Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What are some places that have four distinct seasons, but also plenty of fine, mild periods throughout the year that are suitable for outdoor activities, and rarely have extreme weather? Ideally, it'd also have a natural environment that makes it "feel" like each of the seasons (so a bonus for lots of deciduous trees for autumn foliage, or mountains that accumulate snow even if the area itself is less likely to).
Yosemite Valley seems like a good candidate. Although its winter days are relatively mild, it gets a fairly large amount of snow, and the surrounding mountains accumulate snow, allowing you to get a "winter" experience without feeling overly cold. Although its summer highs are quite hot, the lows are cool enough that there'll always be a comfortable time of the day. And it's very sunny throughout the year.
A bunch of other "alpine Mediterranean" places in the American West also qualify. Flagstaff is another example.
Unfortunately, a lot of these places seem to get a lot of summer thunderstorms, which can kind of ruin the "suitable for outdoor activities" criteria I established.
Further north there are places like the PNW, such as Lake Chelan, Washington. However, they presumably tend to get much lower winter sunshine.
Parts of highland/alpine SE France have this type of climate. They do get occasional summer thunderstorms but mostly appear to get high amounts of overall sunshine throughout the year.
You could search in parts of Spain as well, I can't quite find a particular station...
This one is interesting for highland SoCal, in the San Gabriel Mountains-- I doubt the deciduous forest bit from looking at the area on streetview, it seems like a bunch of pines, or whether this data is 100% reliable but it suggests this type of climate exists further south as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Baldy,_California
My guess is that to preserve deciduous vegetation, you're going to have to accept the risk of some summer thunderstorms/rain. You could try searching highland areas in the Appalachians, which still get high amounts of overall sunshine despite more rainfall overall. The vegetation there better matches overall to your description.
extreme is what you want it to be...
ocean swells which would be deemed "great" for surfers could be Extreme for others.
mild is in your mind...
for us a "mild" summer is no day over 99 degrees Fahrenheit.
overall, your qualifications mean: ain't no such place in the US.
Medium to high elevation SW USA ....tons of sun....relatively mild...
Bisbee, AZ
Sierra Vista, AZ
Silver City, NM
Fort Bayard, NM
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
