<p>Sorry you had that particular experience, MAize&Blue, but it would appear that your daughter extrapolated too much from it.</p>
<p>Northern Ohio winters are not warm, nor is the Midwest generally. But Minnesota is rather nastier than most other places.</p>
<p>According to my handy old Places Rated Almanac, Rochester MN ranks as the 5th worst of 353 Metro areas in the entire US for "Winter Mildness". Tied with Minneapolis. On average Rochester has 35 days a year of below zero temperatures. Minneapolis has 34.</p>
<p>As compared to 5 days of below zero temperatures for Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria Ohio.</p>
<p>The average temperature charts are hard to read in this book, because they use a small graph, but the Minnesota metro areas are clearly lower.</p>
<p>Doesn't mean you can't get a good snow/ice storm in Ohio though, on a given day; obviously you can.</p>
<p>Spring: Mid-April. Freak late snowstorms always possible, but it's been a very mild year (though we are expecting a few inches tomorrow). Put it this way: you can plant your tomatoes just before Memorial Day. :)</p>
<p>I'm speaking as a SoCal weather wimp here, but in my years of regular visits to Minnesota for work reasons, I found that there were really only two pleasant months per year: May and October. The rest of time was either too cold --> cold that ranged from awful to downright dangerous, or too hot --> hot, muggy, and mosquito-ridden with a side order of tornadoes and lightening storms to keep the danger level high.</p>
<p>But the Minnesotans seem to actually LIKE all this. So if it appeals to you too, perhaps you are cut out for Minnesota. I'm not.</p>
<p>Patient--one of the words my D learned at German camp last year was Schnake (mosquito). Benedryl works pretty well if they are allergic to the bites. The one thing you can say about the weather in the midwest is that it is unpredictable. My daughter went to German camp last year in July and was freezing the entire time--they had an unusually cold July last year. The thunderstorms in the midwest are magnificent.</p>
<p>I actually wouldn't expect many mosquitoes in St. Paul at all--it's too far inside the metropolitan mosquito control district--and they may not be bad in Northfield either--I've never noticed them there, on brief visits mostly on Memorial Day. Minnesota has mid-continental cold, moderated by a great lake only near Duluth, and also mid-continental HEAT in the summer. The last few years the climate seems to have moderated in both extreme seasons--maybe a consequence of global warming is that Minnesota gets better weather in general, in which case the Kyoto Treaty won't be too popular here. </p>
<p>May and October are the most pleasant months for weather in a lot of parts of the temperate zone. Paradoxically, they are also the two months with the highest suicide rate in that zone, which is hypothesized to be because of the change of seasons.</p>
<p>midwest weather is definetly unpredictable- I remember a few summers ago my family went out to a lake near my home, and in one day it rained, snowed, hailed, and was sunny. all within 8 or 9 hours.</p>
<p>monydad - The cold weather complaint at Oberlin was likely one of D's irrational comments that she would make about a school when she was unable to articulate her feelings about fit. :confused: Perhaps it was just too close to her bro in Ann Arbor. I just thought it was humorous to have D's say the same thing about the other's winters. Luckily, her first year at Carleton has been unusually mild, not much snow and temps rising on occasion above 40. She is aware that the valley south of Minneapolis is prime wind chill area. Once she found her fit, the weather became the least of her concerns.</p>
<p>The Ohio weather is pretty much the same as the weather where we live. My Daughter's not too crazy about that, and she really didn't want to go someplace where it's even worse. </p>
<p>On the other extreme, the school I was lobbying for was in LA, and she didn't want that either. Go figure.</p>
<p>What she really wanted was to put Oberlin in Boston.</p>
<p>Yeah, but if Oberlin and Carleton were in Boston, too many people would "know" and rave about them and their admit rates would take a dive down into the teens! My D rather enjoys the quizzical expressions from the inquiring public. BTW, my D also would not consider LAC's in California either.</p>
<p>I guess their is some "hidden" aspect to the midwest. If the cream of the midwestern crop, like uchicago and northwestern were located in the NE, they would be much more selective.</p>
<p>mstee...did your daughter go to Concordia? (That's where my girls are going, only for the French language camp). I think I'll pre-teach it to them (moustique, if memory serves). I'll send them with the usual--repellent and anti-itch stuff too. (we have them here but they are not too severe). I would guess that the majority of summer camps have mosquitos, though? One of God's mysterious creations. My girls are a bit nervous about "weather" since we have so little of it here. We drove right through a siren tornado warning (stupid of me) in Georgia last summer and they were truly freaked out. I think a little bit of dramatic weather will be good for them!</p>
<p>Patient--yes, my daughter went to the Concordia German camp. She had a great time and learned much more German than I expected in two weeks (she had no previous German). Tornadoes aren't all that frequent in Minnesota, but now and there is one. Out of curiousity, I just googled Gustavus Adolphus college, because I remembered that my sister had mentioned that a tornado destroyed all the trees on the campus a few years back. And I just learned that tornado occured in March! The weather is really weird in the midwest. I remember my sister (who still lives in South Dakota) telling me a few years ago about a town in North Dakota that was experiencing a flood and a blizzard at the same time one spring.</p>
<p>Hey CCers - keep this Minnesota weather thread going!<br>
It's the kind of thing that keeps all but the focused and hardy (no offense Coureur!) out of our area. <grin></grin></p>
<p>Though you can certainly replicate this in the northeast, I've often thought the perfect selective-LAC-visit week would be Lawrence, Macalester, St. Olaf, Carleton and Grinnell. The only things missing would be engineering, a women's college and a greek-dominated party school. </p>
<p>Last summer my son was on the French Voyageur trip at Concordia during the horrible storm season.They had just arrived at their first island location when the thunder and lightning started. he tells this story of them perching on their life preservers (to minimize conduction) on the island in the pouring rain. He went for 3 summers, met great kids and loved it. His oral fluency soared...My other son went to the Spanish camp for a few years and thought it was great, too. My daughter is eager to do Japanese, but the schedule is a no go for this year...maybe next. </p>
<p>Son#2 liked both Macalester and Carleton...they are different in feel but both have appeal.. Son #1 is getting used to weather in Iowa (after 11 years on the equator), son #2 would be happy to do the same in Minnesota!! Of course, they have visceral memories of several years in Alaska...that's the secret!</p>
<p>Reid...2 summers ago we did Lawrence, drove to MSP and did Mac and Carleton, drove down to Grinnell then over to Earlham and Kenyon and Oberlin....it was a great trip!</p>
<p>Thanks, and thanks for the thumbs-up on Concordia! My girls have 4 years of French already and I am hoping that a few weeks of immersion will be both fun and a boost to their skills--they are actually both quite good about lapsing into French around the house (as I speak it too). They are hoping to do a 4-week program in Avignon next year too, although of course between now and then their priorities may change.</p>
<p>With respect to the colleges (talk about hijacking my own thread), thanks for all of the great information. If they like their summer, perhaps we can do that full tour in another year or two?</p>
<p>At the risk of a vast overgeneralization I have always thought that people from the midwest and particularly Minnesota and Wisconsin are the nicest people around. NOW: are the folks from the Midwest guffawing about now, or is there some truth to that, and if so, why?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have always thought that people from the midwest and particularly Minnesota and Wisconsin are the nicest people around.<<</p>
</blockquote>
<br>
<p>I always thought that Canadians had cornered the market on "nice".</p>
<p>I know one transplant from the East Coast who believes the following:</p>
<p>Midwesterners are very friendly on a superficial basis. They will say hello to you if they even barely know you, and even to strangers. East coasters won't do that.</p>
<p>They talk more slowly than East coasters, in a less-stressed voice. This seems more friendly.</p>
<p>But on a deeper level it is hard to get to know them on a personal basis. They have their own personal lives and keep to themselves. They are far less inclusive and welcoming to newcomers than East-coasters are, at this deeper level of involvement.</p>
<p>That's one person's view. I have no opinion myself.</p>