Favorite Wintertime Cities

[LouisianaRush]

My favorite winter vacation is Finland. Helsinki is just gorgeous during winter and so is the Arctic Circle province of Lapland. Going during Christmas is absolutely stunning. We stayed at a winter resort about 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle in December. If you ever get a chance to go, I highly recommend it.

[isaidso]

Montreal

[AaronPGH]

Flagstaff is calling my name.

[PFloyd]

Favourite cities/towns: St. Moritz, Whistler, Quebec City, Montreal.
Favourite place overall: My cottage in Muskoka (where I'm currently writing this).

[dc_denizen]

New York

First New York City snow of the season by Danny Daly, on Flickr

[dc_denizen]

+1 on winter in northern Finland/sweden. you get the extremity of the darkness/northern lights and the stunted trees.

[Razor]

+1 for Quebec City

It's to winter like California is to beaches.
Ditto for some of the cities in the Scandinavian countries as mentioned.
The Northern lights are indeed spectacular, and as kid growing up in Northern ON, I have fond memories of them and that positive night energy that they emitted when they were visible.

[pico44]

Originally Posted by ilcapo

Salzburg, Austria and Strasbourg, France are on my top list.
Also Old Town in Stockholm aa well as Bergen, Norway.

Stockholm

Oh wow that looks absolutely lovely. Narrow streets are always fun, but they’re the best in winter. There’s nothing better than tromping up West Fourth or Orchard in the snow and into some warm cozy restaurant with some good friends

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

as i said earlier, chicago winters are pretty ok to me for the most part.

my major complaint is how they sometimes drag into spring, depriving me of those glorious shoulder season days in the 40s/50s/60s.

i like having a proper winter season where it gets cold and snows and all of that shit, i just wish it was always definitively over with by March.

global warming seems to be gradually granting me my wish.

^ My problem with Spring is that it's basically just rain.

Rain rain rain. Slush. Sometimes snow.

Then more rain.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ My problem with Spring is that it's basically just rain.

proper trees require proper precipitation.

that's a trade-off i can live with.

but when you wake up and it's still 24 degrees on some random april morning, it's just like "for the love of fuck, winter, just! fuck! off! already!"



i really do like having a season of proper winter cold and snow.

but i'm much less enthused by that sort of thing once spring theoretically rolls around.

[RC14]

Obviously, I am biased, but Salt Lake City really is a great place around Christmas time due to the access to skiing, Park City, the mountains etc in addition to the lights at Temple Square and City Creek.

I also really loved visiting Chicago around Christmas time.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

proper trees require proper precipitation.

that's a trade-off i can live with.

but when you wake up and it's still 24 degrees on some random april morning, it's just like "for the love of fuck, winter, just! fuck! off! already!"



i really do like having a season of proper winter cold and snow.

but i'm much less enthused by that sort of thing once spring theoretically rolls around.

Yeah, I'm cool with winter too as long as it ends. There should be a line drawn on a calendar after which point snow is banned. If only nature worked that way.

But the goddamn rain! We really need to do something about that, because the local stormwater systems are struggling to handle it all

[Boisebro]

many towns in northern Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan are charming in the winter, especially after a good helping of lake effect snow: Eagle River, Rhinelander, Montreal, Houghton/Hancock, Marquette, etc. are all nice.

But even though I grew up in the upper midwest, I don't think I could deal with the cold and snow anymore. Boise is more mild and gets comparatively little snow, which usually melts quickly.

If I want snow and a wintertime experience, I'd take a quick trip to McCall or Ketchum, both of which have their charms and are close to decent skiing.

[pico44]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

but when you wake up and it's still 24 degrees on some random april morning, it's just like "for the love of fuck, winter, just! fuck! off! already!"



i really do like having a season of proper winter cold and snow.

but i'm much less enthused by that sort of thing once spring theoretically rolls around.

Coming from KC, this my major issue with New York winters as well. Easter in KC is very often beautiful but in New York it is always cold and bloomless. I actually love winter. I wouldn’t trade a cold Christmas for all the sunshine in the world. January, bring it on. February I’m good, though we started going to the Bahamas every feb and that has been pretty incredible. I’m even good with a blustery chilly March. But April man. Cold Aprils break my heart.

[MonkeyRonin]

Have you lot all been getting colder-than-usual Aprils the last couple of years too? It's the worst.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Have you lot all been getting colder-than-usual Aprils the last couple of years too? It's the worst.

Here in chicago, April 2020 was actually pretty normal, for the most part, with exception of one brief late season cold snap.

And April 2019 was similar, but april 2018 was an unmitigated shitshow of extended winter bullshitery.

That one really angered the blood.

[Razor]

It's the extremes..I love a bright shiny windless winter day when it's just below freezing...Great for hiking. On a groomed trail of course. It's not like every winter day is a gloomy cold hell, and I'm in Canada! I can only imagine The Arizona desert in the middle of July! .Ditto for Louisiana or Florida's humidity.
Having said that, yes April should be bloom time..No more snow! Anyways, OT.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Have you lot all been getting colder-than-usual Aprils the last couple of years too? It's the worst.

Yes. I've noticed that the past couple of winters in NYC have been much warmer than normal, while the early spring has felt below average.

[Acajack]

I am definitely seeing a pattern of winterlike and springlike weather being increasingly "delayed" here.

While there can be incursions of winter weather in November here, the onset of pretty reliable snow and cold is happening later and later in December. To the point where a White Christmas has gone from a nearly sure thing to a somewhat sure thing. This year there was no snow on Christmas Day here in Ottawa-Gatineau nor in the Montreal area, though we have had snow since then.

But the winter weather also persists for longer into spring, at least in my observation.

While in some years in the past, much of the snow was gone by early March (and in some exceptional years, late February), recently it's been sticking around longer. It doesn't happen every year but it's now a regular occurrence to cross into April with a bit of residual snow on the ground.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I am definitely seeing a pattern of winterlike and springlike weather being increasingly "delayed" here.

While there can be incursions of winter weather in November here, the onset of pretty reliable snow and cold is happening later and later in December. To the point where a White Christmas has gone from a nearly sure thing to a somewhat sure thing. This year there was no snow on Christmas Day here in Ottawa-Gatineau nor in the Montreal area, though we have had snow since then.

But the winter weather also persists for longer into spring, at least in my observation.

While in some years in the past, much of the snow was gone by early March (and in some exceptional years, late February), recently it's been sticking around longer. It doesn't happen every year but it's now a regular occurrence to cross into April with a bit of residual snow on the ground.

As I recall, there was an Ottawan forumer who posted weather stats for that city showing that every month's average temperature has risen over the past decade, except for April, which has actually become colder.

Despite the winter "lag", summer isn't starting any later either. We're basically just seeing a compression of the spring season into a few short weeks.