth is we live in a very special place. Life is good.
Southeast Alaska is temperate rainforest. Very little snow, quite wet, mild temperatures, very green.
South Central Alaska sits on the Japanese Current, so winters are wet, sometimes with moderate snowfalls, not a large accumulation, lots of green, summer temps up to low 80s (but generally in the 70s), winter generally around the teens to 20s, with dips to 10-20 below on occasion.
Prince William Sound area: Tons of snow in the winter, but generally climate like Southcentral.
Interior Alaska has more of what you would call ‘extremes’, with summer temps up into the 80s-90s and winter temps down to 40-50 below. Very dry climate, lots of skeeters, lots of forest fires, not a lot of snow.
Arctic Alaska seldom gets what most people would consider warm weather. Bitter cold in the winter, summer temps in the 40s to 50s, dry climate for the most part.
So yeah, the weather is extreme, but you have to travel large distances to find it.
Couldn’t agree more. I live in the sub-tropics, it never snows here, and rarely gets below 50 or over 100. BUt I love to go to Scotland and Ireland, and one of the big reasons is the weather.
Blue skies can get very boring. However, I acknowledge that visiting is different to living there.
Northern Illinoiser here. I enjoy about having 4 distict seasons. Yeah I gripe and moan about the freezing winters, and the HUMID summers, but I like all 4 seasons. It doesn’t seem like Christmas without snow, or The Fourth of July without humidity.
I grew up in the Bay Area and people in Chicago are always asking me why the hell I moved here.
Well, I couldn’t afford to live there, and I like it here. Chicago is a beautiful city full of friendly people (seriously, people here are really nice) with a reasonable cost of living and a thousand things to do. I just like it here. To me, the weather is hardly the most important factor in deciding where to live. The winter can be harsh, but it’s not as bad as people from warmer climates imagine (I swear to god, the first thing my mom said when I told her I was moving to the midwest was, “But it snows there!”) and it makes the springtime all that more wonderful. Chicagoans, wasn’t last weekend just unbelievably beautiful?
Also, summer thunderstorms. Thunderstorms are very rare in California and I LOVE them!
I’m not sure what would be considered “good” weather. I live in NYC, and I think the weather is fairly average. Cold in the winter, hot in the summer, damp in the spring and crisp in the fall.
However, I am from Buffalo, which is cold in the fall and spring, very cold in the winter, and humid and hot in the summer. Many people think this is terrible weather, I love it. That’s where I grew up and I guess that’s what I’m used to. My job is the only thing keeping us from moving back up there. We like it so much and visit so often that we bought a house in that area last year.
Is there such a thing as reverse seasonal depression disorder? I keep hearing about people in cloudy areas who have seasonal depression disorder from not seeing enough sun, but I swear I’m the reverse. If there are too many sunny days in a row, I get antsy and peckish. I long to be up in Western New York, where on a nice cloudy winter day, everything is gray.
All that keeps me here is a good job. There is a lot I don’t like about Detroit, and the weather is at the top of the list. Give me heat any day; at least heat isn’t going to kill me on the way to work like ice on the roads could.
Hey-we’ve got a “traditional” Irish bar downtown, and the same band plays the same songs the same way 4 nights a week.
It’s useful for getting nubile college girls to do the “Green Alligator”, anyway.
The best pub experience I had in Ireland was, I think, Kehoe’s in Kilmore Quay.
I complain about the weather here in the Twin Cities alot, but I wouldn’t leave it for anything. Like others here have stated, I like to see the seasons change. The growth of spring, the heat of summer, the leaves of fall, and the bitter winters. The winters here just makes you really appreciate summer when it comes. The only thing that would drive me away is the mosquitoes.
It can get VERY cold and snowy here, and it is quite a rural area. I wondered why anyone would live here for much of my life, but now that I am old enough to leave the place I can see why one would want to live here and I’m staying for at least a year in the area for college. I used to be very anti-cold weather when thinking about where I wanted to live, but places like Canada have a pull on me and the winters are nice/part of the feeling of the area.
So where is it least humid in the US? Based on these posts, I get the impression it’s west of the Rockies. I’ve lived in the South all my life and I HATE THE HUMIDITY!
Why do I live here? Lessee, small spiders, no earthquakes or hurricanes, lovely changing seasons. I like all those things. Were I to live where it has less of a winter (I won’t say “warmer;” Minnesota can get pretty damn hot), there would be larger spiders. I fear, hate, and loathe spiders. I will do what I can to avoid them. And I like winter.
Plus all of the other reasons: family, jobs, changes.
Plus, Minnesota’s winters keep the riff-raff out.
Snicks
