Where does it become "too cold" in the United States? (home, to live in)
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This map suggest places like Traverse city, or Saginaw in Michigan are similar in climate to southern Indiana and Ohio. Very Very misleading, anything from Chicago north is pretty extreme in MOST winters (not this one though).
I would draw my line from Gander, NF to Caribou, ME, west to Timmins and Kenora, ON where it crosses into Manitoba and passes between Winnipeg and Thompson, towards Flin Flon on the MB/SK border from where it continues into Saskatchewan, and passes further west, north of Saskatoon towards Fort McMurray, AB and Whitehorse, YT, where it crosses into Alaska and pretty much includes the whole South Central part of the state below this line, including the island of Kodiak, but not the Alaska Peninsula.
Pretty much any climate which starts with "E" or ends with "c", whith the exceptions of "Dsc" and "Csc" is north of my line.
Cfa, BWh and BSh and all climates which start with "A" are too hot for year-round habitation in my opinion. "Csa" and "Dfa" are borderline, although being too hot in the summer, they're doing reasonably well in either the sunshine department or have decent winters.
My personal favourite climate in the United States is that in the Black Hills.
The climate in the Black Hills is awesome. It's cold in the winter, but worth tolerating for the rest of the year. I have never experienced a more beautiful summer.
Location: Cleveland bound with MPLS in the rear-view
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It must be pretty damn cold, because a LOT of people live in Chicago, NYC, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Detroit, Toronto, and not to mention, Moscow, Harbin and Beijing China, and so on and so forth. Must be NORTH of there to be "universally too cold".
Zone 2 through zone 5 is ideal for me. I like four distinct seasons. What I dislike is a winter that features little snow and drab conditions. That makes the shorter daylight hours harder to handle. Other than that I much prefer to live in the northern tier of the US because I have more in common with the prevailing culture of the area, influenced more heavily by northern Europeans.
The cultural similarities are why I prefer the southern tier. I'm like 17th generation American, so I can't relate to my original mother countries, but I grew up in Cajun culture in S. Louisiana and the only place that culture exists is along the Gulf Coast. It would be impossible to attend a Mardi Gras celebration in the Upper Midwest (and too cold at that) or to get some decent andouille, boudin, or fresh crawfish. I can do all of that in Austin because there are enough Louisiana transplants here.
In the map below, zones 2-4 are mighty cold. I'd be most comfortable in zones 5 and 6.
Plant hardiness maps are a big misleading, though, because they factor the coldest it could EVER get in the span of a decade or more. That's what limits plant growth, but for myself I'd much prefer a high-desert climate that once in a decade had nighttime subzero cold-snap versus a coastal area that is cold most of the winter but never subzero.
The average high exceeds 50 degrees for 9 months, and 40 degrees for ten months out of the year in Omaha. I consider this place to be temperate. I sometimes wish it'd get colder and snowier in Omaha as I enjoy the winter season.
There are a lot of other variables at play other than mere average temperatures.
Cold and windy is sometimes better than colder but without wind.
Some people feel an additional cold when it is moist out.
The most important factor to me when determining the comfort of a climate is whether the cold is uninterrupted for the entire winter or you get a break now and then.
In Duluth, MN, where I live right now, you generally don't (although this winter was somewhat of an exception). Once it sinks below freezing around late November, you see few above-freezing days (and the ones that are are only marginally above freezing) until mid-March or so. This kind of climate is perfect for supporting continuous snow cover.
In other places (such as Rapid City, SD), however, you get the irregular but frequent 50-, 60-, or even 70-degree day. This would make all the difference in the world in making winter tolerable.
(On the other hand, some people dislike that because they think it's too "variable"!)
North and East of Texas are too cold except for the NW coastal areas. This line may move further south as I age too, so stay tuned and ask again in a year or two
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