Has anyone ever left here because of the weather?

[Anonymous]

I can’t take the heat and humidity here. And the mosquitoes.

My husband doesn’t like it but can tolerate it.

It’s become even harder after having a kid, because the baby now toddler demands to be outside more than just 15 minutes a day. So no, I can’t just go out early in the morning before it gets too hot.

Every summer from June to October I’m an angry, moody mess. Covered in mosquito bites and rashes (I have skeeter syndrome). Yes , I have tried everything.

Husband is coming around to the idea of moving north but it will come at potential risk to his job. He is fully remote but there is always chance of RTO (office in NOVA).

Has anyone made the decision to leave DMV primarily because of weather? How did it work out? Are you happy you did it? If you had to make sacrifices in other areas of life - work, proximity to parents (childcare help) - was it worth it? How did you get your spouse to support the decision if he/she wasn’t onboard initially?

Please share if you are on the other side.

[Anonymous]

I have been feeling like this OP. The summer is unbearable and being cooped up at home with kids sucks. Besides the pool we don't feel like doing anything outside.

Winters too -- gray rainy and no fun beautiful snow at all last year. No sledding for the kids.

I have been feeling really bummed out about this area that I didn't focus on as much before. I would love for my kids to be outside all day and that's much more doable where summer is just 10-15 degrees cooler as it is in the upper Northwest

[Anonymous]

Where would you move to up north that doesn't have mosquitos in the summer?

Late Sept and October are actually lovely here, and I say this as a former 40 year California resident who absolutely loathes the summers in the DC area. It's the only time I actually like the weather here.

My friend moved to Chicago (from CA) in her 20s. Once she had kids, she moved back to CA because she couldn't handle not going outside in the winter for weeks.

When my kids were younger (they are teens now), I took them to the pool a lot. Just cover yourself in bug spray and take a shower at night to wash it off.

I will say, though, that now that my kids are teens and going off with their friends on their own, I rarely leave the house in the summer. It is depressing as heck. I do hate it.

Instead of winter depression, I have summer depression because I don't want to go outside. But, I'm priced out of CA for the time being.

[Anonymous]

Where is "up north" to you? The heat, humidity, and mosquitos are going to be bad all along the east coast. You would need to move west to avoid that. And if you go north, you're looking at awful winters too.

Cover yourself in DEET. It works.

[Anonymous]

Do people really cover themselves in DEET every time you need to go out, even when it's 30 seconds to take out the trash or grab a package?

I understand OP. PP, DEET doesn't work on everyone, it's never protected me from mosquitoes here 100%. And it gets frustrating to slather it on every inch of my body multiple times a day.

I'm not on the other side of this, I wish I were.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where is "up north" to you? The heat, humidity, and mosquitos are going to be bad all along the east coast. You would need to move west to avoid that. And if you go north, you're looking at awful winters too.

Cover yourself in DEET. It works.

Plenty of places are 10-15 degrees cooler and less humid. Upstate NY, VT, etc. Even Boston / suburbs. Fewer mosquitoes too IMO.

[Anonymous]

And go where? Everywhere is hot mess now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do people really cover themselves in DEET every time you need to go out, even when it's 30 seconds to take out the trash or grab a package?

I understand OP. PP, DEET doesn't work on everyone, it's never protected me from mosquitoes here 100%. And it gets frustrating to slather it on every inch of my body multiple times a day.

I'm not on the other side of this, I wish I were.

I don’t, but I will say having skeeter syndrome sucks. One bite taking the trash out can make my life hell for a week. It gotten to the point where if I get bit I take Benadryl. I love the sun though so I chance it.

[Anonymous]

I went to law school in DC and had the intention of making a career there. Despite having very good summer clerkship opportunities in DC, I returned home to Maine instead both summers and then moved back north as soon as I could following the end of school. I simply could not tolerate summers in DC.

I’ve since lived in northern and southern New England, the southwest and the mountain west. I’m currently in southern New England for the past 7+ years. We have more hot weather than we used to have, but it’s only a few weeks that I have to close up and use AC. I live in a suburb, our yard is adjacent to woods and we have a meadow area and even a wetland area on the property where ducks nest every year. Despite this, I spend a fair amount of time in the yard and rarely see a mosquito or get bitten by one. I think that’s because we have a lot of birds and bats (we have a bat house on our house) and they keep the population in control. In general the biomass of insects is much lesser than it was when I grew up here decades ago and we’d get eaten alive playing in the yard. Similarly I cannot recall the last time I needed to clean bugs off my windshield between washes - it’s been years. It’s actually very unsettling how few insects we have these days.

Move north. Or out West, the insect situation there was totally tolerable. Not so much the politics.

[Anonymous]

Yep! Twice! In my early 40s I moved to FL to get away from the horrible winter weather, I stayed 6 years. Then I moved back to NoVa to help care for my mother. Mid 60s I moved to FL again to retire. That was almost three years ago and I love it here. A lot of the reason is the weather. I don't mind hot summers (I've always had a pool or close access to one) but I can't stand the winter up there.

[Anonymous]

Yep. Go west.

[Anonymous]

It wasn’t the sole reason, but it was definitely part of the reason we left, yes. We moved back to the upper Midwest.

Incidentally - if we had more birds, we’d probably have fewer mosquitos. We can’t keep our big chemically created lawn and zero “real” plants and wonder why only the nasty invasive insects survive.

Also did you try the mosquito buckets?

[Anonymous]

As someone who moved from DC to Boston, yes, summers up here are more temperate. Having said that, humidity is still high, and mosquitoes are common. September, in theory, is our best month, but it’s not shaping up that way this year. Very little sun, high humidity, and flooding rains. Access to the beach is nice, but in my opinion, the slightly better summers (emphasis on slightly) are not worth the longer winters. Go out west. You’ll thank me.

[Anonymous]

I will definitely be moving to escape the weather here. I absolutely detest cold weather and winter in general. I’m from here, and I will never, EVER live any farther north than this.

[Anonymous]

Literally forever DC has had a reputation for being unbearable in the summer. It’s always been a great place to live except in the summer. So, yeah, you shouldn’t expect to be super happy living here (vs. cooler places) unless you can vacate in the summer. That’s one reason lots of private schools start later than public schools; their affluent clientele largely is still vacated to more comfortable climes. SAHP’s or remote work are enablers for this. Very few people in the U.S. live in places where extreme cold winter weather is even worse than DC’s extreme summer misery. Of course, YMMV.