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There's lots of places in the Twin Cities where you can get lakes, forests, amenities and not even be in the heart of the city. I would say the northeast metro is the best balance for this, or if you can afford it, the area around Lake Minnetonka.
There's lots of places in the Twin Cities where you can get lakes, forests, amenities and not even be in the heart of the city. I would say the northeast metro is the best balance for this, or if you can afford it, the area around Lake Minnetonka.
Yes of course. But Minneapolis is better for lakes. Me, I prefer to live in St. Paul but drive to Minneapolis for all the lake activities. But even some of the suburbs have better lake options than St. Paul. Some areas are better than others. I live in South St. Paul which is not really a "lakey" place. But Eagan is nearby and I go to Lebanon Hills a lot.
Erie, PA. Snowiest city over 100,000 and within 2 hours of major cities like Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Pittsburgh and Cleveland are quite snowy as well.
Erie (city) - 101.7 inches per year
Erie (suburbs) - 120 to 200 inches per year
Cleveland - 60.3 inches per year
Pittsburgh - 42.3 inches per year
I knew Erie was a city with alot of snow but I didn't think it had more snow than Buffalo. That's a perfect example for the Oddities of geography thread.
Personally (having lived in Minnesota) I don’t consider Minnesota a super “snowy” state. Yes it does snow, but it doesn’t really have huge snow totals. That might seems like an odd statement to some. But if you really enjoy snow you need to be somewhere to access it year around and take advantage of snow sports. As a skier I can tell you of many terrible years back east with hardly any snow in the mountains. This past year included.
If you want access to plenty of snow accumulations then I recommend living in a western state with access to Mountain’s nearby.
You mentioned Colorado and Washington. It’s been snowing in the mountains in both places this past week. You can snowmobile and ski pretty much year around in both of those states.
If you look at your top snow totals in North America for ski resorts. Pretty much every top ten spot will be in WA state. Mount Baker in WA state is officially the snowiest place in the world at 1,000 + inches a season. Alta in Utah just had an amazing season.
If you enjoy skiing, snowshoeing and access to lots of snow that is consistent I’d move west. You just won’t find a place east of the Continental Divide with consistently deep snow to play in.
Personally I’d move out west to a place like North Idaho, Western Montana or the foothills of the Cascades. You would also be close to amazing stuff in British Columbia and Alberta.
Last edited by Thealpinist; 06-20-2023 at 05:30 PM..
I knew Erie was a city with alot of snow but I didn't think it had more snow than Buffalo. That's a perfect example for the Oddities of geography thread.
Take a look at Syracuse, which historically actually gets more snow than Buffalo on average. It roughly averages about 10 feet of snow for the metro area, with some areas to the north in Oswego County near the Tug Hill Plateau getting hundreds of inches of snow. For instance, this town in Oswego County got a little over 350 inches in the winter of 2017-2018 and 387.9 inches the previous winter: https://www.democratandchronicle.com...on/1940787002/
The key for more snow is to look directly east of the Great Lakes. Meaning areas say north of Syracuse east of Lake Ontario, south of Buffalo east of Lake Erie, east of Lake Superior(the Sault Ste. Maries get a lot of snow), etc.
Flagstaff gets 100” of snow a year and regularly snows into May. Flagstaff is a college and ski town but still has more city amenities than other ski towns at 7k elevation and higher. But for very obvious reasons, the state of Arizona is not the snowiest state, and someone who is obsessed with snow would not enjoy living anywhere else. Flagstaff being so far south is also very sunny which should be another factor. But Mount Humphrey is a tundra climate and just up above you. Just wanted to present an unlikely location that technically fits.
I knew Erie was a city with alot of snow but I didn't think it had more snow than Buffalo. That's a perfect example for the Oddities of geography thread.
I wouldn’t survive upstate New York lol. My grandma grew up in Ithaca she told me about the snow they used to get on the farm they had and that was in the early 50s? Heating must’ve been horrible back then.
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