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What is easier to tolerate? I'm not elderly yet, but when we move, I hope we stay forever. What do you think is hardest on the elderly?
When you are retired, you don't have to deal with the ugly part of snow as much and that is driving in it, shoveling and scraping off your windhield early in the morning. You just don't go outside until conditions improve because you don't have to go outside. The same is true with intolerable heat. So, I think it comes down to which condition don't you like for a long stretch. I prefer 4 distinct seasons so I stayed away from moving to a gulf coast state. I don't want 6 months or more of summer.
I am not a fan of any kind of snow.
I hate cold weather in general
Snow makes driving conditions dangerous (Making the kids miss days in school), which can also lead to other problems. Like kids throwing snowballs at every car that passes by.
When you are retired, you don't have to deal with the ugly part of snow as much and that is driving in it, shoveling and scraping off your windhield early in the morning. You just don't go outside until conditions improve because you don't have to go outside. The same is true with intolerable heat. So, I think it comes down to which condition don't you like for a long stretch. I prefer 4 distinct seasons so I stayed away from moving to a gulf coast state. I don't want 6 months or more of summer.
That is true, but I think most of the elderly will move to warmer states, because naturally, as you age, your blood circulation slows; increasing the chance of one feeling colder, & the chance of arthritis increases, and cold weather is a lot harder on arthritis than warmer weather is.
With that in mind, the warmer states appear to have more physicians per person; of which I'm sure most doctors would recognize the need for their services even more in the warmer states with more elderly residing there.
Brutal summers are by far worse for me than brutal winters. Chicago had very brutal winters-- some years-- but I just couldn't take the summers of the deep south. Los Angeles is nowhere near as mild as people would like to believe (once you leave the coast) and it's absolutely killing me.
I can take cold. Put on another sweater. Stay indoors. Granted, I'm an indoors person; the only way you would catch me in the Great Outdoors is dead. I used public transit and never really dealt with winter.
Heavy summers are inescapable.
My last comment is this: You stay clean in winter. There are literally days in July and August where I'm sweating by the time I get to my car after having showered minutes before. Ugh, it's so disgusting. Everyone is sweaty, everything looks so rundown and impoverished, the sunlight is absolutely nightmarish... It just beats you down and down until you feel tired and angry. Everyone is tired and angry, traffic is a nightmare and then you have to fear the power outages... it's quite literally hell.
I think the thing about hot summer days in LA is that summer lasts forever & by October most people are getting real tired of the heat [esp since it stays hot right into early November]. But as others have pointed out, even on really hot days most nights eventually drop into the 60's by early morning & all-night AC isn't necessary except during a few really humid periods. But summer heat is still better than the kind of cold found in northern states during winter. I like that a pair of shorts & flips flops is all I need. It has to be expensive living in snowy climates because of all the coats\ hats a person has to wear.
I ‘m sure I’ll catch it for this (and it won’t be the first time)…but I can’t resist:
What is brutal cold on average in the USA? 5 F in Fargo…15 F in Chicago or Buffalo…the 20’s in Las Vegas or Washington DC…the 40’s F in Los Angeles or Jacksonville? Below is a map of average minimum temperatures in January (the coldest month of the year) across the USA. In about 95% of the USA…the coldest nights of the year average above 0 F. Only in extreme northern North Dakota and far northern Minnesota…do the nights in the coldest month of the year average a few degrees below zero. In fact, a huge swath of the USA from New Mexico to Boston has average January lows above 20 F. Only parts of the Intermountian West have a large area below 20 F.
Yet, huge Canadian cities like Regina, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Montreal, and Quebec…etc all have average winters lows well below 0 F. Inhabited regions of the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada have average winter lows of -25/30 below zero. Large cities in northeast China like Harbin, Daqing, Qiqihar, …etc all have average overnight lows of -20 F…and think nothing of it. Russian cities like Novosibirsk, Verkhoyansk, Yakursk…etc has average nights that are -40 to -50 F below zero in January (with wind chills of -80 below zero). Even wimpy Moscow falls below zero in January on average.
Then consider truly cold isolated “Polar Regions” in terms of “brutal cold”. Places in the Arctic and Antarctic have average daily lows of -70 to -90 F (not including wind-chill). At Eismitte, in Greenland (a true town) the average winter lows are -66 …with wind chills on 1/3 of the nights more than 80 F below zero. Vostok, Antarctica has an average August temperature of 74 below zero…with normal overnight lows of -88 F. A reading of -128.6 F was measured at Vostok, Antarctica in 1997…and the estimated wind-chill at that time was 150 to 165 F below zero.
Is the cold anywhere in the USA …all that “brutal” in winter?
I would love to own a beach front house in malibu,ca. The weather is near perfect yr round. Often in the summer its 95 or warmer here yet in malibu its a comfy 70 degrees. Summers in so.ca/inland are brutal. Winters are mild. Im NOT looking forward to summer 2010. In the 11 yrs i have been here in yucaipa i have always used my cooler in may/june. Last yr was the first time i didnt use it until the first week of july. Its ALWAYS hot/dry here on july.4th. It has never ever rained on independence day. When i lived in penna it has been cool & rained often during july. Summers in johnstown,pa were often wet unlike summers in ca. My first summer here was a total shock to me. I have never delt with such intense heat & no rain. I still hate it many yrs later but im used to it.
Malibu is prone to fires, mudslides and homeowners associations.
Having lived in both extremes .. I will take the brutal summers, although I don't have the option at the present. You get more sun and spring starts much earlier, which is a natural mood elevator.
I can tollerate severe cold against severe heat. At least when its cold you can do something about it by adding more clothing. The heat is the opposite; you cant do anything and can only remove so much clothing. I cant stand the AZ heat at all.
Let's see.... basically we have Phoenix versus Fargo, ND? If climate is the only consideration, then I choose Phoenix. Yes, summers are hot. But then it's really perfect for a solid 6 months, sometimes up to about 8 months. So you get perfect weather for about half the year in exchange for enduring the other half, with about 2 months of pure hell right in the middle. When it comes right down to it, that's not too bad. The midwest has brutal winters (the constant gloom is actually worse than the cold), but then it has sultry, muggy summers. At least they're short. There's a few weeks in spring and fall that are nice across the midwest, no doubt.
But how big an issue is climate really? Sure, it's a factor, but it's clearly not the only one. Quality of Life is a factor too -- and a lot of the "perfect climate" places arguably suffer on that.
It depends.
I can tolerate cold weather pretty well. It starts to get unbearable if the high is in the low 20s.
I can't tolerate too much heat. I like summer, but I'm much happier when the high is in the mid 70s rather than the mid 80s, which is VERY uncomfortable for me.
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