Dear Tom,
With all the hurricanes in Florida, I’ll nominate that state as having the nation’s worst weather. What do you think?
Vern Boerman, South Holland
Dear Vern,
You have asked a complex question that has no single, satisfying answer, but it is probably unfair to judge a state’s climate in terms of just one kind of weather event when so many weather occurrences can be deadly or just plain uncomfortable. Nevertheless, it is true that Florida stands ahead of all other states in hurricane strikes.
Taking into consideration the totality of dangerous, damaging, costly or merely inconvenient weather occurrences–things like hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, heat, cold, humidity, blizzards, rain, snow, glaze, fog–one state leads all others in its variety and frequency of nasty weather: Minnesota.
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
Write to: ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Pl., Chicago, IL 60618 or asktomwhy@wgntv.com (Mail volume precludes personal response.)
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
