I ran across this interesting map from MyPerfectWeather.com the other day. It shows – by US County – where the weather is more frequently between 60-84 degrees as a daily high.
For most places in the country, that’s between 50-150 days. Some places – particularly on the very West Coast – are in the 250-300 range. Los Angeles approaches an amazing 350 days!
In retirement, many move to their ideal place. We bought a vacation place in FL earlier this year.
Related: Celebrating
I wasn’t surprised that my home state of MN didn’t score well on the map. It’s terrific in the summer (82 degrees right now!), but the wintertime is brutal.
I was surprised that Central FL – where we have our vacation place now – didn’t score better. It’s about the same as MN. Obviously, MN scores badly for the winter and FL for the heat & humidity. (Honestly, I’d say a 55 few point is a bit low for “comfortable”).
EDIT (9/26/24): Map updated with slightly broader parameters of a “comfortable day” …
Still, the benefit of having two places is being able to “arbitrage” the weather throughout the year. When MN is at its worst, FL is a great escape. Combined, I’m guessing we get close to 150 great days (even 200 if you have a broader definition of “comfortable”).
What surprises you about this chart? What’s comfortable for you?
Image: MyPerfectWeather.com
MrFireStation 
I often get asked by people in the Midwest, why I don’t move from the People’s Republic of California back to the United States. Your map explains why?
We have turned into real weather wimps who doesn’t like it too hot, too cold, too rainy, too muggy or too buggy. If we move, we would likely have to move to two locations. One for the summer and the other for winters.
The Indian tribes around the Grand Canyon used to spend their summers at higher elevation and winters at lower elevation. They had the right idea.
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I haven’t heard the high/low elevation idea before. That makes sense sense.
Today was gorgeous – sunny, 81, light breeze – but since the dew point was 57, I guess it doesn’t count for this map. I think the parameters are a bit too narrow.
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We refer to weather as the reason for the high taxes in California. The low tax places such as Tennessee, Texas and others never mention humidity, electric bills and the lack of energy due to high heat or the cost of snow removal and cost to maintain the furnace and purchase oil. The price to live in a location that isn’t crazy hot and humid in the summer and also maintain a residence in a location that isn’t dark, wet and cold all winter is much more expensive than taxes.
The map is absolutely correct.
For the record, while I don’t like high taxes, quality of life in California for me is far superior than many other locations.
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One of my former coworkers used to call California Taxes tithing to the weather god.
I agree that anything you save in State Income Taxes in other states, you might pay back in other expenses such as electricity, sales tax on food, property taxes, and insurance. Florida right now is experiencing massive cancellations and cost increases in home insurance due to hurricanes. I just went through getting my State Farm Fire Insurance not renewed and pleasantly found that the California FAIR Plan coupled with a Difference in Coverage Wrap policy was less expensive than I paid last year. I was also able to shop my Umbrella Policy and ended up saving 50%. It felt great telling State Farm that I am not renewing my umbrella policy or their over priced wrap policy.
California was really screwed up in the late 60 and early 70s, and then Ronald Reagan came along. He dealt with a bloated government and even had violent campus protests to deal with. He sent in the National Guard right away. In case you haven’t guessed by now, my wife and I went to the Reagan Movie over the weekend and it was terrific!
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Our Florida condo HOA apparently got ahead of the game on upgrading the building(s) storm resilience before the Surfside disaster. They had the project(s) spec’d and underway before the mad rush. We were able to get relatively affordable coverage without issues.
Is California Fair Plan a state government provided policy?
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Your photos show that your condo construction is different than Surfside and not high rise, which should make it safer and easier to insure. Being inland versus the coast increases safety and insurability. Not deferring maintenance is also smart. Maintenance and upgrades work better doing them on maintenance schedule, so that things are problems are avoided.
The California FAIR Plan is an association that is a shared risk pool that was created by statute, where all home owner insurers doing business in California participate. It has been around since 1968.
The State of California also created the California Earthquake Authority after the Northridge Earthquake and was created in 1996.
Here is where State Farm got greedy. They non-renewed my home owners insurance due to fire risk. This allowed State Farm to palm the fire risk off on the CA FAIR Plan. They then offered me a wrap policy that covers only water damage, weather damage and liability that was almost twice the amount I paid for a policy that included the fire risk! By shopping the wrap policy with a broker, I was able to get the equivalent coverage for about an eighth of the cost. I ended up around $1,000 less than last year.
They also almost doubled my Umbrella Policy. I found Umbrella Policies are now available very similar to term life. Ended up with a policy from PersonalUmbrella.com that was less than half State Farm’s Rate. By shopping I was able to come in at within a couple hundred dollars of last years package, instead of paying $13,000.
The only gap remaining after my policy changes is that my Doberman and Rottweiler are considered ‘Aggressive Breeds” and are not insurable by most carriers. In my opinion there are no bad dog breeds, just bad owners who don’t properly train their dogs. I found that there are specialist insurers who provide this as well, and at rates where I still come in overall better than inflation for year over year.
I also shopped my Auto Insurance and found that State Farm is still the cheapest, even after loss of my multi-line discount.
The take-away is that during inflationary times, it pays to shop around.
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We’ve been with State Farm for a long time. Probably time to shop the policies again. We looked at it about 24 months ago, but State Farm still was cheapest then.
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The difference between hardening for a Category 3 when Orlando had only experienced a Category 2 in recorded history is what we call in the engineering field having a good margin of safety.
Once, I used a photo of single standing house on Mexico Beach, Florida after Hurricane Michael hit the town with a Category 5 in 2018 as the starter for a presentation on disaster tolerance. The owners worked with an architect who designed a house to stand up to a Category 6 Hurricane. My point was the time to plan for disaster tolerance is before you experience one and to have margin of safety built in for the worst possible case.
I had been exclusively with State Farm for 35 years and used to operate under the thought that I couldn’t get the equivalent coverage at a competitive price anywhere else. Not worth the time messing with. The moves they took this year caused me to scramble in order to spending $13,000 more.
Dorothy is right that I have a great State Farm Agent. She gave me plenty of advance notice about the forthcoming non-renewal, provided me with brokers to shop the DIC policy and educated me about what covered what. She even called me up when State Farm quoted $12,500 for the DIC policy I was able to get elsewhere for $1,410, and told me I need to go with the other insurer. The disruptions we are seeing right now seem like that 70s show again.
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I was surprised that the Orlando area has to be prepared for Category 3 hurricane winds. The biggest they’ve ever gotten was Hurricane Donna in 1960 – a Category 2 with 105 mph winds.
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Klaus you have a good insurance agent/broker. DIC is absolutely required with FAIR plan policies. When the San Bernardino mountains got that huge snowfall of 8-10 feet or more, there were multiple roof collapses featured in the LA Times. That was a hit piece on insurance companies without facts. The FAIR plan has very limited coverage…..essentially fire and plumbing leaks.
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Agree – our home in MN is definitely expensive. No one year would deny it is pricey. Bitter cold in the winter and often very hot in the summer. That makes it expensive to heat, cool, insulate, windows, and roof repairs. Not cheap at all.
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That’s not Los Angeles County btw – that is San Luis Obispo County.
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Oops!
We stayed in San Luis Obispo once. Charming little town off of Highway 1.
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