Weather

I've lived in both Bozeman, MT (very dry and very cold winters) and Chandler, AZ (very dray and very hot summers) for multiple years. I also consider myself to be a lover of moderate weather. I'm not much of a skier, so I don't love the cold snow, and I'm not much of a swimmer, so I don't love the sun. Considering all these things...I consider myself to be the world's foremost expert on the tolerability of very hot versus very cold weather. What is easier to survive -- the winters in Montana where the temperature dips down to 20 below or the summers in Arizona where the heat reaches 115. Some people love the cold or the hot, and, for them, the answer is simple. For the average person, however, the debate comes down to two facts:

(1) very cold weather (define here as below zero) is both very painful and very inconvenient because you need to wear so many layers. Very cold weather is undebatably more painful than very hot weather.

(2) the Arizona heat is simply relentless since you expect triple digit highs every day from May 15 till Sept. 15. The Montana cold may be painful and annoying, but it usually lets up after a week or two.

There are a number of lesser considerations: (a) the Arizona heat that keeps you indoors happens when the days are longest, and the nice weather happen when the days are relatively short, (b) you don't have to shovel photons, and (c) the temperature difference between indoors and outdoors is, on average, less in Arizona. However, these are all smaller issues. Ultimately, if you have to choose Montana weather or Arizona weather it is simply a question of do you like your pain short and severe (i.e., Montana) or milder but relentless (i.e., Arizona).