US cities that get very bad winters/snow?

another question

Just doing a bit of research. Apart from the famous blizzards/whiteouts of Chicago, what other US cities suffer harsh winters or very bad snow?

BuffyBot

Washington DC and New York also spring to mind.

endofrainbow

Boston and Philadelphia

cali_eire

Minneapolis

another question

Do the above cities have the typical 'fall season' preceding their snowy winters?

cali_eire

Most of the US east coast and midwest regions which get hammered with snow have distinct seasons including fall.

another question

cali_eire wrote: »

Most of the US east coast and midwest regions which get hammered with snow have distinct seasons including fall.

Thanks for that. I'm trying to research a well-known US city that fits a few different categories but it's proving a little difficult, I'll get one and then knock out another.

Any ideas on a city with a distinct fall/winter, very wealthy/very poor divides and a major urban centre/contrasting countryside not far from the city? - where someone could live in the country/work in the city type thing - with a country feel more so than a suburban feel.

**Forgot to add - it needs a coast as well**

cali_eire

New York or Chicago - as big and sprawling as they both are you can be in a very rural (not suburban) location within 90 minutes. Both have distinct seasons and both have rich/poor divides.

clairefontaine

another question wrote: »

Thanks for that. I'm trying to research a well-known US city that fits a few different categories but it's proving a little difficult, I'll get one and then knock out another.

Any ideas on a city with a distinct fall/winter, very wealthy/very poor divides and a major urban centre/contrasting countryside not far from the city? - where someone could live in the country/work in the city type thing - with a country feel more so than a suburban feel.

**Forgot to add - it needs a coast as well**

Probably anywhere in the northeast. Nay and Chicago have suburbs, its not like you can live in the country and then go to the city. You'll have to find one of the smaller cities in the NE.

iusedtoknow

another question wrote: »

Thanks for that. I'm trying to research a well-known US city that fits a few different categories but it's proving a little difficult, I'll get one and then knock out another.

Any ideas on a city with a distinct fall/winter, very wealthy/very poor divides and a major urban centre/contrasting countryside not far from the city? - where someone could live in the country/work in the city type thing - with a country feel more so than a suburban feel.

**Forgot to add - it needs a coast as well**

They aren't massive cities like NY or Boston, but Portland, ME and New Haven, CT could fit the bill.

New Haven has a very active downtown and a big Ivy League University. It is striking distance to NY. Has a lot of VERY rich people that work in NY and live up in CT, and it also has poor people/areas.
You're within 1 hour of very rural countryside areas, and the fall is incredible up there, and the winter is perishing.

InTheTrees

Coast? But Lake Coast is okay?

Any city on the great lakes is going to be snowy in winter so:

Chicago
Milwaukee
CLeveland
Buffalo
Duluth (my gf is from there)

Then on the East Coast
Portland
Boston
New York
Baltimore


Thats not many is it?

another question

iusedtoknow wrote: »

They aren't massive cities like NY or Boston, but Portland, ME and New Haven, CT could fit the bill.

New Haven has a very active downtown and a big Ivy League University. It is striking distance to NY. Has a lot of VERY rich people that work in NY and live up in CT, and it also has poor people/areas.
You're within 1 hour of very rural countryside areas, and the fall is incredible up there, and the winter is perishing.

I like the sound of this - thanks

rossie1977

http://www.city-data.com/top2/c464.html

whitey1

Rochester NY would be my vote. Tons of snow, lots of old money, on one of the Great Lakes, extreme poverty and on 10 mins you are in farm country

whitey1

iusedtoknow wrote: »

They aren't massive cities like NY or Boston, but Portland, ME and New Haven, CT could fit the bill.

New Haven has a very active downtown and a big Ivy League University. It is striking distance to NY. Has a lot of VERY rich people that work in NY and live up in CT, and it also has poor people/areas.
You're within 1 hour of very rural countryside areas, and the fall is incredible up there, and the winter is perishing.

Apologies in advance for correcting you but there's very little wealth in New Haven. Anyone who's enduring that torturous commute is doing so because they can't afford to lived in Fairfield or Westchester.

rockonollie

another question wrote: »

Thanks for that. I'm trying to research a well-known US city that fits a few different categories but it's proving a little difficult, I'll get one and then knock out another.

Any ideas on a city with a distinct fall/winter, very wealthy/very poor divides and a major urban centre/contrasting countryside not far from the city? - where someone could live in the country/work in the city type thing - with a country feel more so than a suburban feel.

**Forgot to add - it needs a coast as well**

You were describing Cincinnati until you mentioned a coast

clairefontaine

Erie or Buffallo.

spideog7

rockonollie wrote: »

You were describing Cincinnati until you mentioned a coast

Pittsburgh too, do rivers count as a coast?

spideog7

rockonollie wrote: »

You were describing Cincinnati until you mentioned a coast

Pittsburgh too, do rivers count as a coast?

InTheTrees

spideog7 wrote: »

Pittsburgh too, do rivers count as a coast?

I dont think so...

Gandhi

Even if they have three of them?

another question

Pittsburgh is an option...thank you...I'm reading all yer answers just finding it hard to get time to reply. Will let ye know when I've chosen one.

Suggestions still welcome

cheesehead

When you mention what cities have "harsh winters", to me it's a relative question. All the cities mentioned above experience "winter weather", particularly when compared to Ireland.

As someone who grew up in the New York Metropolitan area, lived in Boston for five years, Philly for nine years and has now lived in the Upper Midwest (Chicago/Milwaukee) for several years, I will tell you the winters in the Midwest are far worse than the winters on the East Coast/Mid-Atlantic region.

Two reasons, IMO, why they are so much worse in the Midwest: (1) Lower overall temperatures (even 10 degrees Fahrenheit difference can be dramatic (15 degrees Fahrenheit is much worse (IMO) than 25 degrees Fahrenheit)

(2) The lower sustained temperatures in the Midwest lead to snowfalls not melting. It can snow in November and the snow on the ground won't melt until March and April. The snow accumulation leads to colder temperatures (vicious cycle).

The East Coast cities actually get bigger snowfalls (Nor'easters move up the coast and can dump double digit snowfalls), the difference being most of that snow is melted off within a week or so. The Midwest gets much smaller snowfalls (often only 2-3 inches), but they don't melt off (because we don't get any warm-ups) and the snow just keeps accumulating through November/December/January/February/and into March/April.

Two years ago the Upper Midwest had, for them, a very mild winter. We never got down below zero degrees Fahrenheit and we had a brief (less than one week) warm-up in January that melted off the December snowfall. While it was considered a very mild winter for the upper Midwest, I considered it a "typical" East Coast winter (only the East Coast winters are shorter)

Malibu Stacy

another question wrote: »

Thanks for that. I'm trying to research a well-known US city that fits a few different categories but it's proving a little difficult, I'll get one and then knock out another.

Any ideas on a city with a distinct fall/winter, very wealthy/very poor divides and a major urban centre/contrasting countryside not far from the city? - where someone could live in the country/work in the city type thing - with a country feel more so than a suburban feel.

**Forgot to add - it needs a coast as well**

I think Boston is a good bet - for example, Back Bay in downtown Boston is outrageously expensive, but a few stops down the Orange Line and you have a lot of poverty. Beautiful fall, gloomy cold winters (but not Chicago cold!). Less than an hour outside of the city you are in the woods, and a lot of people commute in from rural New Hampshire.

Hazys

I guess the questions you are asking very much relative, except for the coast question.

Boston would have a rich poor divide but it would be nowhere on the scale as somewhere like Washington DC.

Boston would have harsh winters but nothing compared to Chicago.

Nearly all major cities have major commuter rails that people who live out in the suburbs or rural areas use and commute an hour/hour plus into the city.

Malibu Stacy

OP, here is a US Census Bureau report with a list of major cities by levels of income inequality: http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/acs-16.pdf

Hazys

Stamford and the Bridgeport area of Connecticut has the highest income divide:
http://www.usnews.com/news/best-cities/slideshows/the-13-cities-with-the-greatest-economic-inequality/14

Has Northeastern weather.

The majority of people I presume commute to NYC. It would be a mix of rural and urban areas.