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Cold and darkness create winter misery, at least for many people I know. Cold makes snow stick around longer - noticed this when I moved to DC and what did fall melted much faster than in western suburbs of Boston where I grew up. DC winters were still miserable, but less so.
To measure the above, came up with the Winter Misery Index. Take number of days with an average high under 50 to get the cold, up to 150. Add the latitude above 30N and multiply by 10, up to 150. This gives a max score of 300. Need this to account for darkness. Darkness is a big part of winter misery!
Snow's not included, because it correlates to cold, and also warmer weather and lower latitudes means faster melt even if it does snow.
Boston comes out at 273. DC 170. Makes sense based on my experience there, would say DC was just over 1/2 as bad.
Some #'s below are a little approximated:
No misery:
Miami 0
Houston 0
New Orleans 0
Some misery (0-100):
LA 35 (4:35p sunset in Dec isn't fun)
SF 70
Atlanta 38
Charlotte 50
Phoenix 35
Dallas 25
Oklahoma City 70
Getting miserable (101-150):
Nashville 110
Richmond, VA 120
Kind of miserable (151-225):
DC 170
St Louis 175
Denver 190
Seattle 210
New York 205
Just give me the Prozac (225+):
Boston 273
Minneapolis 300
Chicago 270
Detroit 270
Cleveland 240
Interesting thing is how few places are in the middle. Winter misery can be harder in Boston than DC. But basically it's either/or. I know I dread winter far less now that I live somewhere where the avg high never drops under 50. Wonder if these numbers resonate with people.
I'm not sure about this system though, -my area gets more winter sunshine than Nashville, only 4 days at 50F or less compared to Nashville at around 50, and doesn't see snow, yet is more miserable than Nashville. I know where I think would be more miserable.
Assuming I did this right, I got 40. My July average high is 16.2C
Somehow, my winters are more "miserable" than Dallas which has cooler winters and is more prone to snow and cold outbreaks with record lows much colder than anything possible here. Also, how are Phoenix's winters more miserable than Dallas'?
This system is flawed. It does not even consider sunshine hours or record high/low temps.
Location: Live:Downtown Phoenix, AZ/Work:Greater Los Angeles, CA
27,590 posts, read 14,711,118 times
Reputation: 9169
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheseGoTo11
Cold and darkness create winter misery, at least for many people I know. Cold makes snow stick around longer - noticed this when I moved to DC and what did fall melted much faster than in western suburbs of Boston where I grew up. DC winters were still miserable, but less so.
To measure the above, came up with the Winter Misery Index. Take number of days with an average high under 50 to get the cold, up to 150. Add the latitude above 30N and multiply by 10, up to 150. This gives a max score of 300. Need this to account for darkness. Darkness is a big part of winter misery!
Snow's not included, because it correlates to cold, and also warmer weather and lower latitudes means faster melt even if it does snow.
Boston comes out at 273. DC 170. Makes sense based on my experience there, would say DC was just over 1/2 as bad.
Some #'s below are a little approximated:
No misery:
Miami 0
Houston 0
New Orleans 0
Some misery (0-100):
LA 35 (4:35p sunset in Dec isn't fun)
SF 70
Atlanta 38
Charlotte 50
Phoenix 35
Dallas 25
Oklahoma City 70
Getting miserable (101-150):
Nashville 110
Richmond, VA 120
Kind of miserable (151-225):
DC 170
St Louis 175
Denver 190
Seattle 210
New York 205
Just give me the Prozac (225+):
Boston 273
Minneapolis 300
Chicago 270
Detroit 270
Cleveland 240
Interesting thing is how few places are in the middle. Winter misery can be harder in Boston than DC. But basically it's either/or. I know I dread winter far less now that I live somewhere where the avg high never drops under 50. Wonder if these numbers resonate with people.
I think you need to make an adjustment, west of the Rockies, you should extend the latitude requirement to 35°N, Phoenix should be a 0, same for LA, and it is humorous that you have Dallas, Houston and New Orleans all LESS miserable than Phoenix or LA lol
Dallas sees snow every year, and even Houston and New Orleans get annual freezes; while Phoenix and LA are generally frost proof, LA never sees highs below 50 and Phoenix only sees a high below 50 every 4 years
Location: Braunschweig 52N 10E/ Aachen, Germany 51N 6E
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It's quite the opposite for me, i would prefer a sunny 4c over a cloudy 12c day. Sun lifts the mood, and 4c in the sun feel much warmer than it really is
I agree, without sunshine hours this system makes no sense. I am pretty sure I would not find Minneapolis much more miserable than here with their whopping 2700 hours of sunshine a year.
Today it is 14c with a 13c dewpoint, making it feel quite a bit colder than it really is, and everything is grey and white, minus the brown / yellow dead leaves on the ground and the resisting green trees. Until March it will be like this quite often with lower temperatures, rarely reaching the -5c mark for sure, and if we're lucky we'll have snow or some occasional episodes of windy cold weather or rain, but otherwise, when it won't be miserable it certainly will be a dullfest.
There are many ways in which a winter can be miserable and / or uplifting.
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