I feel like American weather is really extreme in general. I live in a "hot city", and yet I've never experienced anything like what some of the Texans and Californians were describing in the heat thread - and yet, particularly in Texas, there's snow in winter, which has never happened where I live.
It seems bizarre for the Northern hemisphere too - I remember reading somewhere that the Twin Cities were roughly on the same latitude as Venice. I've been to Venice in winter and it was hardly some Fargoesque hellscape. I have no idea why though.
The Twin Cities are also about the same latitude as Harbin China which is nicknamed the Ice City. Average Harbin lows in Jan are -24 C, which is colder than Mpls at -14 C. However Mpls has a colder record at -41 C vs -38 C in Harbin. Both have average Jul highs of about 28 C.
I wasn't aware that Harbin was on the same latitude as Minneapolis, but I should have remembered that Asian cities at similar latitudes to Europe tend to be far colder. I suppose Europe must be unusually warm - probably due to the fact that it's relatively costal.
