I moved from Minnesota to Arizona years ago

[alex cross]

And almost every year have endured the plaintive whining of the friends and family still living there every winter. Oh, it's all usually good natured and we can chuckle about it. But this year the intensity has been turned up a notch. Maybe it was the snow for Thanksgiving, maybe the collapse of the Metrodome, but no I think this might explain it...

Record broken, broken record: Snow on way

Two weather systems next week likely to add to December snowfall.

By PAUL WALSH and TOM MEERSMAN, Star Tribune staff writers
Last update: December 24, 2010 - 6:47 PM


St. Paul declares snow emergency
The Twin Cities set a record for December snowfall Friday, but keep those shovels handy.

There's still another week left, and two more weather systems are on the way.

"It looks like there could be measurable snow next Wednesday and then again on Friday," said Tony Zaleski, a forecaster for the National Weather Service. It's too early yet to predict how much more snow may fall next week, he said.

People were still trying to figure out where to throw and blow up to 6 inches of snow that fell in the latest storm. It pushed the monthly total to 33.4 inches at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The previous December record was 33.2 inches, set in 1969.

They actually might have a gripe this year, and they still have a week of December left.

Oh I remember those years. My Parents bailed out the next year and I lasted another 20.

http://www.startribune.com/local/112423059.html?elr=KArksUUUycaEacyU

[marmar]

1. I'd take harsh winters over 110 in the summer and no water anyday.

nt

[hlthe2b]

2. Ditto....

[Tikki]

4. See, where I could take the 110 degree temps over freezing...so, I guess that..

is how we adapted as generalists and why, so far, we are still around.


Tikki

[panader0]

6. Phoenix is bad

But where I live, outside Sierra Vista, there are mountains to 9600 feet, trees, creeks and much more . The elevation here is 4600 feet. The very hottest it gets is about 100, maybe 2 or 3 times a year. The rest of the year has great weather, the best of any place I have lived. People have the wrong idea about Az. It's not all dust and sand by any means. Az has the largest pine forest in the US, the area of the Apache reservation. True about the lakes though, almost all are man-made.

[former9thward]

16. What makes you think there is no water?

I live near Arizona State University in Tempe and there is a large lake within blocks where you can take part in any water sports you want.

[B Calm]

18. The lake water gets so damn hot you can boil hot dogs in it during the summer.

[former9thward]

19. Not really. Of course hot dogs are pre-cooked so you may just want them warmed.

It is fine for boats and just being by the lake. Hundreds of thousands who visit there disagree with you.

[cherokeeprogressive]

31. Name a lake in the WHOLE WORLD where the water gets above the boiling point.

Otherwise admit that your post was nothing more than hyperbole.

[verdalaven]

20. 110 in AZ isn't so bad

I'd prefer 110 to driving in the snow. While I lived in Tucson, I never went into a ditch because my car slid (sideways!!) off a road. :)

[blueamy66]

22. No water?

No comprendo.

[Angry Dragon]

3. I live there

and it is just snow ........ it is white ......and it can be moved
As I look out the window now I see some flakes drifting in the air

[Tikki]

46. Wow, I've never lived anywhere...

that snow (no matter how picturesque) wasn't accompanied by cold weather and thaw.

Cold and wet and icy...I'll pass on that.


Tikki

[B Calm]

5. My dad retired to Tucson. No freakin way could I stand living

in that heat. No lakes, just desert and dirt.

Give me the sky blue waters of Minnesota when I retire!

[HereSince1628]

8. and forests and prairies. I don't think I could do desert.

There is nothing wrong with the cold that wool, goose down and well a stocked ice-shanty cannot fix.

[Rectangle]

38. I'll take gov Mark Dayton over Jan Brewer and Arpiao and company..........n/t

[ChazII]

9. Ah remember that Tucson and Phoenix

have a dry heat. ;-) :evilgrin: And you don't have to shovel sunshine.

[B Calm]

17. When it's 115 degrees in the shade, who cares if the heat is dry. It's still HOT,

so damn hot you have to wear gloves to open the car door and leave windows cracked for fear the windshield will pop out. I'll never forget the litter along the highways. I guess it's too damn hot to adopt highways out there.

[blueamy66]

23. Don't get your post either.

I have never worn gloves to open a hot car door nor left my windows open to prevent them from popping out....and I've lived here over 35 years.

I'd much rather turn on my AC in the Summer months than scrape snow and ice off of my car for an hour before I can even try to get the hell outta the driveway.

[ChazII]

43. I will admit that I

leave the windows slightly open. That is because once a window did crack while at the dealership being serviced.

[former9thward]

27. A person from Indiana complaining about litter elsewhere.

That is funny. I have never seen as filthy state as Indiana.

[B Calm]

36. Indiana is filthy only because of the trash trucks coming out of Chicago

to dump their loads at the Rensselaer landfill. Seriously, Arizona is the filthiest state I ever drove through. I've never seen so much damn liter along the highways as I have seen in the state of Arizona.

[former9thward]

39. The filthy wars start!

Bring it on!

[closeupready]

40. That's because you've never been to New Jersey.

:D

[Brickbat]

7. I live in northern MN and am terrible jealous of the Cities. I wish we had that snow here. I live

here for many reasons, but one of them is I love the weather, no matter the season, unless it gets above 90. Then I hate it.

[Scruffy1]

14. I've got some extra if you want to send a truck

and a front end loader. Seriously I can't believe the flap over a little snow. Sure, its a little bit of work, but here in Minneapolis the plows have done a great job and the city has been running smoothly.Besides its only for another two three months. I've been through blizzards, tornados, and flood so a heavy snow month is a minor thing.

[Odin2005]

30. We got plenty here in Moorhead! Want some?

:hi:

[Yavapai]

10. When talking on the telephone to minnesota friends,

and they comment on how cold it is, I try to convey just how cold it here in Arizona too.

I tell them that we had to wear long sleave shirts this morning until almost 10 am!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. It's not even that cold, only 17°

No true Minnesota native thinks of 17° as cold. That's WARM for winter.

Now if it gets below zero and STAYS there for days on end ("The high today will be 25° below zero"), as it often did up through the early 1980s, then we'd complain. At those temperatures it hurts to breathe and your face gets stiff.

[Scruffy1]

15. Saw -63 once and a month that never saw zero.

I would rather shovel a little snow than lie in a dead armpit like Arizona full of racists right wingers, gun nuts,
and no unions. Lived in Phoenix for a while and despised it. Was sure glad to get back home.

[Knight Hawk]

21. YES

I have been going to Arizona since 1961..........worked in the lettuce fields in Wilcox then.I love the beauty and diversity of the state.I love the quiet and openness of the desert.Have hiked everywhere except around Alpine.Did you know that the Najavo reservation in the four corners area is larger than the 3 smallest New England states combined in area.Phoenix is the worst of Arizona .It is definitely a rough and tumble place.As far as the weather I cannot do the north.It is almost too cold for me in central Florida in the winter.Ever been to a Hopi Mesa?

[Angry Dragon]

42. Ever been to a Hopi Mesa?

Yes

[Generic Brad]

11. How's the ice fishing down your way?

And the cross country skiing? And the snowmobiling? And the ice skating?

There's plenty do here in the winter. You make it sound like the weather sucks here or something.

I'm glad you like Arizona, but some of us like the change of seasons around Minnesota.

[Liberal Jesus Freak]

13. I lived in Duluth MN when I was a child.

I walked about half a mile to school and--true story--it had to be ten below zero before we could take our lunch to school. Any warmer, and I walked home for lunch! Loved it as a child--don't know how I would feel about it now. We're moving to Florida in a couple of weeks so I may never know the thrill of walking in the snow again. But I WILL know the thrill of walking on the beach. It's all a trade-off, isn't it?

[tabbycat31]

44. You can have both worlds

I'm in the middle of a blizzard, and live blocks from the beach.

I took a few pics of the snowy beach today and more will come tomorrow.

[Jamastiene]

24. To each their own.

My ideal is between 40 and 60 degrees and either a gentle rain shower every now and again or just overcast.

I like snow every once in a while, but not so much it snaps all the pine trees and knocks the power out.

Heat absolutely kills me though. If I had to pick extremes, I can wear layers of clothes in winter. Summer absolutely slays me. I can't stand it. It takes my breath away in a bad way and it makes me overheat, but I have a medical condition that keeps me from sweating properly.

Other may like the heat. I don't see it as such a bad thing if someone gets loads of any extremes and complains about it. I'd trade tornadoes and hurricanes for snow anytime anyplace anywhere. I hate tornadoes and hurricanes with a passion, tornadoes especially. If someone asked me if I would rather face a tornado, 110 degree heat, or freezing cold with a blizzard to boot, I'd pick the cold and make do with it. Fuck tornadoes and hot temperatures and storms that wipe people's entire homes away like they were toothpicks yet still don't get classified as tornadoes. Those are just as bad to me.

Some people might thrive in tornado weather and actually enjoy chasing them. Some people might like extreme heat. I don't fault them for it though. To each their own.

[Edweird]

25. I hate the cold. Seriously. I can take just about anything, but the cold turns me into a little girl

I hate Miami for many many reasons, but the climate isn't one of them.

[closeupready]

41. I also hate the cold, but

I also hate the climate in Miami and in Florida, generally. Muggy, muggy, muggy.

[Edweird]

45. I grew up in Memphis, which makes Miami feel positively arid.

So, I'm good with it.

[True_Blue]

26. AZ is one of the worst places to be in the summer

but one of the best places to be in the winter. I've lived in AZ so long that I don't think I could live in a cold climate again.

[SheilaT]

28. Some years back we moved from

Minneapolis to Phoenix, and when my friends back in MN tried to calm my complaints about the heat I'd point out to them that the overnight lows could be 98 degrees. I think in the years since it's gotten even warmer. I also mentioned to them that the typical date for the first 100 degree day in Phoenix is the same as the typical date that the ice is off the lakes in Minneapolis.

I truly hate hot weather, and much of my life I've lived in cities that get entirely too hot in the summer, including Tucson, Washington DC, Kansas City, and of course Phoenix. It's possible to dress for the cold. The only way to dress for the heat is to wear an air-conditioned car. Plus, the cost of air conditioning to get an adequately cool home is greater than the cost of heating to get an adequately warm home. Are the elderly still hanging out in the malls all day (as they were 25 years ago) just so they could be in an air-conditioned space, because living on a fixed income they couldn't afford the a/c?

Oh, and when it comes to snow, Rochester NY is getting quite a bit so far this year. A few days ago I read a story about it, and one man was quoted as saying how much he loves the snow. He moved from Minnesota to Rochester because in Minnesota all he had was cold, and this way he had plenty of snow. I suppose it's just as well we all like different kinds of climates, or all 300 million plus of us would be trying to crowd into the same small city somewhere, and that probably wouldn't be much fun at all.

[sweetloukillbot]

35. My means of dealing with the heat is simple...

I don't go out during the day. I'll go to work, come home, etc. But if I'm going to the store, or doing some yard work, I wait till the evening. I hate 110+ heat, but I love the desert, I love being a 1/2 day's drive from the beach, 2 hours from skiing in the winter and able to visit such amazingly beautiful places as Sedona, the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley with minimal trouble. Tucson is a great town, even if Phoenix is still pretty backwards politically and culturally.
And desert landscapes are much easier to maintain than full yards - and I don't ever have to shovel snow. Spent one winter in northern Iowa - I loved the temperatures, hated driving in snow, and really hated trying to convince my dogs to go to the bathroom when it was -30. And we paid over $500 a month to heat our house that winter, the most I've paid for AC is $300 last July.

[SheilaT]

47. You don't go out during the day.

Imagine that.

I do tend to judge where I live, where I have lived, on how much time I can spend outside. When I had young children and lived in Boulder they could spend more time outside all year long than anywhere else we lived. When my oldest was in kindergarten, it was a half day program, and while waiting to pick up the kiddies at noon we moms became pretty good friends. Starting in January, in January! of that year, we started a regular Friday thing of going to a nearby park, after feeding the kids lunch, so they could play and moms could talk. There were only two times that the weather was crappy enough not to do it. Once it had snowed a couple days before and the ground was still very soggy, another time it was raining.

I'm in Santa Fe now, and my sons are grown, so I don't have quite the same measuring stick, but I do know that I can be outdoors pretty much all year long here. And I don't need a/c. Not even a swamp cooler. I have a ceiling fan in the living room, open windows at night because it really does cool off at this altitude, and close curtains against the afternoon sun.

[Odin2005]

29. This Minnesotan much prefer cold to heat.

You can always put on more clothes, you can't keep taking them off.

[MadHound]

32. Question for you,

Moving to AZ, a location out in the desert where, frankly, man simply wasn't meant to live, means that you are taking part in the over consumption of both water and energy. Why are you wanting to be part of the problem in these regards, rather than part of the solution? Simply so you can be smug and secretly lord it over the rest of your family?

[Foo Fighter]

33. Sure, laugh all you want about the Metrodome but you'll be there in 2012.

Democrats Move 2012 Convention to Metrodome
Most Appropriate Venue, Party Bosses Say

MINNEAPOLIS (The Borowitz Report) – In a move that took many political observers by surprise, the Democratic National Committee decided today to move its 2012 nominating convention to the Minneapolis Metrodome.

Insiders questioned the wisdom of choosing a venue which collapsed over the weekend, but Obama political adviser David Axelrod told reporters, “Quite frankly, we can’t think of a more appropriate site.”

Giving reporters a tour of the Metrodome facility, Mr. Axelrod said, “The Metrodome has taken a lot of hard knocks in the press, just like the Democrats have. But you can’t believe everything that you read. We’re a lot stronger and a lot tougher than you might –“

Before he could complete his sentence, Mr. Axelrod was felled by a chunk of the Metrodome’s ceiling and rushed to the Mayo Clinic.

More at http://www.borowitzreport.com/2010/12/14/democrats-move-2012-convention-to-metrodome/.

Sorry but I couldn't resist. ;)

[Rochester]

34. I tolerate cold well. I do not tolerate heat well.

Enjoy your Southwestern heat - I'll stay put where I can be comfortable in the cool :)

[Delphinus]

37. Lucky snow receivers!

Northeast Indiana seems to be missing out on snow this year. {sigh} What's Winter without snow? {sigh}