Wondering — Best Place to Live for 4 Season Weather

[Dave Roock]

Hard to get a perfect 4 seasons. Here in southern Michigan, Winter was going very nice until second 1/2 of January - but 51 yesterday with overnight rain melted 85-90% of ice/snow. Still a few more cold weeks but looks to be warming up some (acceptable lol) soon. Spring, Summer & Fall were excellent.

[Luke Dupont]

As someone who grew up in the deep South and enjoyed only 3-4 months of the year out doors:

JAPAN!

I'm in Tokyo now. Everyone who comes here was like "Oh, Japan is so hot and humid..." but I find summer somewhat mild (AND MUCH SHORTER!) compared to Mississippi -- which is essentially a Sauna for 7-8 months out of the year. Winter, on the other hand, seems insanely cold for me despite it not actually getting that cold (-5C or so at most).

But, the thing I like the most? Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall are all roughly equal lengths and you can actually enjoy each season.

Now I get why the seasons are featured so heavily in Japanese art, poetry, and literature. You can really enjoy each one here.

[Derek Meyer]

I guess it depends on what you consider 4 seasons. Here in Moscow, we get below freezing temps and a fair amount of snow each year. The average temp in December/January is usually in the 30's. July, August and early September are the hottest months, usually in the upper 80's to mid 90's, with occasional days over 100. Nights aren't bad, as it usually cools down to the 60's and sometimes 50's. Spring is a rainy season, usually from March till Memorial Day. June is usually pretty mild, with temps in the 70's for the high. Fall is similar to Spring, with temps in the 50's and 60's for the high from late September through November. It starts getting cold around Halloween at night, down into the 30's.

Overall, it's been a great place to live. I've been here for 34 years now, and I have no desire to move. It's much better than the Southern Idaho desert, where I grew up and had nosebleeds every other night because it was 85 degrees at 3 am with 10 percent humidity or less. I don't miss those days at all.

[Curt Harms]

Texas doesn’t have a state income tax but they get you on the property tax. Last year we paid 11,000 dollars on the homestead and just under 7,000 for the 1650 square foot rental property.

Holy Cow! It sounds like somebody from Jersey designed your property tax structure. New Jersey is notorious for their Real Estate taxes. When I first moved to this area SWMBO was a Real Estate broker. I looked at her listing books and gosh, there were some pretty nice properties for pretty nice prices in Hunterdon county. Then she pointed out the annual taxes.

[Mark Blatter]

I have lived in MT, UT, FL, RI, WA, UT, MT, UT, CO & UT in that order. I can say that as much as I would like (I think) to live in TN or KY for the weather it won't happen. All my kids are in the west.

From a weather viewpoint, I love the spring, summer and fall in MT. I have lived half my life there and while the winters have ameliorated since the '60s it can still be, umm unpleasant there in Jan (Nov - Feb actually).

CO is a nice place for all four seasons, though winters can give you a hammer now and then, but short lived. I have seen 15" of snow fall on Mon/Tue and it is gone by Wed.

UT is nice though the summers are heating up each year. Used to be we would get a day or two each summer above 100, but now it is not uncommon to have 10 - 15 days in a summer north of 100, but it is a dry heat...just like your oven.

After living on the east coast for a while, I won't go back to live. I enjoy a relative humidity in the 25-35% range too much. When we first moved to Jacksonville, we learned to put all cereals, crackers, etc in locking containers to keep them from going to mush. In Utah, you learn that when your brown sugar gets hard and dried out to put in a slice of bread. Different ways of living.

The perfect climate for living is spring, summer, fall in Montana and winter in HI. Few can afford it. Anywhere west of the divide means drought, but no hurricanes and virtually no tornadoes.

The middle of WA would not be a bad place, like the Tri-Cities area or Yakima. Lots of fruit/vegetables grown in the Yakima area, not just apples.

I would stay away from southern WY though unless you like to be snowed in for a week or two. I have seen Cheyenne closed down due to blizzards for 2 - 3 weeks at a time. Yet Denver 100 south gets more reasonable snow that melts.

[Rob Luter]

Down state Indiana is nice. Mild winters, great spring and fall, summers are warm but tolerable. It’s a well run state with property taxes limited by state law. Roads are good. Lots of lumber. You are convenient to a number of larger cities too. We’ve thought about retiring down there and getting away from the lake effect snow in South Bend.

[Rich Riddle]

Tennessee, and it's also rated first for retirees for several reasons. High sales tax though.

[Gregg Markowski]

We were thinking about Eastern TN ( Johnson City/Bristol area ) because we like to trout fish. My wife is from Hawaii and hates snow, I am from WI but lived in UT, MI, CT and IN. We would drive 8 1/2 hours to fish and looked for property there but it was slim pickens and kind of expensive so we started looking around for something closer to home ( Indainapolis ) and came up with South central KY between Dale Hollow and Lake Cumberland on the Cumberland River. We have a house on the river and a Barndominium on 8.5 acres a couple hundred yards away. Taxes are 1900 for both. I am building an in ground greenhouse right now to grow year round we are in growing zone 6b. . Its pretty much perfect but the humidity in July and August is brutal that's what AC is for. Cost of living is low, services are meager, town is 20 minutes away, Walmart and Big Box stores are 45 minutes, airport 2 1/2 hr. I don't think there is a perfect spot with no downfalls everything comes with tradeoffs.

[Clifford McGuire]

I can handle a wide swing in temps.

For me, I need sunshine and low humidity. I can be outside all day in 20 degree weather, as long as it isn't damp. I lived in Wisconsin for 50+ years. Winters are cold, damp and somewhat windy. Yuck!

[Andrew Joiner]

I found my dream weather location in the Columbia River Gorge near Hood River. We have what's called microclimates here in the summer and a little bit in the winter.
If you look to the West you see green tree covered mountains in the summer. If you look to the east you start to see more and more Brown dead grass.
I lived most of my life in Minnesota and I'm used to extremes. Cold Winters and hot humid Summers with plenty of mosquitoes. My first trip here from Minnesota was in July to windsurf for a few weeks. It was like heaven, no bugs flies or mosquitoes! Most summer days average around 80 degrees. On the hot days, 90° is pretty extreme for here, it feels cool in the shade because of the extremely low humidity. In Minnesota on a 90° summer day if you go in the shade for relief it doesn't feel much cooler and there's more mosquitoes!
Now that I've lived in Oregon for almost 30 years I can still say it's like a dream climate. On a very rare slightly humid day in the summer it always amuses me. The locals will complain, but I always laugh and say this is nothing like Minnesota humidity.
In the winter a cold day is below 40°, which is rare. But even when it's an average winter day of 45° some people will go out and warm up their cars before they get in them. I'm so amused at that because in Minnesota I grew up doing it only when it was below zero.

[John Goodin]

Or Jersey modeled itself after Texas. I work in real estate and many newcomers are quite surprised when they see the numbers. Very few clients are from out of state are retirees and those that are usually are moving in to be close to family.

[Matt Day]

Virginia/West Virginia

[Alan Lightstone]

Salmon, cabbage and potato with a bit of moose and caribou does not score as a well balanced diet. You want some lichen or seal fat with that?

Ah, the number of times I've said just that. We're addicted to the Alaska "reality" shows on TV, and always shake our heads about their diets (although there are plenty of hints that they get other food with continuity errors you pick up. My favorites were the one where she was cleaning out her outboard motor line with a Talenti gelato container, or the couple who are so inept you think they're going to starve, when you hear that the rats ate their bagels. Bagels?!!??)

As my dad near Tampa FL says, 'there is an alligator in every river.'

True too. And in every pond at some time of the year.

I really liked the four season climate in North and South Carolina. Ashville is very nice (our friends are building there), but prices are crazy. Chapel Hill is a nice college town, but again prices are insane.

The Midwest had its advantages, but living in a dying/dead auto town (Dayton) had a downside too. Not necessarily when working in healthcare like we do, but for your patients and neighbors.

Thrilled I moved out of NY state. Don't miss it.

Travelled all over the country years ago lecturing. Hit all 50 states, actually. The by far strangest city I went to was Little Rock, Arkansas. Can't even describe it. Molokai was bizarre too, but that's certainly not four seasons, and has pretty well cut itself off to non-locals by ending ferry service.

[andrew whicker]

As someone who lives in UT / The West, I would say stay away.. we are environmentally dying out here. That's not exaggerating. We getting hotter, less snow (means less water), great lake is drying up, the huge reservoirs in S Utah / N AZ are drying up big time, air pollution is getting worse... I'm thinking of moving even though I love the mountains. : (



I have often thought of TN. I'm from Indiana originally, but there's no way I'm going to go back to living in corn fields, so I think TN would be a good choice (can still rock climb and mtn bike). Maybe WA or N. Cali. I also really really liked Whitefish, MT. But what do you do out there for work?

[Mark e Kessler]

If you move to Vermont you get 6 seasons, Summer, Fall, Stick, Winter, Mud, and finally Spring…