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My home base for most of my life was in the Midwest, mostly Northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Coming from that part of the country, the winters here (west of Manchester) are about what I am accustomed to.
It does feel like winter starts earlier and ends later, growing up in the Midwest a white Halloween was a rarity...
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Originally Posted by KristinNH
Yes, there are a lot of winter activities, but not so many if you are in a very rural part. Make sure you get good plowing for your driveways!
After four years and going through many different plow services, I finally gave up and went with self-help, buying an enclosed (heated) plow/snowblower vehicle from a local farm equipment dealer. This works great as long as I am home when the storm starts so I can can go out and clear the driveway after every foot or so of fresh snow.
I do love winter; right up until sometime between January-March, when it starts to get old and I just want to see green again.
This is the view out my window +3 months of the year:
Here in New England we can get local lake effect snows in Vermont east of Lake Champlain and East of Lake Winnipesaukee in NH. There are also ocean effect snows coming in off the Atlantic during our famous Nor'easters. Five to 15 miles inland can get buried when further inland only gets a couple to three feet.
Over all I would prefer to live here in the winter than North Dakota. Actually, I would prefer to snowbird to Alamogordo or Truth or Consequences, New Mexico for the winter but can't afford it.
My home base for most of my life was in the Midwest, mostly Northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Coming from that part of the country, the winters here (west of Manchester) are about what I am accustomed to.
It does feel like winter starts earlier and ends later, growing up in the Midwest a white Halloween was a rarity...
After four years and going through many different plow services, I finally gave up and went with self-help, buying an enclosed (heated) plow/snowblower vehicle from a local farm equipment dealer. This works great as long as I am home when the storm starts so I can can go out and clear the driveway after every foot or so of fresh snow.
I do love winter; right up until sometime between January-March, when it starts to get old and I just want to see green again.
This is the view out my window +3 months of the year:
Green has become my favorite color. I miss it SO MUCH after such a long winter. Tired of the barren look. Earlier this spring, my husband was contacted for a job out in SW Wyoming. I couldn't believe what I saw. It looked like Afghanistan. It's bad enough that they get horrible winters like us (or worse,) but no green in the summer, either! I saw few trees or grass. No thanks. We have to relish our lush spring/summer/fall here and in the midwest.
One thing the midwest has that we don't is drifting snow. A 6" snowfall can lead to 3' drifts. Whiteouts are common too, and scary to drive in. And it does not take much snowfall to have a whiteout. I've aborted trips and headed to a motel because of them. But when I was a kid, the drifts were perfect for snow caves!
Having come from Omaha, NE.....similar to Chicago, but with less snow. Spent many a day in Chicago as is a bit more extreme except for precipitation. Chicago has more wind, and it gets hotter and colder, but less rain/snow. I would bet we get about 75% more snow, maybe more. The thunderstorms and spring storms are more violent in Chicago......we get 10 minute thunderstorms.....seldom really severe. Not like Chicago where it can storm for 1 to 2 hours on occasion. As a matter of fact my last drive through Chicago it stormed and came down in sheets for a solid 3 hours.....that rarely rarely happens here in NH, but I remember the year I moved here it just rained for the whole month in May of 2006 along the coast......not really thunderstorms, just consistent rain.
The winters were much colder and snowier when I was growing up in Mont Vernon in the seventies. The snow was okay with me because of x-country skiing, sledding, snow forts, and school cancellations. Single digit temps every morning for the winter held little charm, however.
The low temperature records for most places in NH are deceptive. Except for the far north -- White Mountains, Coos County --- sub-zeros are rare, and even then last only a few hours, usually just before dawn. Proximity to the ocean tempers extremes, whereas, in the middle of Michigan, the climate is more prone to extreme cold for longer periods.
The proximity to the coast directly impacts winter storm tracks for coastal lows. If you pull up snowfall accumulation maps for many larger storms, they usually divide Rockingham County in half with the NW higher elevated portion (Nottingham, Northwood, Deerfield, etc) seeing much higher snowfall amounts and colder temperatures overall than anywhere closer to the coast- especially along and east of the Epping line on route 101. In terms of average low temperatures, interior central and northern NH along and north of Concord does not receive much in the way of moderating influences from the coast. Elevation is also a factor in average temperatures, particularly in portions of the Moadnock region up to Sunapee where a sizable population lives in NH at a somewhat higher elevation compared to the SE 1/3 of the state. In the White Mountains and North Country, the elevated areas have very low populations as the majority live in the valleys, with the exception of towns that are already elevated like Bethlehem, NH around 2,000ft.
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