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jabbanobada t1_iwm2bs0 wrote

As some who spent half his life near NYC and the next half near Boston, I'd say the difference is considerable over a season, but not on a day to day basis. Day to day, we experience pretty much the same range of weather, just a couple degrees colder on average. You don't need to buy new clothes or learn how to drive in the snow when you move to Boston from NYC.

However, that two degrees can really catch up with you over the course of the season. Sometimes the same storm will hit both cities, but it will be a snow event in Boston and all rain in NYC. The other big difference is in how long the snow remains -- it isn't uncommon to have a week of thaw in NYC when our snow all stays. Snow farming is a much bigger thing here than in NYC.

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WinsingtonIII t1_iwm4i76 wrote

This sounds right, though I will say that Boston ultimately still falls into that coastal constant freeze/thaw style of winter on the whole. We don't always get every thaw that NYC does, but we do get them regularly on a weekly or biweekly basis throughout the winter.

When I lived in Chicago (which is an additional 4 degrees or so on average colder than Boston in the winter), that's a true deep freeze winter where after some point in December realistically you aren't getting any major thaws until early March. It will stay below freezing for weeks on end and it's rare to have enough of a thaw to actually melt any accumulated snow. An average winter day in Boston still tops out at mid to high 30s and there is regular potential to hit low 40s so it's not really like that here.

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EconomySeaweed7693 OP t1_iwm7hc9 wrote

>is chicago much worse than boston in winter?

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WinsingtonIII t1_iwm8bzo wrote

Anecdotally, yes. Boston is right on that temperature line in the winter where it's regularly mild enough to have regular thaw cycles as I mentioned. It's more depressing when it goes 3 or 4 weeks without really breaking the freezing point, which can happen in Chicago.

Chicago is also far more prone to extreme cold than either Boston or NYC. It gets cold fronts down out of the Canadian prairies where the air temperature can drop to -15 or -20, and hit -40 or so with wind chill. That's essentially unheard of in either Boston or NYC. It's also not uncommon to get single digit temperatures in Chicago in the winter, whereas in either Boston or NYC those single digit days are rare and only happen a couple times a year.

Personally, Boston winters are much closer to NYC winters than they are to Chicago ones, though they are slightly colder than NYC.

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ReporterOther2179 t1_iwn4z18 wrote

Freeze then thaw gives us our lovely potholes. I don’t know but logically those should be fewer in both NYC and Chicago.

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WinsingtonIII t1_iwn8swg wrote

Oh there are still potholes in Chicago. They just get the freeze thaw cycles in November and March more so than in January and February.

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designer_2021 t1_iwo3k5y wrote

Yes, Chicago is a deeper cold for longer time. If you really want to experience winter head a little farther to St Paul MN. Once you spend a weeks time of highs in the sub zeros it amazing how easy 10 degrees and sunny becomes t short weather.

Good news is when you hit forty below one no longer needs to convert between Fahrenheit and Celsius.

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h_to_tha_o_v t1_iwnmgmg wrote

It depends on what you dislike more: snow or cold. Granted I only did one winter in Chicago, but the numbers back it up, that there's less snow but more cold.

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Unique-Public-8594 t1_iwm8f45 wrote

And the winter comes sooner and leaves a bit later in Boston. Not by weeks and weeks but there is a difference.

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