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utgirl2
member
More questions...
utgirl2
member
How has the winter been this year? We are moving from Salt lake city almost a 20 hour drive. Google maps has us driving through Wyoming, Nebraska, and up through Iowa. Does that sound about right to anyone who has moved here from out west.
I nervous thinking about the trip. I will be driving with the two kids in the car, while my husband drives the moving truck. I HATE driving in bad weather, but have heard its been pretty mild.
Another random question, how often are there tornado warnings or which months? Sorry about any spelling typos, I'm using the iPad.
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This winter has been out of the ordinary so far. We barely have any snow, and there have really only been a couple of days I'd call cold. Usually though February and March are the snowiest months from what I can remember, so it's possible winter will get here yet. I think MN does a pretty good job of keeping the roads clear in storms, but if can always be tricky driving. I'd say if it snows a lot on your way and you are uncomfortable, it's not worth risking an accident. I'd pull over and stay somewhere until the storm passes.
We really only have tornadoes in the summer time. Depending on when you are coming, I'd say you don't have to worry about that for a few months.
Hope this helps!
While I've never driven from UT, I have a friend from Wyoming and yes, that is the route that she usually takes from WY to MN. I did live in Nebraska for a year and that drive all the way across Nebraska can get bad as it is pretty flat, so if it is snowing, there isn't much to stop it from blowing. Same can be true driving through Iowa. All that being said, this winter has been tame and unseasonably warm with very little snow or ice.
As far as tornados, hmmm, maybe 2-4 each summer? It varys - and with the odd weather that we've had this winter, don't know if that'll affect the weather through the summer? I've lived in St. Paul the majority of my life and honestly I don't really worry about tornados. That's not to say that nothing can happen - there was a bad tornado in North Minneapolis last summer.
Drivingwise I can't offer any advice, as I've only driven btwn Minneapolis and Michigan.
Weatherwise:
It gets really, really cold here. BUT everything is set up to handle the cold. We also get a lot of snow, but generally unless the snow is actually falling during rush hour, the roads are clear before people have to be on them.
This winter has been extremely mild, we had a day in the 50's just last week! This is not the norm. It is not unusual to have highs that don't get above the single digits for 2 weeks at a time during Jan and Feb especially. Also, we have had very little snow this year. Compare to last year, when the snow got so high that we could no longer see over the tops of the snowbanks on either side of our driveway! That said, you get used to it super fast. The summers are exceptional and make the winters totally worth it.
It is the prairie, so tornado's do happen (one touched down about a mile and a half from my house and hit a friends house last summer) but that was the first one I remember touching down in the Cities proper since I moved here more than 12 years ago. We can also have some pretty astounding storms (pitch black in the middle of the day) but that's maybe once a Spring.
We've made the trip from Utah (Moab precisely) to MN several times...because we're farther SE Utah we usually go through the mountains in CO, but from Salt Lake City I'd come up Wyoming and drop into Nebraska (80) and then up 35 to MN.
Nebraska I'd be really careful if there's a storm, they don't get snow like we do, but rather freezing icy rain, and my husband travels to Colombus, NE quite frequently and they aren't as great about clearing the roads fast like they are here. The blowing can affect that too because they're a lot flatter so the wind blowing across the highway could make it slicker.
Weather wise you don't need to worry this year too much because we've had an unseasonably warm winter, but I'd also watch if there's been storms the I90 corridor in Southern MN because that can get nasty through there too, and I90 is quite often closed down in poor weather conditions.
Late April (if its a weird year), May and early June are our biggest months for Tornado's and its hit or miss.
My sister moved to Chicago from SF and she didn't have very good things to say about the trip, especially going through UT and Wyoming. There were lots of road closures and detours due to mountain snow. The same thing happened to her when she moved out there from Chicago...she got stuck somewhere in Wyoming overnight because a road through the mountains was closed and she had to get chains on her tires to go any further.
Tornadoes aren't as common as many people think. More thunderstorms and severe weather.....once a year a tornado will hit the metro area, maybe.
We get an average amount of snow....very light this year, but having moved here from Boston, we don't get an abnormal amount of snow for our climate (not like lake effect snow in NY). It's the temperatures that really stink (and again, this year has been SUPER mild). It's not uncommon to be below zero for a week straight in Jan/Feb or have wind chills into the -30 range.
But, as PP mentioned, summer and fall are amazing times, so they make up for the crappy winters.