6 ms·
I lived in Michigan until I was 35 and moved south in 2013. I have a litany of reasons for moving including soul-crushing endless winters, lack of reasonable su
by andrew_ 6y ago
I lived in Michigan until I was 35 and moved south in 2013. I have a litany of reasons for moving including soul-crushing endless winters, lack of reasonable summer, depressed economy, and a political landscape without an identity and with an extremely short memory (shorter than average in my view). I also spent my summers in Northern Michigan camping and have extremely fond memories of that. For the beauty that Michigan offers, you have to really, really enjoy the winter months and do OK with a lack of sun to make it there. I struggled something awful with Seasonal Affective Disorder [1] as an adult along with Vitamin D deficiency [2]. It's also worthwhile to look at things like insurance rates, vehicle registration, and cost of utilities for the municipalities listed. Take into account school systems if you have little ones - Michigan is not widely considered to have the best around, and routinely ranks in the bottom 1/3 of the States [3].
I clearly have a lot of bias against Michigan, so please take this for what it's worth. I did try to provide some backing for my bias, but I spent a long time saving to escape and if there's anyone aligned with my concerns, I hope I saved them a trip they'd regret.
[1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20364651 https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affe...
[2] https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Michigan/annual-days-of-sunshine.php https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Michigan/annual-days-...
[3] https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/education https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/education
- chupasaurus 6y ago> I have a litany of reasons for moving including soul-crushing endless winters, lack of reasonable summer, depressed economy, and a political landscape without an identity and with an extremely short memory (shorter than average in my view). Cheers from Southern Urals, had a good laugh.
- drpgq 6y agoI live in Southern Ontario and now I'm wondering if I should be more depressed.
- knrz 6y agoHonestly, same. I've been thinking about dipping to a coastal town somewhere with an English, French, or Spanish-speaking population. GTA suburbs aren't bad but I love 10–20ºC and friendly people more.
- RspecMAuthortah 6y agoGTA housing/rental market is beyond abysmal. A small 1bd costs you close to 2k CAD, and not to say the pay in tech here is much less than what you would get down in South.
- Scoundreller 6y agoDown to 1600-1700 now! The bad tech pay continues to confuse me. It’s not for lack of talent imo. Winter is going to be depressing without any getaways to Kuba though...
- drpgq 6y agoAt the risk of sounding like a xenophobe, it is high rates of points based immigration. There's a lot of talent pouring in every year. There's definitely other factors too (Canadians don't seem great at starting tech companies that become big that usually pay higher wages).
- Scoundreller 6y agoIt's not xenophobic to say that the market got flooded.
- edoceo 6y agoWhat's GTA?
- geoka9 6y agoGreater Toronto Area
- andrew_ 6y agoThis gave me a solid chuckle, thanks for that.
- engineer_22 6y agoGrass is always greener! Cheers amigo, thanks for chiming in. Syracuse, NY
- wheels 6y agoWord. I moved from Michigan to northern Europe (Berlin) and miss Michigan's long, bright winter days. ;-) Michigan's big cities are on about the same latitude as the French Riviera.
- rtkwe 6y agoLatitude isn't everything, the Gulf stream and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation keeps western Europe much warmer than it otherwise would be just based on it's latitude. Fun fact that current is weakening somewhat because of climate change so European winters may get much worse. [0] [0] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ocean-current-keeps-europe-warm-weakening-180968784/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ocean-current-keep...
- frank2 6y agoI heard that more important than ocean currents is the Rocky Mountains, which causes the jet stream to go south, then north.
- rtkwe 6y agoIt's probably both I'm not a climate scientist so I can't really say one is more important than the other but the AMOC does bring warm water up the coast as well and if that goes away and the water cools the air brought over by the Gulf Stream will probably be colder as well.
- frank2 6y agoOK, but I hope you realize that the Gulf stream is a water current whereas I,m talking about an air current.
- pc86 6y agoThey're about 4,500 miles (7,400km) apart so I'm fairly confident latitude isn't the only factor in their weather.
- pmiller2 6y agoAs someone who lived in Michigan for over 25 years, let me just say that I share your biases, for similar reasons. Moving to California was the best thing ever for me, because the winter months didn't make me want to die.
- jrs235 6y agoAs someone who grew up in Minnesota then lived in Wisconsin for many years I relate. Moving to Florida was the best thing for me, winter months no longer make me want to die.
- someguydave 6y agoyeah, but summer in Florida is hellishly hot, humid and buggy
- andrew_ 6y agoEh, if one can handle the humidity in Michigan, one can handle the humidity in Florida. It's just that you don't get much of a break from it (two months in the "winter" down here)
- pmiller2 6y agoMy thoughts exactly. I remember some summer mornings in Michigan where I felt like I was swimming through the air. It only got worse later in the day once it got warmer.
- jrs235 6y ago100%. The cornfields of the Midwest sweat as much as the humidity in many parts of Florida. Just thinking about the temperatures in MN and WI today (below freezing already!) causes tension in my back and my shoulder blades to flex. No thanks. I'll take relaxed muscles any day. It's a bit confusing to me to think my family is bundled up in winter outerwear already. I forget it's almost November thanks to upper 70 and lower 80 degree temps here(panhandle).
- 6y ago
- cageface 6y agoI left Utah for exactly the same reasons and would never live there again under any circumstances.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- gadders 6y agoLondon is further north than Toronto or Michigan and we don't get anything this bad. Thank you, Gulf Stream.
- Cro_on 6y agoSame reason NE Scotland is so lush at the latitude of Southern Alaska. :)
- gadders 6y agoIt is mad and being UK born and bred I sort of took it for granted. In my head I had a mental picture that London was level with NY. Until one time when I was reading a discussion on here about farming and someone called the UK "the far north" and said that we are further north than all of the continental USA. Mind blown.
- jgwil2 6y agoAs an American this only hit home for me when visiting England in July. Sunset at 10pm and sunrise at 4am was lovely, But I wouldn't much like to visit in January with only six hours of daylight.
- GoblinSlayer 6y agoLatitude is 41° to 48°, it's not even proper north.
- meerita 6y agoI live in Spain, and I can relate having good weather and plenty of sun light increases life-quality :)