Wondering — Best Place to Live for 4 Season Weather

[John Goodin]

I often wonder… Where is the best place to live in the US to experience a four season climate. Specifically, a location where the winters are not long and brutal, but still has some snow, and the summers can get hot but are usually tolerable.

Having always lived in a place where the summers were long and the winters green, the thought of moving to a place that has a regular changing of the season is appealing. North Georgia or North Carolina come to mind.

So where?

[Aaron Rosenthal]

Minnesota might be nice this time of year.
OK, TOTALLY joking - I've never been there.

[Scott Winners]

I am looking at retiring to horticultural climate zone 6 or 7. I am currently in zone 1, I think you are in 8 or maybe 9. Pretty predictable east of the Mississippi, but kinda swirly out west.

to me zone 6 is far enough south to grow excellent tomato without needing a greenhouse, but far enough north to minimize summer misery. Zone seven looks a bit on the warm side.

[Prashun Patel]

Southern New Jersey or eastern Pennsylvania.

We may be the only 2 spots in the country that don’t often have extremes of any weather.

[Thomas Wilson]

I know the place but I’m not telling! We live variously in East Tennessee, Atlanta, GA, and Daytona Beach. They just put hurricane shutters on the place in Florida. That should say enough about that. As big cities go, Atlanta is great, but it is a city. East Tennessee is the sweet spot. Hurricanes peter out before they get here, earthquakes are rare and mild, tornadoes skip over the valleys. We have had two snowfalls this year both under 1.5” and gone in a day. Spring and fall are lovely. Come visit in dogwood blossom season. They have festivals all over to celebrate it.

[Ole Anderson]

Pure Michigan, of course! If you like more snow, move farther north in the state. Beautiful spring weather, warm summers without the summer long humidity, fantastic fall colors and pure Michigan winters. Ok, maybe I am exaggerating a bit, but the only thing missing is mountain views. Lots of water, and who couldn't love a state shaped like a mitten?

[Rod Sheridan]

Minnesota might be nice this time of year.
OK, TOTALLY joking - I've never been there.

I agree, I’m in Toronto and there’s enough difference between the seasons that you notice them, autumn’s a tie with winter for beauty.

Regards, Rod

[roger wiegand]

I really like it here in MA. I've lived farther south, but found the summers just too darn hot. Here you can be outdoors almost every day of the year. When living, for example, in St. Louis, we had to hide inside in the air conditioning for 2-3 months of the year.

One of the things that makes our climate especially nice is the amount of sunshine we get, year round. I grew up near Cleveland and though on paper the climates are very similar, here we get 100 more days of sunshine a year than sitting in the cloud bank off Lake Erie. It makes a huge difference.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Just spent my first fall/winter in 20 years in Virginia, and I’m loving it. I never thought I would say that about cold weather, but I have realized that changing seasons are a good thing. Fall was so amazing. Winter here wasn’t bad at all. I rode my motorcycle at least one time every week during winter. (My criteria is 50 degrees or warmer to take the bike out.)

[Rich Engelhardt]

We often have 4 season weather here in NE Ohio...

We even get in all in the same week!
Sometimes even in the same day!
Just this year - we went from over 50*F on Jan 1st to zero*F on the 23rd - and 2 feet of snow on the ground.


& so - no - I am not joking....
Weather here is so terrible I often wonder why in the world people ever decided to live here in the first place.

Then I realize - historically, they didn't!
NE Ohio, down through history, has always been a place people were passing through on their way to somewhere else. Even centuries before Columbus..

[Jim Becker]

I'm with Prashun, but in another recent thread on essentially the same topic, Tennessee was mentioned as a very nice target.

[Roger Feeley]

My wife and I visited the San Juan islands off Seattle once. The weather there is basically Hawaii but 20 degrees cooler. We’re it not for family, we would have strongly considered that part of the country.

We are rapidly approaching a time when year-round water availability should be part of the decision making process. Mountain snow caps are shrinking. Aquifers are running dry. Honestly, I don’t know where the best places are.

[Curt Harms]

I think it depends on whether your preferences run toward hot or cold. The only place I've heard of being about the same year round not surrounded by water are the higher elevations of South America not far from the Equator. People complain about the weather in S. Jersey and southern PA. but it really isn't too bad. Summers in S.E. PA. can be pretty humid but nothing like summers in Houston or the Gulf Coast for example. Winter snowfall averages around 22 inches but one snowfall often melts before another falls.

[Myk Rian]

This was just discussed.
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....g-South-Dakota

[Bill Dufour]

Lake Tahoe is nice but the snow is a lot in winter and unlike many places it does not melt away between storms.
Bill D