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When I first googled it, I thought, yeah! It has the perfect temperatures...but then I saw the rainfall.
I was thinking Bellingham, WA, too, but it's got the same problem. It's mild in the summer because it's cloudy and rainy most of the time. I used to live there. We used to joke about how many different ways the radio forecasts could describe precipitation. It is a beautiful university town with the San Juan Islands in view, and very close to Vancouver BC or Seattle. But, depressing weather most of the time.
I've lived in Portland and Seattle (cloudy, rainy, icy and not much snow), and a little town called Trout Lake next to Mt. Adams in the Cascade mountains, and even there, it's hot in summer, but the joke there is that you get 9 months of winter and 3 months of bad sledding. In other words, a very small window of anything besides rain and snow.
I know the west coast, and even Lake Tahoe wouldn't be perfect for you. Hot summers, cold winters. Beautiful, but extreme temps.
It's like in order to get sunshine in the summer, you'll get too much heat if you are anywhere that also gets snow.
I guess you'll have to figure out what matters most to you.
I also thought about the gold country in the mountains on your way out of Sacramento towards Lake Tahoe or Reno, like Placerville or Auburn, and it's hot up there in the summer, too. And not a lot of snow, but you'd sure be close to snow.
But the monsoon doesn't bring in humidity levels of the USA east of the Rockies.
When I first googled it, I thought, yeah! It has the perfect temperatures...but then I saw the rainfall.
I was thinking Bellingham, WA, too, but it's got the same problem. It's mild in the summer because it's cloudy and rainy most of the time. I used to live there. We used to joke about how many different ways the radio forecasts could describe precipitation. It is a beautiful university town with the San Juan Islands in view, and very close to Vancouver BC or Seattle. But, depressing weather most of the time.
I've lived in Portland and Seattle (cloudy, rainy, icy and not much snow), and a little town called Trout Lake next to Mt. Adams in the Cascade mountains, and even there, it's hot in summer, but the joke there is that you get 9 months of winter and 3 months of bad sledding. In other words, a very small window of anything besides rain and snow.
I know the west coast, and even Lake Tahoe wouldn't be perfect for you. Hot summers, cold winters. Beautiful, but extreme temps.
It's like in order to get sunshine in the summer, you'll get too much heat if you are anywhere that also gets snow.
I guess you'll have to figure out what matters most to you.
I also thought about the gold country in the mountains on your way out of Sacramento towards Lake Tahoe or Reno, like Placerville or Auburn, and it's hot up there in the summer, too. And not a lot of snow, but you'd sure be close to snow.
I don't think Flagstaff's monsoon season would put me off. One thing I didn't mention was that I love thunderstorms and the ones in the US seem to be on another level to what the UK gets.
Storms would be fine, especially if there is nice, dry weather in between. It's the persistent, depressing, week long rain that I want to get away from and the miserable and largely unchanging weather throughout the year.
As long as the hot weather is a dry heat I think it could be bearable. I read a book about travelling in the US where the author was in Arizona and commented that even though it was warm it actually felt comfortable without the humidity.
I'm surprised nobody has bothered to mention Asheville, North Carolina.
It is far from a large city, I'd say mid-sized for American standards. Asheville experiences a bit more humidity than those western cities, but due to it's higher elevation is significantly lower than many of it's neighboring cities.
Asheville experiences snow every winter but doesn't get too cold. Sure, you'll have a FEW colder nights than you would like, but this is as good as you're going to get ideally.
Summers are also much cooler than neighboring cities.. again, due to higher elevation.
If Asheville STILL isn't cool enough for you, Boone, a smaller town higher in elevation, would also be an ideal place to look.
At elevation 6,800 feet, it gets just enough snow (approx 45 inches annualy)
and nice warm summers with low humidity.
If you want more snow, nearby Ski Apache Resort has over 100 inches.
An excellent climate, imo.
I've always had a desire to move to the US, or at least visit for long enough to get a good appreciation of the place, but have never been able to decide the ideal place to live. I was wondering where I could ask this question and came across this forum, which seemed like a good place to ask.
I come from England where (as no doubt everyone is aware) the weather can best be described using words with four letters or several asterisks.
Ideally I'd like to move somewhere with four distinct seasons, but the biggest issue is humidity. I'm a pale, skinny Brit that doesn't cope well with high humidity or very hot weather. In fact, even on so-called 'hot' humid days in England (i.e. anything over 25°C / 75°F) I can feel uncomfortable. A dry heat is more bearable but anything over 80°F is just a bit too much.
Sunshine in summer is important though - otherwise it's not really a summer. I'd also like to live somewhere with some interesting scenery as I'd like to go walking/cycling/exploring - forests, hills, mountains, lakes etc. A major/large city would probably be out of the question as a place to live although a small town that's close to one would be good. Cities in England just aren't on the same scale as ones in the US and the sheer size would probably freak me out.
Initially I thought the coast of Northern California would be good as apparently the summers are sunny and dry but warm rather than hot. However, the winters aren't cold and that means no snow - which is just as important to me as sun in summer.
To be more awkward, I wouldn't like extreme cold weather either. If it's getting below 14°F then it's not pleasant.
Are there any places in the US that provide a climate/geography similar to what I described (assuming it made sense), or am I just being too idealistic?
Apologies if anyone has posted a similar thread which I haven't seen.
Northwest Montana fits this criteria perfectly, specifically the Flathead valley area. There's a resort in Whitefish that is absolutely stunning in the summer but is also used for lodging for people who like to ski in the winter.
I'm surprised nobody has bothered to mention Asheville, North Carolina.
It is far from a large city, I'd say mid-sized for American standards. Asheville experiences a bit more humidity than those western cities, but due to it's higher elevation is significantly lower than many of it's neighboring cities.
Asheville experiences snow every winter but doesn't get too cold. Sure, you'll have a FEW colder nights than you would like, but this is as good as you're going to get ideally.
Summers are also much cooler than neighboring cities.. again, due to higher elevation.
If Asheville STILL isn't cool enough for you, Boone, a smaller town higher in elevation, would also be an ideal place to look.
Asheville looks like a nice place and the weather doesn't seem too bad either. However, I think the American West is more inviting. It's such a world away from the UK in almost every single way but especially in terms of landscape. There's a sort of romance attached to it as well which is quite enticing.
I would recommend a town within a couple miles of a Great Lake. Usually the lake makes summer temps bearable and provides snow while increasing some frigid winter temps. Maybe something along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Anybody from that area have any insight, or another lake spot that is similar. I would recommend where I'm at but the north shore of Lake Superior gets a bit chilly in winter.
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