Dear Tom,
Residents of Honolulu boast about their moderate, even climate, but I love wild and variable weather. Where in the “lower 48” should I live? And preferably a big city, not a hamlet.
Jim Williams
Dear Jim,
Check out Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul in the Upper Midwest.
Shielded from the moderating influences of the Pacific Ocean by the nation’s western mountain ranges, the Upper Midwest lies open to invasions of bitterly cold air from the north and torrid tropical air from the south.
Taking into consideration the totality of dangerous, damaging, costly or merely active and inconvenient weather occurrences –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 Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
