In the north central US, you have to stay indoors for a while because it's too cold. In the sunbelt, you have to stay indoors for a while because it's too hot. In CA, you have to stay indoors for a while because of the poor air quality.
Take your pic. CA folks seem to think the rest of the world is an inhospitable wasteland. Sure, CA is a bit more mild, but it's not perfect.
> you have to stay indoors for a while because it's too cold
The advantage with cold is that it’s possible to do something about it. You can always layer up and get better materials for your layers. I spend hours skiing outside at like -15F and am actually comfortable. In hot weather though, once you’re sprawled out naked on the ground, you’ve exhausted your means to get cooler without some kind of machine.
In CA, you have to stay indoors for a while because of the poor air quality.
Maybe once or twice per decade is the AQ so bad in CA you have to stay indoors. As opposed to weeks or months every winter (depending on your tolerance - I hate cold).
> Maybe once or twice per decade is the AQ so bad in CA you have to stay indoors
We definitely had stay-inside days this year and last year, and I could have sworn we did the year before as well. That blew through your per-decade quota in recent consecutive years.
I fully expect we'll have some stay-inside days next year too.
But I do agree that the number of days the air quality is bad just does not come close to the number of days where it's really cold or really hot in other places.
The entire Western US is in the midst of a climate change-induced super drought that is worst in at least 1400 years, probably longer. The air quality is degrading due to huge swaths of the area being engulfed is wildfire. Perhaps your statement was true for the past few decades, but certainly not now. Its not a fluke, its the new normal.
Air quality is getting to be a national issue. I think even Wyoming had some issues this season?
The problem is environmentalists don't want to do planned/controlled burning anymore, hence, the things burn by themselves on their own schedule now, out of our control.
I can't speak for the US, but in Australia this argument has been used as an untrue talking point being pushed by climate-change deniers. A cursory google indicates to me that in CA prescribed burns have actually been increasing over the last few years, so I suspect it's probably the case in the US as well. In Australia it's clear that the higher frequency of catastrophic wildfires is a direct consequence of climate change.
I grew up in Jersey and Maryland. The summers were quite hot, and the winters were quite cold. One winter in MD it snowed so much that heavy ice formed on power lines and took them down; power was out for six days.
Spend a few hundred dollars on some quality winter gear and don't worry about it.
Wear layers. A scarf makes a huge difference. Probably larger than you would think.
Chicago will probably get a "polar vortex" in February or March. It will be a week of really cold weather and then it will be over. You'll probably find that November and December are warmer than you expected. January is a bit dreary, but only because of the reduced daylight hours (compared to LA). Chicago is just a bit further north than NYC, but compared to Paris or London it gets a lot more winter daylight.
The think I've noticed about winter since moving to Chicago is that the really sunny days are the coldest and the cloudy days are warmer. If you've got large south-facing windows, you might need to close the shades or even open the window slightly when it is really cold. That sun can be intense!
Obviously an exaggeration but you can go to work in the dark and drive home in the dark on the shortest days of the year. Can be a real bummer for those that didn't grow up like that.
I live in New England and a bunch of people have moved up here from all over. I'm most curious about how they handle it getting dark at 4pm and everything being closed by 9.
Chicago doesn't get -40°. When I was in Champaign (admittedly, that's ~100mi south) for 6 years, exactly once did we have windchill reach -40°. Your typical "coldest low" in Chicago will be single-digit degrees Fahrenheit.
Per Wikipedia, Chicago's record extreme low is -25°F.
The winter gets cold. Big deal. From the way people talk these days you would think that human beings will shrivel and die if the temperature dips below 50F.
There are no -40 days in Chicago, but I'll agree the winter is unbearable. I don't mind the cold. I mind the never ending cold. December + January are fine, February is depressing, but March and April really are awful.
Even worse than the cold imo is the 'about to be cold' weather preceeding and following winter. Rain that freezes overnight and encases your car right when you have to run to work. Muck and mud everywhere the minute you step off a path. Everything green turns to brown. Coupled with the limited daylight and it's depressing, frankly.
I grew up there, and really the worst part was that stretch in February where it's overcast every single fucking day.
Then there's the humidity with 100+F days in the summer. And mosquitoes.
The other problem was I grew up in a reasonable, livable suburb, and now, when I go back there, I see that rents and housing are really extremely expensive compared to salaries. Jobs suck (there's no real tech industry anymore). And traffic in the suburbs is constant gridlock wherever you go. It's become a real horror show and I couldn't ever contemplate moving back. Weather/Climate is not even the consideration.
When the polar vortex dipped down in 2014 and 2019, wind chill did get that low in Chicago. I think it actually hit -50 F on the coldest day for one of them.
