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.
One last thing, Granitestater you are so right about the temp differences in NH. Many a time I've left Northern MA dressed ok for the weather, gotten up around Franconia and Littleton only to realize that I'm freezing. I've actually had to stop and buy extra sweatshirts because I wasn't dressed warm enough.
Whitefield, NH was -19F this morning so it can get very cold there this time of year. However, it had been fairly mild the prior few weeks so you know the cold was right around the corner.
lilred, I live in S. Texas, next to Corpus Christi. Granted, we don't experience near the seasonal changes as you would further north, but there are differences. Basically, it goes from very warm over the spring/summer/fall months to mild over the winter. Here is a synopsis of our weather over the year:
Summer: Humid and warm/hot, with afternoon temps in the low 90's, lows in the 75-82 degree range. Some seabreeze tstorms that popup in the afternoons, and a pretty good breeze that mitigates the heat quite well.
Fall: September-October tend to be just like summer, with highs from 85-95 degrees, lows from 65-80 degrees. There will be a cold front or two that moves through in late October, pushing daytime highs into the 70's, with lows in the 50's for a day or two. November is absolutely beautiful weatherwise, with highs in the 70's and 80's, lows in the 55-65 degree range. Cold fronts that make it this far south in November may give us a day or two in the 60's, and we will see our first lows in the 40's during these times. Fall is also our wettest time of year, and early fall will also see our highest chances of seeing tropical disturbances (although not too much of a threat on this part of the Texas coast usually).
Winter: Mild weather is the rule with early December seeing a continuation from November (70's and 80's daytime, 50's to near 70 at night), with mid to late December seeing the first freeze (although some years don't see a freeze at all). Late December to the beginning of February is our "winter" with highs in the 60's, 70's, and lower 80's (although there a couple of days where the temps only make it to the 40's and 50's, while there have been days in the 90's (!) too). Overnight lows are typically in the upper 40's, 50's, and 60's (although we do have 3-4 nights a year where freezes can occur). On rare occasions, record lows in the teens and 20's have been seen. Snow almost never falls here... maybe once about every 15 years?? And then, its just usually a trace (exception: Christmas 2004 saw 3-7" of snow fall!!!). Our last freeze occurs around the end of January. February temps start to warm up, and by the end of the month, most days are in the 70's to 80's, with lows in the 50s to lower 60s.
Spring: Warm, humid. Temps early in spring are generally from 75-85, rising to the 80's to lower 90's in April and May. Lows are from 55-65 early in spring (early to mid March), rising into the 60's to lower 70's in April, and from 70-80 in May.
Lil, most houses in the north don't have radiators anymore unless you prefer the very old houses.
I know a few of your questions were answered, but your house would more then likely have a furnace/central AC unit and you'd probably heat with natural gas. There are houses that have electric heat and at one point, it was considered to be extremely expensive to heat that way. That has sort of changed and it's probably not much higher then heating with natural gas. The good part about electric heat is that you may have a thermostat in nearly every room and if it gets extremely cold, you could shut a room up and turn the heat way down. You can also regulate it that your bedroom is cool if you like sleeping that way.
I'm sitting here and I'm cold right now, but I'm glad I don't live quite as far north as DaninEFG does.
Granite, are you getting slammed with the blizzard now, too?
However, I hope my experience is like Dan's, being born in the South but always wanting to live in a cold climate. My mom likes the cold weather better too and growing up in the upper Midwest(Virginia, MN and Iowa City) she experienced quite a bit of it, but she is afraid of all the bad things that come with a cold climate.
She was thrilled to hear that nobody uses tire chains or even snow tires anymore.
I hope it works out for you too.
Myself and most of my family, few of us ever "enjoyed" any temps under 60 F;
we just have different levels of tolerance to undesireable weather.
That said, in Toronto 60+ F highs are scarce 6.5 months a year, and 60+ F lows are scarce 8-10 months a year.
So "summer" is overwhelmingly-popular in my family.
We have several relatives who took opportunties to move to southern parts of the USA ages ago,
and none of them have EVER wanted to move back.
"Snow tires" is technically an outdated term as they were designed ONLY for deep snow.
"All-season tires" were not "designed" to remain flexible below 45 F,
so even on a dry road at 10 F there is a noticeable loss in grip.
Perhaps 20% loss of grip at 10 F vs. the same all-season tire at 70 F?
Also, all-season tires usually perform perform poorly in deep snow or ice;
they are good "enough" to get you through 5 inches of snow, or some grip on ice,
but "winter driving" with these tires requires some skill and a lot of attention; easily stressful for many people.
Once the snow is deep enough to touch your underbody, getting stuck is almost-routine.
"Winter tires" is a new term;
they have a different kind of rubber designed to remain flexible down to at least 0 F.
They are also designed with features that allow them better grip on ice, as well as a tread pattern that bites into deep snow.
With a good set of winter tires, driving through ice and deep snow isn't much harder than driving on a rain-slicked road.
I've driven in snow so deep it was touching my front bumper, (15") and these tires allowed me to "ram" or "plow" my way through.
Last edited by ColdCanadian; 12-19-2009 at 08:16 PM..
Granite, are you getting slammed with the blizzard now, too?
Not at all. I am located in the interior Northeast, a little further removed from the coast. The forecast is for a few inches of snow. 50 miles to the south, 12 inches or more could fall.
Myself and most of my family, few of us ever "enjoyed" any temps under 60 F;
we just have different levels of tolerance to undesireable weather.
That said, in Toronto 60+ F highs are scarce 6.5 months a year, and 60+ F lows are scarce 8-10 months a year.
So "summer" is overwhelmingly-popular in my family.
We have several relatives who took opportunties to move to southern parts of the USA ages ago,
and none of them have EVER wanted to move back.
"Snow tires" is technically an outdated term as they were designed ONLY for deep snow.
"All-season tires" were not "designed" to remain flexible below 45 F,
so even on a dry road at 10 F there is a noticeable loss in grip.
Perhaps 20% loss of grip at 10 F vs. the same all-season tire at 70 F?
Also, all-season tires usually perform perform poorly in deep snow or ice;
they are good "enough" to get you through 5 inches of snow, or some grip on ice,
but "winter driving" with these tires requires some skill and a lot of attention; easily stressful for many people.
Once the snow is deep enough to touch your underbody, getting stuck is almost-routine.
"Winter tires" is a new term;
they have a different kind of rubber designed to remain flexible down to at least 0 F.
They are also designed with features that allow them better grip on ice, as well as a tread pattern that bites into deep snow.
With a good set of winter tires, driving through ice and deep snow isn't much harder than driving on a rain-slicked road.
I've driven in snow so deep it was touching my front bumper, (15") and these tires allowed me to "ram" or "plow" my way through.
Thank you for that explanation. Are they commonly referred to as winter tires now or is that only a Canadian thing? In the US, we still refer to them as snow tires. I am trying to convince my father that all-season tires are not very good in severe winter driving conditions or deeper snows.
Thank you for that explanation. Are they commonly referred to as winter tires now or is that only a Canadian thing? In the US, we still refer to them as snow tires. I am trying to convince my father that all-season tires are not very good in severe winter driving conditions or deeper snows.
Dunno about the U.S.A., but "winter tires" is the correct term here.
(average Canadians still call them "snow tires" as slang too, but tire stores won't/shouldn't )
I've checked tread flexibility by pressing it with my thumb;
at -10 F, my winter tire tread blocks are still about as soft as an all-season tire's tread blocks at 90 F.
Yet I have put 10,000 miles (approx.) on them, and they're still fine;
Probably could easily last 20-30k miles.
I put on winter tires when we first get weather where 60 F is scarce (mid-late Oct)
and take them off when 60 F isn't scarce; (mid-late April)
I've even driven with them on a few days where it's mid-70's F; no worries... just that's not "recommended."
(accelerates treadwear above 70 F )
I've even see a guy with "Winter Slalom" tires on a Grand Marquis when it was 87-89 F here in mid-June; his tires looked like they were sweating.
My experience is with front-wheel drive and all-seasons,
but I suspect that a 4x4 is nearly as handicapped with all-seasons...
Plus there comes a time when you need to TURN or STOP;
4x4/AWD doesn't make that easier than with 2wd.
Not at all. I am located in the interior Northeast, a little further removed from the coast. The forecast is for a few inches of snow. 50 miles to the south, 12 inches or more could fall.
Oh, you're fortunate that it isn't going as far north as your area. I know you like the cold and snow so you probably wouldn't mind it too much.
We have friends in southern NJ and they have over 2 feet of snow. I just noticed a member who lives near their area.
This is extremely unusual for them. This morning I checked to see what their avg. snowfall is because they rarely ever mention anything about snow. Their avg. is a half inch of snow per year. I even had to email them to ask if it sounded accurate and they said they have many years with NO snow. TWC said that the snowfalls went way out to the coast. That's pretty odd, too.
I use to use "winter tires" in the winter time when we had back wheel drive cars. Many of the cars were all over the place in the snow. So we'd get a good "winter, heavy tread" tire just for then.
In the summer we put on the regular tires.
But, now with " all weather tires" and front wheel drive ,we do just fine. No more switching the back tires back and forth each season.
Just sticking with all weather has worked for a long time now. As long as I don't go back to having no front wheel drive.
We did call them "winter tires" years ago.........They worked for the issue at hand. They were definately needed.
Oh, you're fortunate that it isn't going as far north as your area. I know you like the cold and snow so you probably wouldn't mind it too much.
We have friends in southern NJ and they have over 2 feet of snow. I just noticed a member who lives near their area.
This is extremely unusual for them. This morning I checked to see what their avg. snowfall is because they rarely ever mention anything about snow. Their avg. is a half inch of snow per year. I even had to email them to ask if it sounded accurate and they said they have many years with NO snow. TWC said that the snowfalls went way out to the coast. That's pretty odd, too.
I received a dusting of snow here in Merrimack County from the Noreaster. Even southern NH and northern MA received very little snow from the storm. The snow/no snow accumulation line was extremely sharp as the low tracked a little further off to the east in the Atlantic. Ya, southern NJ has a pretty mild climate and does not get much snowfall at all on average. They really got hit hard by this one, though.
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.
)
