Does New York Have the Most Miserable Winters in the Country?

You might be surprised where New York ended up on this list.

Severe winter storms are nothing new to us Central New Yorkers. Sometimes the area sees whiteout conditions as early as October.

Our winters can get pretty nasty when those freezing temperatures, icy conditions and howling winds hit. But, are our winters the worst of all?

Connecticut's Winters Rank Worse Than Ours

Thrillist has ranked all 50 states based on the severity of their winders and I am calling BS on this one because, as someone who lived in Connecticut for most of her life - I cannot in good faith say our winters are worse than New York's.

In fact, they've become virtually nonexistent. Sure, we get the cold weather and howling winds from time to time - but our snowfall amounts grow smaller every year.

Read More: "Reborn" Storm to Dump Snow in Parts of Upstate New York

As a lover of snow, that's terrible. So you can imagine the joy I felt when I landed the job here in Utica and thought to myself, "This time, I will see snow this winter."

I was promised snow... in abundance!

But, according to Thrillist - Connecticut was the land of ice and snow. Not New York. I have never been more offended and confused in my short life.

CT scored 20th worst winters overall while New York State landed one spot behind, in 21st place.

What Thrillist Said about New York's Winters

Thrillist, with its dry and sarcastic humor, wasn't all too kind when rating our winter months.

New Yorkers have a way of vacillating between bragging about their comparatively mild winters relative to other northern metropolises (Boston, Chicago), and switching into “STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING NOW AND BEHOLD OUR PLIGHT” mode when some serious weather comes their way. Meanwhile, Buffalo’s up there under some 30 feet of lake-effect snow, just alternating between hours-long shoveling escapades and quiet moments by the fireplace spent softly crying about said shoveling escapades while taking generous shots of Frank’s.

Still don't think that's deserving of 21st place. Based on what I've been told about our winters, we deserve to at least be in the top 15.

Which States Have It Worse?

If you're someone who loses their mind when dealing with blizzards, nor'easters and whiteout conditions, then you shouldn't be living in the states that made it into the top 1-10.

10. Ohio - Ranked tenth worst due to lake-effect snowstorms, subzero temperatures in the lowlands, and overall miserable winters,

9. Illinois - Chicago winters are notoriously rough (and yes, occasionally Siberia-esque), but the people there have the kind of warm and generous spirit that leads to displays of solidarity like fighting over whether or not a pair of plastic lawn chairs constitutes indefinite rights to a shoveled-out parking place post-snowfall.

8. Maine - People talk about winter in northern Maine the same way they talk about winter in Game of Thrones: brutal and essentially never-ending. Huge thousand-mile swaths of the state are uninhabited or barely populated, and that is because the cold months up this way are on par with The Long Night.

7. Nebraska -  The cold months are actually downright moderate in western Nebraska thanks to the moderating effects of the same Chinook winds that bailed out Wyoming, while people in the east are forced to just hunker down with their stockpiles of corn.

6. Iowa - One January, while inexplicably choosing to travel by car from Chicago to Iowa to watch an Iowa basketball game, I experienced a whiteout snowstorm so fierce that a truck jackknifed along I-80, causing a historically bad traffic jam that I only escaped by detouring down an equally terrifying, random farm road.

5. Wisconsin - Look, there’s a reason it’s practically state law that every block in a Wisconsin city or town must have a minimum of three bars on it. There’s a level of persistently gray, soul-squeezing frigidness here that can only be combatted with liberal doses of brandy Old Fashioneds and Spotted Cow along with various forms of fried dairy products.

4. South Dakota - South Dakota’s average high during the cold months is four degrees warmer than North Dakota's; the Black Hills are very pretty when buried under snow; and there are a few redeeming qualities about South Dakotan winters—namely, ice fishing and snowmobiling—that have convinced us to maybe, maybe, stick around come this time of year. 

3. Michigan - You do not look forward to outdoor winter recreation because there is none, unless you pretend to enjoy cross-country skiing on very flat land. The sounds of revving snowblowers and snowmobiles will drive you to near madness. And, even when spring technically arrives, the giant piles of dirty snow will still be melting for a month.

2. Minnesota - Parts of northern Minnesota see up to 170 inches of snow in the winter, and it can get down to negative 60 degrees—a temperature at which frostbite can occur in fewer than five minutes.

1. North Dakota - A lot of states have broken all-time-low records recently but not North Dakota. No, North Dakota is just always that cold. In fact, it ranks as the coldest state in the lower 48. July and August are the only months when it hasn’t snowed here. Every year sees temperatures in the minus 20s (and a few days in the minus 30s!). Once in the 1930s, it even dipped down to minus 60 degrees. This is just normal here.

That said, if you're someone who constantly complains about how horrible winters are in New York - you're surprisingly living in one of the good states.

Read More: NY to See Less Snow This Winter Because of Rare Weather Pattern

Yes, I hear you, Buffalo, and I think the above statement is a crime.

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