SYRACUSE --
Syracuse tops the list of cities named worst in the country in terms of winter weather. That's according to the Farmers' Almanac. The almanac recently published its "Ten Worst Weather Cities" and it appears Syracuse takes the cake.
It's divided into two lists -- one that details the five worst winter weather cities and another that singles out the five cities with the worst summer weather. Syracuse was selected as the city with the worst winter weather because it lasts so long, getting "cold, clammy, snowy" weather from October through April most years.
Anyone who's lived here for any length of time knows how much snow we get. In fact, the city averages almost 120 inches of snow per season, beating out other snowy New York cities like Buffalo, Rochester, Albany and Binghamton. We also spend much of the winter in the cold with daytime temperatures in the 30s, nighttime lows in the teens and frequent sub-zero temps.
And there isn't much sun to make those chilly winter days not feel so gloomy. Considerable cloud cover means Syracuse gets only about one third of the sunshine possible, making it an all around gloomy place to be during the winter months.
While many people the Farmers' Almanac polled said they preferred mild weather with temperatures around 75 degrees, others say they like all the snow. "The funny thing about weather is that some people enjoy what most of us consider the worst weather-snowstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes," notes Farmers' Almanac editor Peter Geiger. "We've even had people ask us where to move to for the best place to see tornadoes, believe it or not."
The Farmers' Almanac editors decided to consider only cities with populations of at least 50,000 people. Syracuse beat out other cold cities like Duluth, Minn., Casper, Wyo., Cleveland, Ohio, and Detroit, Mich.
The Farmers' Almanac's five worst summer weather cities are Miami, Fla., New Orleans, La., Dallas, Texas, Mobile, Ala., and Corpus Christi, Texas.
For the full story, detailing the Farmers' Almanac staff's reasons for selecting each of the ten worst weather cities, click here:
