@Chris Ladewig There are worse places on earth to settle. I spent forty years living and working on the south plains and the panhandle of western Texas frpom Guyman, Oklahoma to San Angelo, Texas. You could name one of those little towns and I would know immediately where it is. In the winter it is cold because the land is mostly flat and the wind blows cold. I have found the people more friendly, generally speaking than where I now live in Oklahoma. But I'm wondering how in the world did somebody know about a little house in a small town in the Texas Panhandle. I don't know where you live now, but I might be inclined to say congratulations.
@Chris Ladewig Having crossed the Texas panhandle many times back and forth, occasionally staying overnight in Amarillo, Conroe, or Shamrock, not meaning to be harsh, but one memorable time in Amarillo, we had to stuff bedclothes under the motel room door, so fiercely was the very cold wind blowing into the room. The smaller towns are quite nice, regardless of weather considerations. Personally, if at all possible, I would choose to live a bit away from Interstate 40, as it is heavily travelled from one end of the country to the other by plenty of unsavories, IMO. Frank
Is the Texas Panhandle as cold as up here where I live??? Massey, Ontario... Just wondering.... Our winters start around the middle of November and finish around the first week of April.. winter temperatures are average -30c to -45c and most of the time there is a nice wind to go along with those temps.. We get snow during those months.. Probably a total winter accumulation of around 5 feet of snow, but not all at one time of course..
There is no doubt your area gets colder than the Texas panhandle. I lived on the south plains, 120 miles south of Amarillo in Lubbock. There is a difference in a wet cold and a dry cold, or humidity. The humidity over the last fifty years has increased in the Texas Panhandle I have seen it fourteen below zero only two or three times. It was only bad when you had to get out in a 35 to 45 mph wind. My Brother who lives in central Wisconsin often used to make the statement. " I live where it is not uncommon to get, twenty, thirty degrees below zero" and maybe our temperature would be only eighteen degrees with a stiff wind. He would say it has never gotten this cold in Wisconsin. Too we get acclimated to a to an area and handle it better than a visitor . I coped with that part of west Texas for 47 years and loved it. Yet, if I came to your area, I would think I was freezing. It may be what we get used to. We humans are mostly very flexible.
The wind can certainly make a big difference, as can the humidity, in how things feel. Friends in Dallas used to refer to a "Blue Norther" and said the wind blew because there was only one tree between them and the North Pole to block the wind ...and that was in South Dakota. I hope your adventure to the Panhandle is successful. I have never had trouble leaving people behind, but I know it used to tear my wife to pieces every time we moved. That is why we will remain in Alaska for the future. We travel during the times we have free, and visit friends and family as we do.