Is the winter really THAT bad? (Minneapolis: suburbs, yard, land)

[phlinak]

Originally Posted by audadvnc

I don't consider summer over until the second snowfall. Four (or sometimes 5) months of winter can be a drag some years, but it beats 4-5 months of insufferable heat like I experienced in Maryland.

I actually miss the "insufferable" heat of Maryland, so I'll trade you 4-5 of Alaska cold for your Maryland heat.

[City Data Guy]

Usually it sucks, but we had hardly any snow this winter. It was like we were in the Twilight Zone.

[ttaleg]

no, its 4 months....dec to march more or less. i lived there and than moved to duluth and will now move back. compared to Duluth, the winter is a breeze. and really only 2 months of jan and feb are the only really potential cold months. not saying i love it but its not as bad as ppl think

[K-Luv]

Originally Posted by Kebinminn

It runs about the same amount of time, it's just cold. I've found the older I get the more I hate it. In my 20s I didn't mind, in my early 30s I noticed it more and got tired of it, now that I'm close to 40 I hate it with a passion, each year it gets harder. I'm not into skiing or snowmobiling or the winter things people I enjoy so there's not much for me to appreciate. It's not the snow as much as the bitter cold temperatures, I find it exhausting.

I understand this is an old post, but I agree with it although in the end it was the humidity that "drove" me away.

I moved to Minneapolis from California and was actually bummed out by the first few winters. Not that it was too cold or too snowy, but that it wasn't snowy enough. I wanted blizzards and 6-foot snow banks. I wanted to experience the "I had to walk five miles through three feet of snow to get to school when I was your age" that I heard from my elders when I was a child. All I got was cold and ice. I did enjoy it, though. It was definitely different, but after some years it got old. Every year, something in March, I would think to myself This shiv is still going!? Then I would think the same in April.

I finally found that winter I was looking for in Maine. It was shorter by perhaps a month, warmer by around 20˚, and two to three times as snowy.

[Bslette]

Weim perfectly wired for Minnesota. After summer I can't wait for fall, after fall I can't wait for winter, after winter I can't wait for spring and after after spring I can't wait for summer. Perfect.

[Beenhere4ever]

Tell ya one thing I know for sure. Twin Cities winter is a ***** cat compared to the real tiger which is up in Fargo Moorhead. I came there from Portland Oregon and couldn't believe the brutality of it. Hightailed back to what I knew. Later I visited family down here and found it hard to believe Moorhead and Minneapolis were in the same state. So if you start with the worst parts of the state, you'll probably think "this aint so bad" when you get to the Twin Cities.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Beenhere4ever

Tell ya one thing I know for sure. Twin Cities winter is a ***** cat compared to the real tiger which is up in Fargo Moorhead. I came there from Portland Oregon and couldn't believe the brutality of it. Hightailed back to what I knew. Later I visited family down here and found it hard to believe Moorhead and Minneapolis were in the same state. So if you start with the worst parts of the state, you'll probably think "this aint so bad" when you get to the Twin Cities.

Yup. The wind makes a difference, as does going a few hundred miles north.

[Drover]

No wonder the region was settled by Scandinavians. Nobody else was crazy enough to do it.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Drover

No wonder the region was settled by Scandinavians. Nobody else was crazy enough to do it.

The book _Giants in the Earth_ by O. E. Rolvaag is a very good read. It took someone special to do what some of those folks did.

[angelsweb]

I read that book in college. As a Kentuckian getting ready to experience her first Michigan winter, it was terrifying.

Now I'm getting ready to move from Alabama to the northwest of the Twin Cities ... And I'm a lot older! Could be interesting.