Does the Carolinas have the "Goldilocks" climate on the East Coast? (warmest, averages)
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Wait. Stop. We are the United States. Does the US HAVEa Goldilocks Climate? And while I am here - wts isis that?
San Diego. Honalulu. Greater LA is pretty close to Goldilocks. The San Francisco bay area is very mild all year round. If any east coast city had Seattle's exact climate, everybody would be moving there. No summer heat and no winter snow.
But the OP was confining the question to the east coast. Nothing on the east coast has the ideal experienced by the mediterranean climate of California, so it becomes lessers of evil. Long tormenting southern heat or long oppressive northern cold. To my thinking, Virginia splits the different. By the time you get to Pennsylvania and most of New York state, winters are too long and cold. By the time you get to the Carolinas, summers are too long and hot. Both are better than the extremes of New Hampshire and Florida.
Virginia has the "Goldilocks" climate on the east coast to me. But who knows? Climate is in the eye of the beholder. All I know is, as I age I can't take cold anymore, so torrid summers here I come. I would rather be too hot and hide in the AC, than be too cold, slipping and sliding on snow and ice. I have no clue if I can handle them.
I live in NC. I love living here. I don't think we have the goldilocks climate. I am in the middle of the state, but have lived in the mountains and vacation regularly at the beach. The middle of the state is pretty much unbearable in the summer months between the heat and humidity. The winters are okay, usually not frigid, just a cold snap here or there and the occasional snow. At least there are enough evergreens that it's not brown and gray all winter long around here.
In the mountains, from November to the end of March, beginning of April, it's gray and brown. Even sunny days can be depressing. During the summer months, at the higher elevations, it's beautiful. Comfortable in the upper 70s to lower 80s during the day, down to the lower 60s at night. We lived there for 3 years and never turned on our A/C and during the summer we ate our meals on the deck every night if it wasn't raining. The winters were another story, the first snowfall could be in October, the last in May.
The OBX in the summer is so humid and stifling. Even with the ocean breeze and some days that "breeze" can be overwhelming and relentless. The winters are windy and while there can be some really nice days thrown in, it can be very chilly.
So yes, the state overall is great climate-wise, no place in the state is the ideal climate year round, in my opinion.
I live in NC. I love living here. I don't think we have the goldilocks climate. I am in the middle of the state, but have lived in the mountains and vacation regularly at the beach. The middle of the state is pretty much unbearable in the summer months between the heat and humidity. The winters are okay, usually not frigid, just a cold snap here or there and the occasional snow. At least there are enough evergreens that it's not brown and gray all winter long around here.
In the mountains, from November to the end of March, beginning of April, it's gray and brown. Even sunny days can be depressing. During the summer months, at the higher elevations, it's beautiful. Comfortable in the upper 70s to lower 80s during the day, down to the lower 60s at night. We lived there for 3 years and never turned on our A/C and during the summer we ate our meals on the deck every night if it wasn't raining. The winters were another story, the first snowfall could be in October, the last in May.
The OBX in the summer is so humid and stifling. Even with the ocean breeze and some days that "breeze" can be overwhelming and relentless. The winters are windy and while there can be some really nice days thrown in, it can be very chilly.
So yes, the state overall is great climate-wise, no place in the state is the ideal climate year round, in my opinion.
I agree. There's no perfect place year round in the state. IMO the southern Outerbanks and the area stretching from the SC border to Wilmington and Southport has the best climate in the state. Mt Mitchell has the best climate if you like cold weather though. Temperatures in the state actually vary a lot.
I agree. There's no perfect place year round in the state. IMO the southern Outerbanks and the area stretching from the SC border to Wilmington and Southport has the best climate in the state. Mt Mitchell has the best climate if you like cold weather though. Temperatures in the state actually vary a lot.
I agree with this as well. I mean the Eastern Piedmont and Coastal Plain, to me, has a pretty moderate climate IMO. As I said, not LA or San Fran moderate where temps rarely get below freezing or above 90 but when you compare NC/SC (outside much of the mountain areas due to their super cold, wet winters) to other places in the southeast - the weather doesn't seem as extreme. People complain about the heat and humidity in the Carolinas but places like Eastern Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi often has temps over 100 with some serious humidity. Plus, the south central states I have mentioned are more prone to tornadoes and more extreme severe weather than the Carolinas due to that hot Gulf air clashing with cold, drier air from Canada. Plus, the Appalachians do help a little to filter out some of the power out those of weather systems coming from the north and east.
I grew up in Coastal South Carolina and currently live in South Florida. Summers on the coast of South Carolina are far more hot and humid than they are here.
You can dine outside in South Florida in July and August. You cannot dine outside in the Low Country in those months unless you are directly on the ocean. I lived on the beach in Garden City Beach, SC for 12 years and have lived most of my life within two miles of the ocean and there are many, many nights the temperature (heat index) would still be 100 degrees at midnight.
There is nothing moderate about them.
Try walking down the street in Charleston, SC in August at noon. You can actually do this in South Florida.
I know all about SC, I got seriously deep roots there spend much of my childhood between there and NC. While I been to Florida, I never been to South Florida so I never physically observed the heat for myself but looking at the numbers, South Florida clearly can get hot but I do think the reason the summer heat felt more moderated there due to the ocean, more breezes and more storms/showers for relief. Charleston gets their share of scattered thunderstorms too though.
But I'm with you though, if I had to choose between Miami and Charleston, I choose Charleston, mainly because Miami is way less subject to cold temps. I prefer summer heat year round but hey, that' just me. I love the Carolina heat but I guess it's not for everybody.
This is why I never understood Long Islanders flocking to North Carolina because they want a "warm climate". If you want a new house for 300K less - I get it. If you want warm weather, I do not. The US East Coast is really only "reliably warm" all year long in South FL.
All of NC is Not the OBX. And, you can't go swimming there in January, either.
Yeah, this is true but NC east of the mountains, compared to the Northeast, does have a milder climate in the winter, even though it can get below freezing here many times though the year. But yeah, even in OBX, you can't even go swimming outdoors in January unless you got a heated poll and it's a very unseasonably warm day (which does occur a few times in NC depending on where you are).
Western NC is more like Colorado and eastern NC is basically like Guangzhou or Taipei.
Kind of, but I'd say western NC is more like in between Albuquerque and Denver but with a cooler, much more humid summer and east NC is not really that similar to anywhere in China. Chinese east coast cities are much more extreme even than US east coast cities because Eurasia is much larger than North America. The inverse applies for west coast European cities being milder than west coast US cities at the same latitude due to the difference in continent sizes.
San Diego. Honalulu. Greater LA is pretty close to Goldilocks. The San Francisco bay area is very mild all year round. If any east coast city had Seattle's exact climate, everybody would be moving there. No summer heat and no winter snow.
But the OP was confining the question to the east coast. Nothing on the east coast has the ideal experienced by the mediterranean climate of California, so it becomes lessers of evil. Long tormenting southern heat or long oppressive northern cold. To my thinking, Virginia splits the different. By the time you get to Pennsylvania and most of New York state, winters are too long and cold. By the time you get to the Carolinas, summers are too long and hot. Both are better than the extremes of New Hampshire and Florida.
Virginia has the "Goldilocks" climate on the east coast to me. But who knows? Climate is in the eye of the beholder. All I know is, as I age I can't take cold anymore, so torrid summers here I come. I would rather be too hot and hide in the AC, than be too cold, slipping and sliding on snow and ice. I have no clue if I can handle them.
Yeah this is a brilliant breakdown. However, I do have to say even VA summers (especially in the lowlands - highlands and western Piedmont may be a different story) don't be much cooler and less humid than NC but I do see your point. The Southeast coast (not counting the Gulf states) or rather east of the AL/GA state line and south of the MD/PA border (outside of much of the mountainous areas due to the colder winters even though they have less oppressive summer heat) seem to have least extreme weather east of the Mississippi. It might be because of the Appalachian Mountains helping to moderating things to an extent. Places like Atlanta is seen as great place to film movies because the weather is conducive to a longer season of filming - although they obviously get less days of pleasant weather to film projects outdoors than Southern California. Granted ALL the East Coast weather is more extreme and way less stable compared to those West Coast locations you mentioned. Weather wise, the main thing that holds LA and SoCal back is they are dry and when they do experience a heatwave, wildfires become more of a risk (even though wildfires happen outside of heatwaves, it's so dry there compared to many places but not quite a desert)
But I'm with you though, if I had to choose between Miami and Charleston, I choose Charleston, mainly because Miami is way less subject to cold temps. I prefer summer heat year round but hey, that' just me. I love the Carolina heat but I guess it's not for everybody.
My bad, I will choose Miami over Charleston because of the reason I have stated above. Charleston climate is okay but I rather not deal with cold at all. Miami does have it's cold nights a few times a winter but it is not enough to disqualify it for me. I'll choose DR or PR over either of them, though.
Having spent an August week in Charleston, I give this question a great big NO.
Charleston is in South Carolina not North Carolina. They do have different weather. The Outer Banks juts far out further east and is breezier than Charleston.
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