Only 40% of Americans Like Winter

Winter is the season everyone loves to hate. Well, nearly everyone. According to a 2019 HuffPost/YouGov survey, 51 percent of Americans aged 18 or older have an unfavorable view of winter. Forty percent have a favorable view. The remainder are undecided. By region of the country, this is how people feel about winter...

Percent with a favorable view of winter
Northeast: 34%
Midwest: 24%
South: 48%
West: 45%

What about summer? Overall, 76 percent of Americans have a favorable view of summer, while just 16 percent have an unfavorable view. Here are attitudes toward summer by region...

Percent with a favorable view of summer
Northeast: 78%
Midwest: 81%
South: 72%
West: 72%

Spring and fall are rated even higher than summer. Fully 82 percent of the public has a favorable view of spring and fall, and the figures do not vary much by region.

Source: HuffPost, Winter is Objectively the Most Unlikeable Season

How Was Your Winter?

Colder than normal? Warmer than normal? It's hard to tell.

Gallup asked a nationally representative sample of Americans in early March whether the winter had been warmer or colder than usual. Then it compared their answers to the February 2019 temperature mean and the historic mean (based on 1900 to 2000 NOAA data). Here are the findings by region...

• In the East: It was 4.4 degrees warmer than average in the East. But 34 percent of the region's residents told Gallup it was colder than usual. Another 42 percent said it was about the same. Only 22 percent reported it being warmer than usual.
• In the Midwest: Midwesterners did better. The Midwest was 4.9 degrees colder than average, and 62 percent of residents reported that it was colder than usual. 
• In the South: It was 3.6 degrees warmer than usual in the South, but only 32 percent of residents felt that way. The 43 percent plurality said it was about the same as usual and 23 percent said it was colder than usual.
• In the West: It was cold in the West, with the average February temperature 6.1 degrees below normal. Western residents felt it, with 64 percent reporting a colder than usual winter. 

How good are we at noticing climate change? Gallup's results show that we get it right only about half the time.

Source: Gallup, More Attributing Colder and Warmer Weather to Climate Change than in Past

Cold Is A Bigger Killer

Among weather-related deaths, cold is a bigger killer than heat, flood, storm, or lightning, according to an analysis by the CDC. In the 2006–2010 time period, cold-weather deaths accounted for 62 percent of the 10,649 weather-related deaths in the United States.

During the time period under analysis, the cold-related death rate was 4.2 deaths per million population, the CDC reports. The rate was below average among people under age 45. It was slightly above average among those aged 45 to 74. The death rate climbs steeply in the 75-plus age groups. The rate was nearly four times the average among people aged 75 to 84 (15.5) and more than nine times the average among those aged 85 or older (39.6).

Source: National Center for Health Statistics, National Health Statistics Reports, Deaths Attributed to Heat, Cold, and Other Weather Events in the United States, 2006–2010