[Icelander]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

Meh. It depends on where you visit. Colorado has summers that approach perfection, if for no other reason than that you can pick your own altitude for a suitable temperature range, and "high relative humidity," here, is 40 percent.

This sort of information is useful to roleplayers. Whether a character regards the climate of his home as perfection and judges every other place by comparing it with those standards or if he hates the weather at home (probably why he left), it's a nice little detail of characterisation that helps make the character part of a setting and world.

Originally Posted by tshiggins

Seriously, the altitude and latitude and proximity of water (or not) makes a huge difference and we wind up with a much wider range of climates than you'll find in most places, in Europe.

This is very true and dramatically so, of course, when compared to Iceland. In genral, a cold winter day and a warm summer day in Iceland are unlikely to differ by more than 40 degrees Fahrenheit and a typical winter and summer day probably differ by much less.

Originally Posted by tshiggins

You'd probably find the Pacific Northwest cool, cloudy and mild enough to suit you, and the shores of the Great Lakes are awfully nice, in the summer.

Yeah, I think I'd find the climate quite tolerable there.

On the other hand, to travel to the Pacific Northwest, I'd have to cross most of the US. What would I find over there on the other side worth skipping every historic town, battlefield, restaurant and truckstops with interesting accents in between?

That's sort of a dilemma with distant travel. Sure, it would no doubt be interesting to see Twin Peaks country, but would it be more interesting than every potential destination that is closer or easier to get to?

I mean, there are still cities in the former Austrian-Hungarian Empire I haven't seen. Roman ruins from the UK to the southernmost tip of Croatia. Battlefields from dozens of wars. Vinyards and local restaurants in Spain, Italy and any number of other delightful spots.

American cities can have good restaurants, but in general, for equivalent quality European 'ethnic' cuisine as you get in a welcoming country village in the actual European country, you pay a lot more.*

Next time I visit the US, barring necessity to attend a family event in New York, I'd want to visit those Southern states I haven't seen. There is just something about everyone's accent that makes it more fun. Also, lots of Civil War battlefields, museums and interesting historical stuff to look at. And BBQ to eat.

*The US does excel when it comes to casual and mid-range options featuring decent beef, as good meat is comparatively cheap there. As a result, I try to eat steaks and other grilled meat as much as I can in the US. As a confirmed carnivore, this is no hardship for me.

Originally Posted by tshiggins

The Upper Midwest, near the lakes, would have any number of Scandinavian surnames you'd immediately recognize, and those families moved there for a reason.

The mosquitoes up there approach stirge-class hazard categories, though, so take lots of Deet.

Well, my ancestors moved away from Scandinavia a millenia ago for good reasons, one of which I must assume was the heavy concentration of insect pests unaware of the proper position of humans at the top of the food chain.

Originally Posted by tshiggins

If you ever get a chance to visit Colorado in the summer, take it. Most people find it delightful. Warm days, but not too hot, low humidity, and cool nights.

The reason I haven't probably boils down to the same as for the rest of the world. While in theory, it's always fun to see new places, any one place is unlikely to have something I want to visit badly enough to make it to the top of the list.

If I didn't have to work and had infinite money, I would visit every spot in the world (except I probably wouldn't bother to visit Denmark yet again and I might avoid areas in Scandinavia infested with midge and mosquitos). As it is, I'm still way behind on places I really, really want to visit, for one reason or another.

In practice, climate seems far less important than any number of other factors. Courts break for the summer here in Iceland, so that's when I usually take a vacation, even if both Europe and North America are far too hot for an arctic creature like me in the summer. And somehow I've never braved the long, long travel times to visit other continents, even if I might find the weather in July more congenial there.

Originally Posted by tshiggins

The winters on the Front Range are also much milder than most of the East Coast. Storms seldom last more than a day or two and, while the snow piles high in the mountains, it melts quickly, down here.

As for winters in the South, they're about as miserable as the summers, for most people. It's cold and humid, which chills to the bone. The snow is heavy and wet, which makes it hard to get dry and stay dry. It's awful.

In the spring, it rains (and rains and rains...). The autumn, however, is beautiful.

I think autumns are often my favorite time of year.

Well, actually, I have a certain fondness for heavy snow, too. We don't get that a lot, which surprises many people.