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.
I lived in Tampa Bay for a year (Sarasota but we drove to St Pete/Tampa/Clearwater all the time. We flew in Tampa Airport which imo is underrated, very clean/modern and one of the easiest airports to navigate in and out.)
Tampa Bay gets humid, lots of violent thunderstorms. The closer you’re to Tampa (as opposed to south of Tampa such as Sarasota.) the more likely you’re prone to have violent downpour. I love pouring rain, as long as it’s done quickly. The humidity is visible and heavy but not as humid and heavy as Houston. (Been here for 2.5 yrs short of a week.)
Tampa is also FAR more sunny. I noticed Houston gets overcast and gloomy often. (LIKE NOW. It’s been cloudy for two weeks now. Just heavy unpleasant cloud hanging in the sky, sun comes and goes for 10 mins and gloomy grey again. It irritates me to no end.) Tampa area is very either extremely sunny or boom! thunder and lighting-not this grey heavy passive aggressive dark gloominess in-between.
On climate alone based on what OP suggested I voted Los Angeles the best weather, followed by San Francisco, then Denver.(even though I probably never want to live in Denver. I need ocean and coastal air.)
I’ll always pick sunny and warm climate in the U.S.
Believe me when I say this, Tampa is sunny now in April because it is literally one of the driest months, but in August and September it is cloudy as heck! Tampa gets overcast often actually, but in the dame day it can be clear. Partly cloudy is Tampa’s most common weather, it can be year round like that no problem. Being sunny in Tampa is also very often. Tampa extremely sunny or thunder boom? That is exaggeration, Tampa is partly cloudy most of the time. It gets sunny easily and also thunderstorms boom!!! But partly cloudy is normal(weather with sun or without).
Believe me when I say this, Tampa is sunny now in April because it is literally one of the driest months, but in August and September it is cloudy as heck! Tampa gets overcast often actually, but in the dame day it can be clear. Partly cloudy is Tampa’s most common weather, it can be year round like that no problem. Being sunny in Tampa is also very often. Tampa extremely sunny or thunder boom? That is exaggeration, Tampa is partly cloudy most of the time. It gets sunny easily and also thunderstorms boom!!! But partly cloudy is normal(weather with sun or without).
I believe you. I’ve lived in both states. The “partly cloudy” in FL is quite different from the “partly cloudy” in Houston. Houston’s is more similar to Cleveland (i also lived there but suffered from S.A.D.) and Seattles’. It’s very grey and gloomy. I never lived in Tampa but Sarasota isn’t too far and we have been going all over FL in just one year of living there. (We were always road-tripping every weekend.) When we drove from Orlando to Jacksonville one time, within two hours you saw nothing but blue sky dabbing with these massive, massive white clouded that looked you could touch them within reach; they looked like cotton candy.-that’s very often the kind of “partly cloudy” in FL, unless it’s blackish (not even grey) and very low-that’s when you know the downpour is coming. And they never last long. (Unless it hurricane related.)
I was in Miami two weeks ago for a few days, during which the weather would be “partly cloudy” but it was sunny to me, just with clouds. It’s not gloom type. The same thing the “windy” in FL, especially the tropical windy, is very different from the Texan type of harsh windy.
Maybe Tampa tends to be more gloomy compared to say, Sarasota and South Florida. But I guarantee you it has nothing on what I observed Houston in the past 2.5 yrs. Houston is a cool city (much cooler and much more personality than Tampa) but Houston weather (or Texas weather) is just not very pleasant.
I’m no meteorologist, but I love observing the sky. FL’s sky/cloud patterns are very similar to Southern CA’s. Rarely it’s completely covered in heavy clouds with no sun in sight but rather blue sky with clouds (hence “cloudy”.) June is called June Gloom in Southern CA for the rarity with low, dark sky up until 11 am in the mounts of June.-Houston has a lot of these sorts of June Gloom days. So dark you have to turn all the lights on in the morning for hours until 11ish when the sun finally came out. Or days like these weeks of gloom from morning till dusk. You don’t have that in FL, nowhere in FL has a gloom like this when it’s not impacted by hurricanes or storms.
I was told though by a car service guy that Tampa area is one of the, if not the most, areas that are prone to have massive thunder threat.
I don't get Boston's *summers* being "too cold" at all. Prevailing winds are over land, which means heat for Boston (the cooling effect is only over the South Coast of MA and the two Capes, which have southern flanks, just like Long Island and the southern New England Coast). The only relief comes in the form of occasional back door cold fronts, which are more common in spring than summer - and it's spring that tends to be cooler for Boston, but not summer.
Boston's summer is very pleasant and occasionally hot. Summer is too short though being around late June - Memorial Day
July and August are great months in Boston. Autumn is also very strong in Boston. Autumn nights are usually mild in Boston, although the daytime temperatures drop considerably from summer.
Compared to Atlanta, October nights are only 3 degrees (F) colder in Boston. November nights are only 4 degrees colder than Atlanta.
In the spring it's much different. February lows are 12 degrees warmer in Atlanta. March lows 11 degrees warmer. Not to mention the highs are 20 degrees warmer in these months
Boston's February is colder than it's December, and March is colder than November. This can make winter feel extra long. Spring is still a decent season in Boston but it's so delayed, basically being April-June which in turn delays and shortens the summer. Some of the most aggravating weather in Boston is in May and June when it is still cold and dreary
ex June 2023:
Spoiler
you get little tastes of great weather mixed in with a lot of letdown days all the way until nearly July this happens
Today is one of those interesting spring days along the Northeastern Seaboard.
Its just past 4pm and its 87 in Washington DC, 85 in NYC (however 54 degrees out in Montauk), 70 in New Haven, 68 in Providence, 64 and drizzling in Boston, and 50 in Portland ME. While today wasn't the case this bi-polar spring weather days occurs all the way down to metro NYC. Philly down to Balt/Wash seems to have much more consistency to their Spring weather. To be fair Philly, Baltimore and Washington are father inland, but Rehoboth Beach is also 80 right now.
Since I moved to LA my weather preferences have changed significantly. I used to prefer hot and humid and now I can't stand either. I used to think that LA was often chilly, but now I'm so accustomed to the weather here that I consider the majority of the country (especially the southern half) practically unlivable.
1. Los Angeles (coastal)
2. San Francisco
3. Seattle
4. Denver
5. Boston
6. Kansas City
7. Chicago
8. Nashville
9. Tampa
10. Dallas
11. Phoenix
Even the IE next to LA has better weather than most of the listed cities. It gets hot for a few months a year but the evenings almost always cool down. Living beneath snow covered mountains make up for not having distinct seasons.
One month of data. Don't put much stock into this. Still interesting to view.
Data only shows air temperature. Heat index would change things a bit.
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.
