For real, Michigan winters beat out all the northern states except Minnesota? The answer is yes. Thrillist.com, the website that ranked Michigan #1 when it comes to food, drink and physical beauty when they ranked every state in America from worst to best, just ranked our state #2 for worst winters.

The only other state which the website thought had a worse winter was Minnesota. Can you believe that North Dakota (#4), Maine (#5), South Dakota (#6) and Wisconsin (#7) all beat out Michigan in the ranking.

According to the website their rankings were put together by research, debate and they used factors such as weather patterns, average temperatures, interviews with residents, success rates of winter sports teams and the effectiveness in safely clearing the roads.

Well thrillist.com said the following concerning Michigan winters:

Winter in Michigan begins well before Thanksgiving and stretches far past Easter, which makes for four-to-six wearisome months of always-gray, always-cold, always-drizzly, but-rarely-snowy-in-a-good-way misery. Some other states may see colder temps or more snow, but Michigan winters are unrivaled for their utter lack of sunshine. The ceaseless cloud cover begins in October, and envelopes the state in a daily sense of gloom that only worsens when the apathetic sun slouches below the horizon at quarter-to-five.

 

For the Michigander, this is winter: you leave work at 5 or 6, already in the dead of night, and fight your way down 94 or 96 or 75 or whatever Godforsaken stretch of highway. You can't even tell if it is drizzling rain or snow, because the brown salt sludge that sprays up off the road coats your windshield more completely than anything that falls from the sky. Overnight, the road freezes. In the morning you wake up and it is still dark. You scrape off your car, then get stuck in traffic as the cars ahead of you gawk at the SUV that has slid into the ditch. You actually look forward to a proper snowfall, just to cover the dirt. Even then, you do not go skiing, because there are no hills.

 

You do not look forward to outdoor winter recreation because there is none. You might go bowling. You probably put on weight. If you are lucky you might have a snowmobile, but it's a pain in the a$$ to get out. More likely your a$$hole neighbor has one, and it is loud. In early April you convince yourself it is spring because it is Tigers Opening Day. You overpay for tickets to the game, tell yourself 45 degrees isn't that cold, and cheer when the sun peeks out at the end of the fourth inning. That is the light at the end of the tunnel. Winter in Michigan is a miserable, miserable time. -- Bison Messink, Deputy Editor/recovering Michigander

Do you agree?

By the way Hawaii came in at #50.

BONUS VIDEO - Fly Over Timber Ridge Ski Area Before the Snow Fell

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