Winter Does Not Last Six Months

It is March 10th and it is 58 degrees here in Illinois, and it is going to be in the mid 40s for the foreseeable future (not that the foreseeable future is very long when it comes to weather). My question for all you people that insist winter lasts six months in the north is this: what’s happening? It’s a rhetorical question, because the answer is clear, winter does not last six months, and with the possible exception of a late season snow storm, the worst is already over. Granted, it is already in the mid 70’s in Florida, but that’s beside the point. No one ever said the north was as warm as the south, but this past winter, thanks to the magic of Facebook status updates, I have been exposed to plenty of people complaining about winter and the more I started thinking about it, the less objective I think people are being about the whole subject.
What it really boils down to is that fact that there is only a couple if things that I truly hate about winter and those are: days it is so bitter cold that it hurts to be outside (usually 20 degrees or less) and snow storms. Really, anything above 35 degrees is bearable, and if you don’t think so, then I am sorry, but you are just being a pansy. Also, snow storms are infrequent, maybe happening 20 times a winter, and after the road crews do their job, you don’t even really think about it anymore. They are a minor and very temporary inconvenience. So then, how much time do we northerners typically have to endure such condition? Well, this usually varies from winter to winter. Three years ago, it was in the 40s for most of January. The past couple of winters though were far worst. None the less, on average it is not until mid-December that temperatures really start to fall into the unpleasant zone. Certainly no one is out sun bathing it November, but it is really nothing when compared to the brutal colds of January. The truly cold temperatures usually last from mid-December until mid to late February. That’s 2 months. November and March are bearable, and by April, things are usually on the upswing, save for the occasional freak snow storm (I actually remember it snowing in may at Lake Clear once).
My point is that WINTER DOES NOT LAST SIX MONTHS! So stop being such cry babies about it! If you truly have such delicate sensibilities that you think anything below 70 degrees is winter and have not concept of spring or fall, then by all means, move south, but for the rest of us, let’s try to be objective and take winter in stride. I think this is yet another case of confirmation bias, and remembering the hits and ignoring the misses. It is easy to bemoan the horrors of winter when it is -15 degrees out, but those days are the exception, not the rule. On paper, they are certainly a smaller part of your life than you think they are.