Saturday, January 30, 2010

My Favorite Kind Of Winter

This is a picture of of a typical winter where I live in Michigan. It looks kind of wet in the picture, doesn't it? You might also be wondering where the snow is. After all, I've been showing you pictures that are full of snow. Well, we do have snw sometimes, but we also have other times where the snow all melts away.

I know that in some places when it's winter and you get snow it stays there the whole time until spring arrives. Everywhere you look is white and wintery, and cold. In other places you never, or almost never, get any snow at all, and it stays warm throughout the year. But I sometimes think we get the best of both.

In my particular area of Michigan I think our lakes effect our weather greatly. It can be cold and snowy in the states south of us, but warm and pleasant here. I'm not sure it does that in any other place. Sure we sometimes have just as much, or even more snow than another place, but more often it's like this.

A typical winter in my local area means that we'll probably have snow, but after a while it all melts away and the temperature warms up, giving us all thoughts of spring. This can sometimes happen to us three or even four times in a winter. So even though we have snow, we also get periodic breaks from the harsh weather.

I think this gives us a good sampling of every kind of weather. In my opinion, that's the only way to be. I wouldn't want it to be warm and sunny all year long. That would seem monotonous to me. I also wouldn't want harsh weather all winter long. That wouldn't be very fun either. I think our weather here is just right.

I guess that's all my particular Goldilocks view of where I live. But I'm sure you have your own opinion of how things are supposed to be. So tell me, what is it you like about the weather where you live? What would your ideal winter be like? We all have our own personal opinion. I want to hear yours.

17 comments:

  1. Your area looks a lot like ours right now. We have had an unusually warm winter so far with very little snow. My ideal winter, the beach at Cabo San Lucas, lol.

    I grew up in the deep South where the winters were usually mild but there were four seasons. In Alaska we had eight months of winter, most of the time with snow and very cold temps and dark. My ideal is something in between but I usually just make the best of whatever Mother Nature sends my way.

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  2. Your pictures look like winter in Belgium most of the time...
    But I have to same: 'A typical winter in my local area means that mabe we'll have some snow, but after a few days at most it all melts away.'

    This year it is 'better' (I do like cold weather and snow): Since the end of December, we already had a few weeks of snow, that melted around January 15th, and this morning again, the world was covered with a (thin) white blanket... that probably will only last one or two days.

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  3. Well, you know what my weather is like since we live not so far from each other! I like how it is right now, no shoveling snow for me, yah..

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  4. Your type of winter sounds perfect. Winter just seems to last too long here and we get way too much snow for my liking

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  5. Here in central New England we generally stay covered with snow throughout the winter months, all five of them. It really helps us appreciate the warmer weather, and when spring does arrive there are a lot of smiling faces throughout these hills. What is important, I think, is to enjoy what you have, and I have to say, Ratty, that you sure do that for all of us.

    Bill:www.wildramblings.com

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  6. The recent 'thaw' didn't melt all the snow here and a day later lake effect snow replaced any we lost. Now it's too cold to snow - it was minus 14 F this morning.

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  7. The "winter" is 30 deg C over here, no snow. It is a real weird winter, so warm, in malaysia.

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  8. Oh, I HAVE to have my snow cover. 4-5 months is good! I love winter. The family joke is that I am going to retire to the Arctic Circle. Om is worried :-)

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  9. We hardly ever have snow here. It would be kind of fun to have a little bit of snow. At the moment we are having ice which is no fun at all.

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  10. You always enjoy your pictures. Did you take the quiz? If so how'd you do? You'll like my mind bogglers I've got on there now. Come check it out.

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  11. you have an award on my blog!!!

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  12. I can't imagine ever living anywhere we don't have 4 full seasons. I like the changes in the earth and like the variety that it brings to our lives.

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  13. I solve the dilemma of snow from October to April by going somewhere tropical midwinter to get some sun. ha

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  14. You've described the kind of winter I know best, too. I had a chance to live in places with different kinds of winter--Long ones in Alaska, Rainy ones in Seattle, pretty reasonable ones in California, and a brutal one in Poland...but the good old Midwest, with all it's (usually) brief extremes and many points of beauty (like the current full moon!) are, as you say, just how it should be!!

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  15. I am originally from GA where it got overwhelmingly hot in the summer and pretty darn cold in the winter. For the last 33 years, I've lived in the San Francisco area and I love it. The weather is pretty much the same all year long, never too hot and never too cold. Yet, you can cross a bridge and be 20 degrees hotter or 20 degrees colder. Here, it rarely gets hotter than 75 during the day but goes down to the high 50's at night which makes for great sleeping. Skiing and the Sierras are only four hours away and we've got beaches nearby ( though the water is so cold, you almost would want a wet suit!! ).

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  16. Hey, where do you live in Michigan? I used to live in Ann Arbor, MI back when I was a student in UMICH. The pictures brought me back memories of Michigan winters =)

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