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You really need to do your research/homework and preferably spend time in winter at any place you might move.
Winter is just plain tricky in the plains/upper midwest/new england. When you search winter weather statistics, any of your choices come up in the extremes but not every given year, of course. Upper Minnesota, Upper Michigan, particularly Marquette and the Keeweenaw Peninsula, and some places in Maine are regulars to the lists. As one poster mentioned so is Montana but not on your list!
We had a stretch in the midwest for 2-3 yrs. that were not even close to a "normal" winter, cold wise, snow wise, etc. Last winter and so far this winter have been more normal and then some with higher than usual snow amounts, windier and colder, too. You might like southern Minnesota or Wisconsin but definitely need to try them out ---in winter! Remember upstate New Yorkers probably measnure their snow in feet not incehs!
Last edited by susancruzs; 01-06-2009 at 06:59 PM..
Hmm, I hadn't considered the difference in sun exposure. What about someplace south of Lake Ontario like Ithaca vs. Madison or Minneapolis?
How can the cold in both places be the same if Wisconsin has more warm days? Sorry, speak slowly, for I am a native Texan used to varying degrees of HOT weather and don't really comprende how a day can be cold yet 80 degrees at the same time...? Is Wisconsin more like Denver with snow on the ground, sun in the sky?
I'm not too familiar with south of the Lakes for sunshine amounts,
but it should be similar to what I experience being close, but to the northwest of Lake Ontario.
I was talking about the overall, year-round climate.
Sorry for the confusion...
*It would depress me to see only a few summer highs above 75 F.
Where I am, our summers feel moderately-warm to most people. (75-80 F avg)
North and east of us, and in most parts of New England and Upstate NY, summers are only slightly-warm. (72-75 F avg)
We can all have snow and sun at the same time,
and Wisconsin is not comparable to a desert,
but the Great Lakes area is nearly as cloudy as stereotypical England in the cooler season.
We can easily go two solid weeks with zero hours of sunlight.
The only time our winds don't pass over any Great Lakes is when we get a sharp north or northeast wind.
Wisconsin would have more variable weather,
which would allow for more variability between sunny days and overcast days.
We are predominantly overcast.
Western NY is probably predominantly overcast too.
*The more variable the weather up north, the more likely you'll see sunny periods mixed in with the clouds, as no place near Canada is sunny most of the winter.
As has been said already the area from Bottineau North Dakota eastward to Hallock Minnesota along the Manitoba border is the coldest with Cavalier county nd the coldest spot in the lower 48.
The Upper Midwest is the coldest but New England and Upstate New York are too cold for comfort too.
Too cold for "comfort"?
Central North Carolina is "too cold for comfort" a lot of the winter, for me.
*However the main thing I'm concerned with is not getting my my butt whooped by the cold;
I think there is cold and then there is COLD! To me, the sun being out makes the difference. I will take a crisp, cold sunny day in January over a cloudy, overcast, damp 30+ degree any day.
Damp gets to me way more than 0, of course, this isn't taking into account whether the winds are howling! All bets are off if it is windy, here in TR, windy almost every day, living on the bump out!
A Cross-polar Siberian outbreak is what I am monitoring starting 6-7 days from now and impacting most of the US east of the Mississippi River. Lows in the Upper Midwest to the Lakes east to New England will likely be well below zero if the flow pattern sets up the way the models are indicating.
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Is Wisconsin more like Denver with snow on the ground, sun in the sky?
