How much winter can you skip?
Pick your city and somewhere to escape to. We count every December-to-March day in five years of weather-station records (2021–2025) that was actually pleasant, using your own idea of pleasant.
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Change what counts as a good dayMonth by month
Share of days in each month that fit your settings. Darker means more of them. Faded months are outside the season you picked.
What knocks days out
Share of days that miss each setting. A day can miss more than one, so these don’t add up to 100.
See the numbers
Where winter is worth spending
Every dot is a city, shaded by how many winter days fit your settings. It redraws as you move the sliders. Tap a dot to compare it.
Best places for your settings
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The usual escapes, ranked
Florida, Arizona, Mexico, Colombia and more, ranked on your settings. Tap one to compare it with your city.
Best escape for each definition
Your settings
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About the Winter Check
What counts as a good winter day?
By default, a December-to-March day with a high between 65°F and 87°F and a night that stayed above 45°F. That’s the Snowbird preset. The other presets and every slider let you set your own definition, and the counts update instantly.
How do Medellín, Florida and Arizona compare?
On the Snowbird settings, across –, Medellín averaged – good winter days out of 121, Miami –, Phoenix – and San Diego –. Try Sunny winter or Winter beach days and the order changes. The tool shows you exactly why in “What knocks days out”.
Why do these numbers differ from the averages on our city pages?
Our city pages use 30-year climate normals, which smooth everything into one average per month. The Winter Check counts actual days from the last five full years at each city’s nearest weather station, so a monthly average here can differ from the normal by a degree or two. That’s weather being weather.
Where does the data come from?
Daily highs, lows and dew points come from NOAA’s Global Summary of the Day station records. Cloud cover and rainfall come from NASA’s POWER project. We count every day from – for – cities.
Can I share my result?
Yes. The link carries your city, the place you compared and your settings, so whoever opens it sees exactly what you saw. “Download image” saves a ready-to-post card.
Real days, counted one by one
Temperature and dew point
Daily high, low and average dew point from the nearest weather station with solid records, usually the airport, via NOAA’s Global Summary of the Day. Each result names its station and distance.
Clouds and rain
Daily cloud cover and rainfall from NASA POWER (NASA Langley Research Center), which blends satellite data and models on a grid. A “rainy day” is 0.1 in (2.5 mm) or more.
The count
Every day from 2021–2025 is checked against all your settings at once. Missing days are skipped and the result is scaled to the full season, so a patchy station doesn’t look worse than it is. Our city pages use 30-year climate normals; this counts actual recent days.
Found your escape?
Get the Winter Countdown: what to book and when, timed to your departure.