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Cities that are hot and humid in the summer and freezing cold with snow and sleet in the winter are the worst. Chicago comes to mind. Buffalo and Bostons' summers I find much more pleasant. Houston's summers are the worst but late fall, winter and early spring are quite pleasant imo. But Buffalo has more snow than anybody and last so much longer. Its Buffalo followed by Chicago and Minneapolis for me.
Cities that are hot and humid in the summer and freezing cold with snow and sleet in the winter are the worst. Chicago comes to mind. Buffalo and Bostons' summers I find much more pleasant. Houston's summers are the worst but late fall, winter and early spring are quite pleasant imo. But Buffalo has more snow than anybody and last so much longer. Its Buffalo followed by Chicago and Minneapolis for me.
Not that I want Minneapolis to be #1 in this poll, but it's just as hot/humid as Chicago and moreso than Boston or Buffalo, and obviously colder too, but the cold air is actually much drier than Buffalo, Boston or Chicago, which actually makes it more tolerable IMO. The way I look at polls like these is to measure the "comfortable weather" in terms of months of duration ("comfortable being 55-60 to 80-90 degrees).
Off the top of my head:
-Chicago (April, May, June, July, August, September, October)
-Minneapolis (April, May, June, July, August, September, October)
-Boston (April, May, June, July, August, September, October)
-Buffalo (April, May, June, July, August, September, October)
-Houston (January, February, March, April, October, November, December)
All have 7 months with avg. high readings within that "comfortable" range. All have extremes on either side of that range that make living in those places undesirable. Some are drier or more humid on average. Some are sunnier/cloudier on average. Some have more/less severe weather phenomena. In the end, it comes down to this: pick your poison!
Location: Baghdad by the Bay (San Francisco, California)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by feufoma
Houston is on a bay though. That's coastal.
Kind of. The climate in Galveston, which is actually on the Gulf, is a bit better than Houston's, though not much. The Gulf water is warm, so it doesn't do much to moderate Galveston's heat. It's breezes do seem to counter the effects of humidity, though.
Houston, on the other hand is really too far inland to get much relief in the form of Gulf breezes. The weather is more influenced by frontal systems and that ever present humidity (or Houmidity, if you prefer). And yes, it sucks. It's almost as if bad elements from all weather scenarios come together in Houston:
It's near water, so humidity is high, but too far to really get breezes
Continental frontal systems push in and destabilize the air, making violent storms pop up when it's really hot
It's usually topping out in the 90s only, but the intense humidity amplifies the heat
It also makes cold days seem colder
Even welcome relief from showers turns the air steamy
The point is, you can't just look at the air temperature or the average temperature in Houston. A 95 degree day is more brutal than a 102 day in Dallas. Severe thunderstorms that push the average temps downward don't really make life more bearable, they just go on the books to lower the average.
This is not to overblow things, though. Houston gets a few nice weeks in front of and behind the long summer, which lasts from late June through September and is pretty brutal. Winters are wet, occasionally very stormy and sometime have come with ice storms, too. All in all, not the worst climate in America, but up there, for sure.
Kind of. The climate in Galveston, which is actually on the Gulf, is a bit better than Houston's, though not much. The Gulf water is warm, so it doesn't do much to moderate Galveston's heat. It's breezes do seem to counter the effects of humidity, though.
Houston, on the other hand is really too far inland to get much relief in the form of Gulf breezes. The weather is more influenced by frontal systems and that ever present humidity (or Houmidity, if you prefer). And yes, it sucks. It's almost as if bad elements from all weather scenarios come together in Houston:
It's near water, so humidity is high, but too far to really get breezes
Continental frontal systems push in and destabilize the air, making violent storms pop up when it's really hot
It's usually topping out in the 90s only, but the intense humidity amplifies the heat
It also makes cold days seem colder
Even welcome relief from showers turns the air steamy
The point is, you can't just look at the air temperature or the average temperature in Houston. A 95 degree day is more brutal than a 102 day in Dallas. Severe thunderstorms that push the average temps downward don't really make life more bearable, they just go on the books to lower the average.
This is not to overblow things, though. Houston gets a few nice weeks in front of and behind the long summer, which lasts from late June through September and is pretty brutal. Winters are wet, occasionally very stormy and sometime have come with ice storms, too. All in all, not the worst climate in America, but up there, for sure.
Not for me, personally. If it's 95 and humid with plenty of clouds, I'll take that over 102 with the sun on full blast.
Although New Orleans isn't directly on the coast, it is still on Lake Pontchartrain, which is basically an extension or bay off of the gulf of Mexico, so I can see how it could be widely thought of as a coastal city, even though it really isn't.
and lake Bourne, and the swamp to the south of the river is really salt water, therefore oceanmarsh, so New Orleans is surronded by ocean of 3 sides, is Coastal.
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