Has anyone moved from SoCal or a place with a similar/warm climate? (Chicago: 2009, how much)

[sharkylittleton]

There is a romantic notion associated with winter, and Christmas in Chicago won't let you down. A light 30deg windless flurry of snow coupled with a walk down Michigan Ave or a quiet city side street during Christmas season is pure joy. And then it gets cold, which is a different story.

[NYrules]

Originally Posted by jessemh431

So I have never visited Chicago but I think I will like it. I wanna apply to Northwestern and if I like Chicago and get accepted, that's where I wanna go. However, I am scared about winter. I am quite tolerant of extreme temperatures, but I hope I can handle it there. Has anyone moved from a place like SoCal, Arizona, etc. to Chicago? How have you handled the winter?

I came from Escondido 1990-1991, so trust me I know what you will be going through. With Chicago, it's not the cold that is the problem, it's the extended doom and gloom of continual cloudy weather kind of like Portland or Seattle's weather all winter long and the aggravation of having a large body of basically ice water right next to the city here keeping temperatures from February through June 1 sometimes as much as 30 degrees cooler than areas only 40 miles inland on days where winds are coming out of an easterly direction.

Perfect example, Mother's day decided to take mom out for a nice day of shopping at Old Orchard Mall in Skokie. Left the southern burbs where temps were 74 under partly cloudy skies. Got up to Skokie and it was still about 66 with winds blowing more northerly. Went into Cheescake Factory to eat and came back out only 2 hours later to now winds howling out of the northeast with temps now at 44! Talk about a shock! Well, needless to say, neither of us were planning on that happening so neither of us were dressed for it, so we left and headed back to the southern burbs. We arrived back at mom's house at 6PM only an hour after leaving Skokie with it 44 degrees to get out of the car and find out that on the south side temps were still up in the upper 60s! That is what life in Chicago is like. The city is loaded with micro climates where each little area is subjected to different weather. Far southern burbs get little snow (maybe 24-34 inches on average per year) and warmer weather starts in late March (upper 50s during the day), whereas northern burbs (Lincolnshire, Algonquin, Skokie, Gurnee) are subjected to very snowy winters (40"+ per season) and warm weather typically does not get going until first week of May thanks to continual winds off 35 degree waters. Best advice, if you are not looking forward to harsh winters, move as far inland as you can. Inland areas still get very cold in Dec-Feb, but when spring is supposed to start, it actually does vs. having to deal with winds off the lake keeping temps at best in the mid 40s until first week of May.

Last bit of advice, get yourself an AWD car or SUV if you are not used to driving in snow. The new cars with ESC and AWD handle the snow like champs. It's really amazing to be honest how far cars have come.

[long101]

Originally Posted by NYrules

Last bit of advice, get yourself an AWD car or SUV if you are not used to driving in snow. The new cars with ESC and AWD handle the snow like champs. It's really amazing to be honest how far cars have come.

haha if you park on the street awd is king. This last winter I was in heaven when I saw my neighbors shoveling their cars and trucks out for hours. Then I just walk outside and drive right out.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by 4eversearching

Chicago and MN are, by far, the coldest places in the Midwest.

I don't particularly like Chicago's winters either, but this is a ridiculous statement. I'd say about 1/3 or the midwest has winters worse than Chicago's, including all of Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Iowa, and much of Michigan, etc. Minneapolis is on the colder side of winter weather (I'd say they have another month of winter over Chicago), but some of the cities in the northern portion of the great lakes have four feet of snow on the ground all winter long, and Minneapolis surely doesn't. Minneapolis winters are worse than Chicago winters, but neither is anywhere close to the coldest or snowiest.

[mr aztec]

Spent 7 years in San Diego. It took about 3-4 years to grow on me, but I would have trouble giving up a lot of what Chicago has to offer. Overall, I would prefer the west coast, but Chicago summers are by far the best--the engergy is contagious. If you are coming for school, ditch your car, and try to catch a month or two of the summer before your first year. One thing I did find suprising, I was expecting the cost of living in Chicago to compare to much of the Midwest in general, but was shocked to find out that Chicago wasn't that much different than San Diego. Real Estate doesn't differ too much and salaries in Chicago are slightly higher ("sunshine effect" I suppose.).

[4eversearching]

Lookout kid, trust me. I've actually lived all around the Midwest and Chicago and Minnesota are the coldest. Maybe WI, but I know for a fact that Iowa is a little warmer. It gets brutal there too on some days, but not as many days and the winters are much shorter in Iowa. Also, unlike Chicago, Iowa actually has a spring and it's very pretty in spring.

[NYrules]

Originally Posted by long101

haha if you park on the street awd is king. This last winter I was in heaven when I saw my neighbors shoveling their cars and trucks out for hours. Then I just walk outside and drive right out.

I have my Lexus AWD SUV with ESC and all last winter while I was driving I was like, "Its snowing? I didn't even realize that, I'll just warm up here and relax in my heated seats while everyone else is scared S-less in their little S-boxes sliding all over the place and getting stuck at all the red lights" LOL! The technology in that SUV is amazing with how it won't let itself slide, it stops great, and it's actually challenging to try to get it stuck, so like you said, after the plow would come by and block my garage with a snow pile basically bumper height, my neighbors would have to shovel themselves out, I would just throw on the snow button, put it in drive and just go right over the snow like nothing. LOL I loved seeing how pissed my neighbors were that I could just get right out like that, while they were farting around trying to get their Neons and Focuses out. LOL! This is Chicago folks, you need a vehicle that can handle our weather because it can be challenging at times. Little cars 3 inches off the ground just won't work here. This is truck and SUV country here.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

I don't particularly like Chicago's winters either, but this is a ridiculous statement. I'd say about 1/3 or the midwest has winters worse than Chicago's, including all of Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Iowa, and much of Michigan, etc. Minneapolis is on the colder side of winter weather (I'd say they have another month of winter over Chicago), but some of the cities in the northern portion of the great lakes have four feet of snow on the ground all winter long, and Minneapolis surely doesn't. Minneapolis winters are worse than Chicago winters, but neither is anywhere close to the coldest or snowiest.

Well I'm thinking that poster must be up in MN. He/She stated it's starting to warm a little, and still around the 50's currently. I looked at the almanac and Chicago's only failed to make it into the 60's/70's/80's three times in the past 4 weeks. This weekend was the coldest in weeks, with us only making it up to 60 or so. I actually thought it felt warmer than it was. I was outside all weekend and had a blast.



I'd agree with you on the Midwest though. I grew up in Iowa for 22 years, and the winters are almost exaclty like Chicago, although it does get slightly colder in Iowa...but in spring tends to be 3-5 degrees warmer than Chicago.

[MassVt]

..exaggerations, as Chicago is certainly not the coldest place on earth during the winter.Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, northern New England, etc are all colder, and in many cases (in the Northeast) snowier than Chicago. You will certainly need a sturdy winter coat for Chicago's winters, along with a wool hat and gloves/mittens, but you'll be fine.

Think of it in another context: if you think that eventually you'll return to the West Coast, why not try something different for a few years? Going away for college is a great time to experiment and try a new environment. Besides, if/when you return, you can scare your LA friends with apocryphal stories about Chicago winters for years to come, with the tales becoming more ridiculous with every passing year. ( Ex. the windchill was minus-30 degrees, there was a foot of snow on the ground, and they didn't even cancel school, etc....)

[CarolinaBredChicagoan]

Originally Posted by 4eversearching

Lookout kid, trust me. I've actually lived all around the Midwest and Chicago and Minnesota are the coldest. Maybe WI, but I know for a fact that Iowa is a little warmer. It gets brutal there too on some days, but not as many days and the winters are much shorter in Iowa. Also, unlike Chicago, Iowa actually has a spring and it's very pretty in spring.

This doesn't make any sense. MN, WI, Northern MI... These places are ALL colder than Chicago. ND. SD. Colder. Iowa? About on par with Chicago. The property of continentalism would suggest that since Iowa is farther removed from the moderating effects of a large body of water, it'd be colder in the winter. I'd like to see some data.... I could see Southern Iowa being warmer, but northern Iowa? As Iowa SHARES A BORDER with the OTHER place you called the COLDEST in the region... are you suggesting that Northern Iowa is temperate and comfortable and Southern MN is frigid?

Come on.