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.
You are the winner, Wichita is less than 100 miles from the Oklahoma border and considerably further south and west than Kansas City. Winds from the southwest keep Wichita very warm and nice by midwestern standards in the winter, many days in the 60's which makes me jealous of Wichita in the winter. The place is a hell hole in the summer, however, as it can reach 100 degrees for days or weeks at a time. I think the Springfield/Joplin MO area might be just a bit more tolerable than Wichita in summer, but as you go east from there into to southeastern MO, south Illinois and Indiana, they may not get as hot, but they get quite a bit more rain and cloudy days, and the weather systems can tend to stall out more there like when a nor-easter system comes around, with more gloomy days than the western plains states.
The great lakes region has the nicest summers, the lakes keep them a little cooler where a city like Milwaukee will average upper 70's, while Iowa will average mid 80's, and Kansas mid 90's.
Springfield, Joplin, and Wichita are more southern than midwestern overall. They have nothing in common in terms of climate with the Midwest anyway. The Midwest is northern by default, and neither of those three cities are northern at all.
Springfield, Joplin, and Wichita are more southern than midwestern overall. They have nothing in common in terms of climate with the Midwest anyway. The Midwest is northern by default, and neither of those three cities are northern at all.
When they show the regional maps on our local news, Wichita is always down there basking in the bottom corner of the map, which is often ridiculously warmer than anywhere else. You know Kansas was a union state like back in the civil war, right? Kansas is part of the midwest, Missouri is too, but it has some confederate roots, so your argument for it being more southern, especially the far southeastern part, might not be completely false. Maybe for Joplin & Branson which has a Nashville thing going. Cape Girardeau is probably more midwestern than southern, as is Evansville IN, and Louisville KY, which are in close proximity to Cincinnati OH. All of these cities are a lush tropical paradise compared to what we get, lol. It was pretty much nothing but cold from Christmas day up until last week here. I think we bottomed out at 18 below zero on one of those cold nights. You could still walk on frozen ponds and lakes up until a couple weeks ago.
Wichita gets a little less rain than other places in the midwest, but the humidity from the gulf does not allow the dry heat they get in places like Phoenix. You could have heat indexes of 120 degrees which can go on day after day. I can't take that kind of heat for a bike ride, but I really enjoyed that one summer we got in 2012 which was the only one I can remember that had the really dry heat feel like Phoenix. We had many days over 100 degrees, but with dewpoints in the 30's and 40's, which actually made the heat index less than the actual temperature. That almost never happens here on a hot day. One of those days it was 107 and was still able to ride my bike 30 miles without too much trouble, I would never be able to do that under the normal humidity conditions we have in mid summer, on a 107 degree day. What was nice about that dry heat, you don't sweat so bad, but when you do, the slightest little breeze feels so good and riding a bike, you can stay dry making your own wind, lol. The bad thing about that summer of 2012, everything turned brown and died, except the weeds. Trees were dropping branches left and right on the trails, and whole trees just fell over. They were about to put us on water rationing for the first time since '77 in Des Moines.
When they show the regional maps on our local news, Wichita is always down there basking in the bottom corner of the map, which is often ridiculously warmer than anywhere else. You know Kansas was a union state like back in the civil war, right? Kansas is part of the midwest, Missouri is too, but it has some confederate roots, so your argument for it being more southern, especially the far southeastern part, might not be completely false. Maybe for Joplin & Branson which has a Nashville thing going. Cape Girardeau is probably more midwestern than southern, as is Evansville IN, and Louisville KY, which are in close proximity to Cincinnati OH. All of these cities are a lush tropical paradise compared to what we get, lol. It was pretty much nothing but cold from Christmas day up until last week here. I think we bottomed out at 18 below zero on one of those cold nights. You could still walk on frozen ponds and lakes up until a couple weeks ago.
Wichita gets a little less rain than other places in the midwest, but the humidity from the gulf does not allow the dry heat they get in places like Phoenix. You could have heat indexes of 120 degrees which can go on day after day. I can't take that kind of heat for a bike ride, but I really enjoyed that one summer we got in 2012 which was the only one I can remember that had the really dry heat feel like Phoenix. We had many days over 100 degrees, but with dewpoints in the 30's and 40's, which actually made the heat index less than the actual temperature. That almost never happens here on a hot day. One of those days it was 107 and was still able to ride my bike 30 miles without too much trouble, I would never be able to do that under the normal humidity conditions we have in mid summer, on a 107 degree day. What was nice about that dry heat, you don't sweat so bad, but when you do, the slightest little breeze feels so good and riding a bike, you can stay dry making your own wind, lol. The bad thing about that summer of 2012, everything turned brown and died, except the weeds. Trees were dropping branches left and right on the trails, and whole trees just fell over. They were about to put us on water rationing for the first time since '77 in Des Moines.
Kansas sure was a union state back in the civil war, but culturally has been trending more southern over time as it just isn't influenced by states north of it very often at all. Johnson County, KS is basically a cultural island as it is a wealthy suburban county that has little in common with the rest of the state. The "social conservative" Bible Belt mentality is common in many areas of Kansas, and Brownback ran the entire state into the ground, causing even more of a brain drain. In terms of climate, Kansas has next to nothing in common with the Midwest, gets very little snow, little in the way of sustained cold temperatures, and has the worst heat and humidity of anywhere I've ever lived, one of a long number of reasons why I left as soon as I could. Try an air temperature of 108F with a dewpoint of 81F. A heat index value of 125F, felt like I was going to suffocate to death by going outside doing physical activity for two minutes. The severe drought of 2012 was brought on by record warm temperatures in March in the upper Midwest, Madison, WI had high temperatures in the 80s. You had a strong ridge of high pressure centered over the central US keeping all precipitation away in that case.
Wichita, Springfield, Joplin, and Cape Girardeau are located at similar latitudes- (37.2-37.7). Those are quite southern latitudes in my opinion with extremely hot and humid conditions being common, NOTHING northern about them at all. Evansville and Louisville are both river cities with humid sub-tropical climates, nothing northern about those two cities either, but Evansville might have more of a Midwest culture. Cincinnati is more like the Midwest than either Evansville and Louisville, but does indeed have southern influences as well.
If you posed this question to someone in either Mobile or Savannah, they would laugh and respond by answering with either Nashville, Dallas or Oklahoma City.
Weather in Chicago isn't all that bad. Think we ran the AC for ~7 days last summer.
Yeah I think a lot of this is subjective. People keep saying St Louis or some other areas on the southern fringe and I would say those areas with terrible hot and humid summers would be far down on the list.
I would much rather deal with more cold in the winter than I ever would heat in the summer. I've always liked Chicago's weather. A nice mix, amazing summers, great fall, decent spring and then winter to balance it out. The cold here doesn't really bother me, it comes and goes for 3 months and then it's pretty much over and things at least stay above freezing.
If you posed this question to someone in either Mobile or Savannah, they would laugh and respond by answering with either Nashville, Dallas or Oklahoma City.
Mobile and Savannah are off the radar screen. Much too far south in latitude, horrible climates with heat and humidity to go along with a torrid sun angle.
Mild winters (by Midwest standards i.e. still cold to Sunbelt residents): St. Louis or Indianapolis
Cold winters: One of the Twin Cities
Balanced seasons (for the most part): Chicago or Detroit
Snowy winters: Grand Rapids or Cleveland
For mild winters: St. Louis and Cincinnati
For mild summers: anywhere in Michigan would be best
For a balanced overall climate with all extremes for weirdos who just love different weather: Minneapolis
For me it would be a city with warm weather and not so freezing summer. And very low precipitation...Any cities fitting this criteria
Low precipitation? Good luck in the Midwest.
But for everything else I would suggest St. Louis or Cincinnati.
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.
