Why do so many in CT think our climate is too cold?? (New Haven: how much, rooftop)
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As I have always said, our climate wouldn't be so bad if 80% of the people didn't hate it so much.
Just one of many examples.....one of the ladies I work with was just sighing with dread/frusteration (whatever you want to call it) when she heard there MIGHT be isolated frost tonight in some areas.
I was like........what???? Its only early Oct and you are complaining NOW about the weather with 3+ months to go until the temps bottom out for the year.
I asked her if she was born and raised in a much warmer climate and she told me that she has lived here her whole life.
Sheeesh!----I could cut you some slack if you came from Miami or San Diego, etc, but if your were born and raised here, you don't really know any differently.
So what I am getting at is, WHY do 80+ percent of the people (casual observation, not hard data) here think its too cold when they have lived here their whole lives. Sure there are exceptions (Cambium most notably comes to mind) but by and large I believe that figure is reasonable close.
On the other hand, when I go up to Northern Maine, the locals up there don't whine even close to as much about cold and snow as many do here---even though they get much colder temps and much more snow 110+ inches than most of CT does.
It seems like they are content (or even proud) with the climate they live in, but around here, all I hear about is how bad it is, and N Maine is easily 15 degrees colder than we are in the winter.
So why in the world is this???
When I ask the most vocal cold haters here why they just don't move SOUTH, they always give me a lame reason like family or some reason or another. OK.....maybe I can understand to a certain extent how that might be the case, but is it REALLY worth it for that to live somewhere where you think its too cold in OCTOBER, let alone January............
Heck, my closest relatives live 300+ miles away and I have other immediate family 900 miles distant so I don't think that really makes sense--especially in this instant communication era where you can feel "right there" with anyone.
So explain to me, why are the majority of N Maine residents content with their climate where as 80% of the people seem to hate it here??
As far as I'm concerned, mid September until Thanksgiving is the most perfect weather of the year. I wait all year for these several weeks. Cooling, dry, crisp, just glorious.
I don't find CT cold at all, except for sometimes in January. Then again I live down on the shore, which is sort of the New England tropics. Now to me, inland Maine, northern VT & NH is cold.
As far as I'm concerned, mid September until Thanksgiving is the most perfect weather of the year. I wait all year for these several weeks. Cooling, dry, crisp, just glorious.
I don't find CT cold at all, except for sometimes in January. Then again I live down on the shore, which is sort of the New England tropics. Now to me, inland Maine, northern VT & NH is cold.
April-June, Sept-early Nov is the best weather of the year.
Coastline winters are fairly mild. Not much snow at all when it comes down to it.
I am one that hated the cold and moved out of it. I will say this - the weather is not the sole reason to move. As horrible as the cold is (and I do hate hate HATE the winters there), there are some really good things about the state that I miss that might make the winters worth it. The people, the ease of getting around, not having to drive very long to get across the state, beach accessibility, etc....there are a lot of things that factor in to people staying there and that people may take for granted. Don't know if we will be back there just yet, but I'm not counting it out as much as I did when we lived there.
When I ask the most vocal cold haters here why they just don't move SOUTH, they always give me a lame reason like family or some reason or another. OK.....maybe I can understand to a certain extent how that might be the case, but is it REALLY worth it for that to live somewhere where you think its too cold in OCTOBER, let alone January............
Lots of people (everywhere, not just CT) are trapped by job and/or family obligations in a place they would rather not be. You have to do the best you can given all the constraints on your decision making.
I love the fall and winter in southern New England with summer coming in 3rd and spring my least favorite time of year.
I think October is my favorite month with the cool crisp mornings and evenings and nice comfortable dry days in the mid 60's. You just can't beat it anywhere. Spring is just kind of soggy and dirty with the chance of a cold Canadian wind coming down and just to many variables to what kind of weather we will get. And then right when you think you will get some nice spring weather....bam it hits 85 degrees and 80 on the dewpoint and stays miserable till mid September.
I’ve often thought about this very issue over the years as well.
How is it that the climate of the greater Tri-State area (NYC/NJ/CT)….which has a warmer annual mean temperature than about 50% of the USA….and milder winters (with less snow) than about 60% of the USA is somehow viewed as “a cold part of the USA?. The only conclusions I can come to are two – demographic movements within the USA and the media hype.
Demographic movements: Historically over the last 50 years, the locations in the USA that have gained the most rapid population growth have been in the sunbelt/subtropical regions of the USA (Florida, California, AZ, Nevada, Georgia, Texas…etc). Think about it, how many people move from CT or NJ to Iowa or Montana vs how many move to California or Florida. So a place like CT or NJ is always compared to warmer Sunbelt regions.... and rarely to the rest of the vast flyover and northern areas of the USA which are colder.
How many times have you heard in conversation or even a transplant tell you how much warmer it is Jacksonville, Houston, or Dallas than in New Haven, Trenton, or NYC? Really, did they forget that those cities are located in the subtropics – lol? I have a coworker tell me every winter how much more sunny it was in Phoenix than in Stamford in winter – really the desert is sunny – lol? Many times people forget what areas they are comparing CT to.
The Media: According to several sources, the biggest media market in the United States is from the Virginia suburbs of Washington DC to the Connecticut suburbs of NYC. They hype winter (and all weather for that matter) for ratings. People inside and outside this area get a false perspective of the climate due to all the hype. One of the funniest – but most accurate - account of the hype of winter in the I-95 states I ever saw was a NY Times editorial from a Midwestern transplant (Duluth) to the Tri-State area. I posted it below:
A TOUGH WINTER AHEAD?
The absurdity of winter weather hype along the East Coast of the United States
Winter in the Western, Midwestern, and northern regions of the United States needs no headline to announce its arrival. Folks who live in these regions know how to prepare for the long and severe winters that come with living in a northerly or high altitude location. Each winter they meet the cold season with little fanfare or hype. If you live in a place like Williston, North Dakota or Green Bay, Wisconsin...you don't need the TV weatherman to tell you a cold front is coming when your walking down the street and the wind chill is - 45 F below zero. Folks living in the Western United States don't need to be told what to do when it snows, you learn quick in places like Soda Springs, California where they get 470-inches of snow each winter, or in Alta, Utah where 516-inches of snow piles up in most winters.
The meaning and reality of the word "winter", is far different along the East Coast of the United States. We shout from the rooftops when it's 30 F in Central Park or two whole inches of snow falls in DC. From the Tri-State area (NYC/NJ/CT) southward....the Eastern Seaboard does not have a winter in the Midwestern or northern sense of the word - only a season of cool weather with sporadic snow that lasts a few months on average. Although there is the occasional respectable snowstorm and bouts of subfreezing weather...winters along the East Coast are short and mild compared to the Western and far northern United States. Of course, once you get as far south as North Carolina on the East Coast...real winter generally just fades away.
However, each fall, around mid October... the comical pump-up to winter begins in the I-95 states. Time and time again, East Coast weathercasters warn, "snow is not far off" (really? it's 65 F outside now) ...or "snow has now been reported at Mount Washington, NH" (yea, that tends to happen at 7000 feet). By December the machine is in full swing - each broadcast the viewer is bombarded with "its sunny, but boy is it cold" (44 F cold? they would laugh at that in Duluth)...or the evening weathercaster announces "there is the threat of snow in the 8-day forecast" (as if we need to plan stock-up with supplies for a few inches of snow that will melt in two days),....or an oldie but a goodie is that file video of a snowstorm we had 7 years ago (or 17 years ago).
By late December, the terse, non-stop rhetoric, reaches an almost comical pitch: If there is no threat of snow in the big cities along the East Coast (which happens most often)....we are then even warned about the cold - as if that the next cold front coming down from Canada into the upper Midwest will end all life as we know it on the East Coast. Somehow though, ... that 20 below zero temperature they show us up in Minnesota ... becomes 15 F in Indiana....25 F in Ohio,... and finally 35 F in Maryland or Connecticut. All we really needed was an extra scarf or a heavier coat. In a few days, it's 45 F again.
Predictably, by mid winter, most folks in the I-95 states from Virginia to the Tri-State area...have long since stopped paying any attention to the evening weathercast beyond 48 hours. As each hyped bout of pathetic wintry weather comes and disappointingly departs...even the folks who love an occasional good snowstorm have lost interest. It can be a bit embarrassing when your local TV station in Baltimore or Long Island tells you in a frantic voice to get prepared for 2-inches of snow ...when you see folks in Denver or Cleveland digging out from 2-feet of snow. The final chapter of this absurd East Coast tale comes to an end in mid March: local weathercasters (especially the ones who live for the 90-days of winter on the East Coast) grumble with comments like "we got off easy this year, wait till next year". Year in, year out, it's the same story.
For the millions who live in the Atlantic States... the TV weatherman has been reduced to a silly personality with a warped sense of climatological averages. Winter weather is a point of comical conversation for East Coast residents - a joke, a myth, something playful in a serious world. Sure, there is the occasional valid warning that it may snow once in a while, there may even be a week when the daily high temperature is stuck below freezing...but winter is fleeting along the Atlantic Coast of the United States south of Boston.
It takes awhile for a relocated Midwesterner to understand that winter along the East Coast is really a state of mind...not a real season. A true winter landscape... with huge snow drifts...ice hanging from the eaves...bitter cold, and people bundled up in parkas and mittens, is really what we romance winter to be. In the end, despite the best attempts by the gods of media, marketing, and meteorology.... residents along the East Coast never really pay much attention to winter...only images of winter. The hype of winter on the East Coast is really about marketing and media.
But oh how they hype that winter from DC to the Connecticut suburbs of NYC....
So explain to me, why are the majority of N Maine residents content with their climate where as 80% of the people seem to hate it here??
I think those that complain here in CT are comedians. If you think about the total number of days its actually snowing or cold, it's not much.. there's more warmer days/months in CT than cold and snowy that's why I'll never get it myself. And roads are cleared or melted quick around this state after snow.
Maybe we just don't get it enough to get them used to it or move. Maybe that's the issue. They haven't experienced an actual cold climate. We're a coastal state for crying out loud, not even an interior or high elevation state.
I understand about complaining during the actual weather you don't prefer, but to says Connecticuts climate is cold is funny.
The way to look at this is to show the actual climate average comparisons.. Using just the winter average of all the highs and lows for each state...
Connecticut's Winter Average is 28.5°. Kansas is 31.9°. Nevada 32.2°. Virginia 36.8°. North Carolina 42.1°
Michigan 21.7°. Vermont 19.4° Maine 16.8°. Minnesota 12.4°. Alaska 2.6°.
CT falls in the middle somewhere but a colder climate it's not.
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) but by and large I believe that figure is reasonable close.
