Climate Preference

It seems everyone has a preference for the type of climate they prefer.  Cold, warm, hot, mixed… I have lived in several climates, and I am starting to lean heavily toward one.  I will reveal my favorite a bit later.  I think a lot of a person’s preference toward one type of climate, or another depends on several factors.  For instance, do you like to snow ski, ice fish and snow mobile?  Do you like hiking, fishing from a boat, or swimming?  Or do you like a bit of everything or do you just stay inside all the time? 

I personally have lived most of my life in the upper Midwest.  Winters can be brutal with lots of snow and temps dropping to minus 20 with wind chills of minus 50 or worse and windy, windy, windy!  But the offset is the spring and fall are fantastic with temps in the teens to 60 degrees.  And finally great summers with temps in the 80’s to 90’s but only for 3 months or so.  Even with the great spring, summer and fall, it’s the terrible winters that made me finally decide to move south.  We owned a condo in south Florida for about 5 years before we decided to move there full time.  We thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent in the warm climate around our condo.  But once we finally moved here full time, it became clear that the heat and humidity are overwhelming for most of the year.  Our first year in Florida had an extremely hot and humid winter.  It was in the 90’s with high humidity during November through Feb and flowed right into the normal hot season.  So, there was no relief from the heat for the entire year. 

I also lived in Colorado for a period and really enjoyed the climate there.  It was mild all year round with access to skiing, fishing, hiking, etc., within a couple hours of driving.  Denver has more sunny days than Florida with mild temps and low humidity.  This can be an ideal climate for many people if you can handle the higher elevation and lower oxygen level.  I really liked living in Colorado and could have stayed if not for a job change and going back to school.  I have been back to Colorado for some mountain hiking which is fantastic with steep elevations, rough ground and beautiful scenery.  I could live here year-round but I also like to be close to the ocean so we are still looking for the ideal location.

Some people like the climate of the west coast which has a big range of climates from Washington state down to southern California.  Going from cloudy and rainy to the temperate climate of San Diego.  While this can be great for some people, the west coast can also be very densely populated which can be a negative. 

So, where does this leave us?  Florida is definitely not the place we will retire to.  We enjoy the year-round warm weather but it is too hot and humid for most of the year.  This makes it hard to really enjoy the outdoors.  We both love the northeast with great forests, old style architecture and cooler weather, but it can have some cold winters with heavy snow similar to the upper Midwest, so we have ruled that out. This leaves us with the mid-Atlantic region from New York to Virginia.  The climate here can have a wide range with New York probably the coldest and snowiest.  Since we are trying to avoid the extreme cold and snow, we are probably looking at the ideal location to be Virginia.  Mild winters with minimal snow, close proximity to great hiking in the Blue Ridge mountain range and also close to the ocean makes this an ideal area for retirement.  I am heavily leaning on this area and plan to visit Virginia multiple times to check it out.  What is your ideal climate?