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Someone's never been to Honolulu (which is cooler than the South in the summer and warmer in the winter) or Coastal California. No one who had traveled much would argue that the South has then best weather in the country. You could make an argument that it's not the worst.
Yeah, I was like, what?? How could the South have the best weather in the country? Hot, humid summers and cold winters in like 90% of the South, plus tons of thunderstorms, tornado alley, and hurricanes.
Hawaii and Coastal California have no need for heat or A/C. They have great weather, year-round.
Why is everything bigger and easier down south than snowbelt?
A 7 lane road in Florida might be "bigger," but sitting through 5 cycles of traffic lights while waiting to turn left sure as heck isn't "easier" than "up north." Y'all can keep that garbage.
Last edited by michigan83; 08-13-2014 at 06:49 AM..
The coastal South areas of southern Mississippi, southern Alabama, North Florida, and coastal Georgia and the coastal Carolinas are indeed the colder parts of the region, in comparison to warmer areas like the Texas and Louisiana coasts, as well as Central/South Florida. However, they are still SUBtropical paradise, with the nice, rainy summers of the tropics combined with sunny winters similar to what you see in the Mediterranean, allowing all kinds of crops to grow easily.
The official airport of Savannah records 20 days with mins at or below freezing; however, the downtown of Savannah, as well as all the sea islands, are closer to the ocean, and experience much less freezes. All cold-fronts really do in the Coastal South, in cities like Savannah, is shift the wind, and dry out the air. As the cold front is passing, the intermittent weather will be cloudy and cool, but after the cold front... day after day of mild winter sunshine, much like the Mediterranean; most cities in the South get a lot of their sunny, cloudless days during the cool season, due to the cold-fronts bringing drier air. The dry air, plus the low-latitude subtropical sun, mean quick warm-ups during the day. The record high temp for Jan in Savannah you put up further prove my point that the Coastal US South gets many "tropical winter days," where highs can reach the 80s, and lows can be above the 60s. The regions of the Coastal South you list are all in the USDA zone 9 isotherm, meaning that the lowest temp during winter is at or above 20F much of the time, so there's no "handful of teens." Teens in the coastal South, in fact, would be a natural disaster, and would harm all the lush subtropical flora growing there. Yes, you can get by without heat in the Coastal US South, even in the areas you list; areas in subtropical China are colder during winter than those areas, and they don't have heat. The US Coastal South is like Northern India when it comes to climate, yet people in Northern India use neither heat in the winter, nor AC during summer.
Here is Savannah during the winter; you can see that as with the rest of the Coastal US South, Savannah is lush and green YEAR-ROUND:
Charlotte is high up in the mountains of the South, and thus it is expected that its winters would rival many cities in the North. The Coastal parts of the South are as warm as Northern India during winter; until you can grow all sorts of palms and other subtropical trees in Conneticut; until you have alligators, and parrots all thriving in Connecticut, until places in Conneticut are growing sugar cane, rice, bananas, and citrus, and until thick evergreen forests laden with spanish moss grows in Conneticut, there is no way that anyone in their right mind would say that "the difference isn't that large."
Unlike in the North, where some form of winter precip is expected every winter, in the South, especially coastal cities, winter precip is nearly unheard of. It can be DECADES until winter precip of any kind ever strikes San Antonio again. And if it was 35F in Tuscon, then it was never freezing.
The North can get just as hot and humid as the South. The South just has the subtropical atmosphere that ensures that temps are more stable, and swing much less, than those of the North; as consistently hot and humid many Southern cities can get during summer, their record highs in those months are nearly matched, matched, or even exceeded by many cities in the North. For example, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia all have a higher record high temp than Tampa or New Orleans, despite the latter group of cities being consistently warmer during summer.
Yes it is.
You Northerners desperately try to prove that point is true by picking cities in the South high upon the mountains, like Charlotte. It is expected that mountainous cities will see quite a bit of cold that rival more northerly areas of lower elevation. Of course, if you pick low elevation cities in the coastal south like Houston, New Orleans, Corpus Christi, etc, you would see that they are way warmer than Philly and NYC.
I dint compare NOLA and Houston which based on my experience are considerably warmer and more humid etc.
I compared some notable NE and SE cities
which are a little htter in the summer and less cold in the winter not sure why you are flying off on me and yes the lower elevation coastal south is hotter
BTW ... both the coldest AND the hottest place I've EVER been in my life was Manhattan. It was 105 degrees on 5Th Avenue in July, and -10 on the Westside Highway the next February.
Figure that one out.
well since it's never been 105 in NYC or -10 I guess that is hard to figure out
Weather and climate are two different things. A few days of 105F and a few days of -10F are not the equivalent of it being consistently hot in the south.
On average, the climate is warmer in the south and on average the climate in the north is cooler. I agree that the Northeast includes both the coldest and hottest days in comparison... but it's no where near as warm on average!
A 7 lane road in Florida might be "bigger," but sitting through 5 cycles of traffic lights while waiting to turn left sure as heck isn't "easier" than "up north." Y'all can keep that garbage.
Exactly. This is a big quality of life indicator for me too. The less time I spend sitting in traffic in my car when I could be at home relaxing with my family, the happier and more content I am going to be, regardless of what climate I live in. Life's too short to waste sitting in traffic!
well since it's never been 105 in NYC or -10 I guess that is hard to figure out
Yes it has. Check Wikipedia.
I'm not saying it *WAS* 105 on 5th Avenue that July. But that's what all the bank sign thermometers were saying. And it was most definitely below zero the next February. The whole city was coated in ice. God knows what the windchill was.
I'm not saying it *WAS* 105 on 5th Avenue that July. But that's what all the bank sign thermometers were saying. And it was most definitely below zero the next February. The whole city was coated in ice. God knows what the windchill was.
No it hasn't. You just completely made all that up.
The highest temp in Manhattan recorded history was 102F, yet you claimed you recently experienced 105F.
The lowest temp in Manhattan recorded history was -4F, yet you claimed you recently experienced -10F.
So it's fair to say you just made up a bunch of BS. NYC, speaking generally, does not have super high or super low temps, because of the moderating effects of the Atlantic Ocean.
So it's fair to say you just made up a bunch of BS. NYC, speaking generally, does not have super high or super low temps, because of the moderating effects of the Atlantic Ocean.
Yup!
I do have to say that it can be quite a bit hotter for an extended time than where I live. I've been to NYC several times in the summer for a week or so at a time, and often it's been mid-90s, very humid, and very hot with the "concrete jungle" factor. Little air gets through, and the concrete and glass seem to make it steamier than in a smaller city or out in the country. It's definitely, on average, far more moderate in NYC in the winter.
The whole 105 to -10 comment was total bunk, though.
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