4 Season Climate with less rain (tornado, snow, hot, warm)

[lpfan921]

I love the nice days of the Spring and Fall in PA but I hate all the cold and rainy weather that goes along with it. Is there anywhere with lots of green in spring and summer, or changing leaves in the fall, but without so much rain? Or are the rainy days necessary in order to have the nice days?

I was thinking maybe the center of the country, around western KS, western NE, it is drier than the east coast but not quite as dry as AZ and CO. I have never been to these places but they seem like they have nice weather overall.

[§AB]

Maybe Sacramento California? They seem to get alot of sun, and have cold enough winters without the infamous PNW style nuclear winter.

[nei]

Sacramento won't be green in the summer as it has a dry season. And I don't think the leaves change much color. I'm thinking somewhere in the mountain west might work.

[ColdCanadian]

western NE and KS may be too far west for "green in summer and a nice colour change"
I've seen images of western KS and NE and it looks more like the southwestern US; desert-like imho.

Eastern NE or KS, maybe Iowa, Missouri or NW Arkansas might be a better fit. (tornado's aside )

[deneb78]

What about somewhere in the Mountain West but at high elevation like Flagstaff, AZ or Denver, CO? I know both get quite a bit of snow but they both tend to be quite sunny and still have the 4 seasons.....

[MrMarbles]

Around the world Northern China or Eastern Europe would fit the bill.

In the US northern Midwest actually has much less precipitation that the Northeast. Minneapolis has less than 30 inches of precipitation vs 42 inches in Philly.

[j96g]

According to here, Kansas and Nebraska's fall foliage start dates have them at not applicable. You can have a lot of answers on this site about weather:

Fall Foliage Dates | Farmers' Almanac

Look at the right and under the tab "helpful weather links" it asks some common questions people have, like first frost date, etc.

[marmac]

Kinda hard to have lots of green in summer w/o rain.

In Minnesota, a hot dry stretch in August and all the unwatered lawns are brown.
In the drought of 88, they went brown in June.

[lpfan921]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I can't decide if I want to live somewhere that its warm all the time or if I want to live in a 4-season climate. Generally I like warm and sunny weather, but i think i would miss the snow around Christmas time. I keep changing my mind. I have thought a lot about Denver or Flagstaff. I know it gets a bit cold in the winter but those places seem to have good climates the rest of the year.

[ColdCanadian]

Originally Posted by lpfan921

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I can't decide if I want to live somewhere that its warm all the time or if I want to live in a 4-season climate. Generally I like warm and sunny weather, but i think i would miss the snow around Christmas time. I keep changing my mind. I have thought a lot about Denver or Flagstaff. I know it gets a bit cold in the winter but those places seem to have good climates the rest of the year.

Check out Ozarks and towns like Springfield in southwestern Missouri.
One of our previous board members moved there from California for "4-season-but-generally-warm-and-sunny" weather and loved it.

If you're like me what is bad about rain is how long a rain event lasts for (hours? days?)
I wouldn't be surprised if west of the Mississippi rain is more likely to come in downpours than steady drizzly periods.

With winter avg highs in the low 40's F,
they probably have a 1-in-4 to 1-in-10 chance of snow on Christmas, (similar to Philly?)
but perhaps up in the mountains there might be some snow.

If snow on Christmas matters more
I think you'll need to go further west (Denver or Flagstaff) to still be in a sunny climate without too much extreme cold.