(Disclaimer: I love Dakota.)

"It's winter in Dakotas
and the gentle breezes blow.
Seventy miles an hour,
At thirty-five below.

Oh how I love Dakotas,
When the snow's up to your butt.
You take a breath of winter air
And your nose gets frozen shut.

Yes, the weather here is wonderful
So I guess I'll hang around.
I could never leave Dakotas
'Cause I'm frozen to the ground!"

Story is, when the wind blows your hat away in the Decotas, you don't chaise it, you just grab the next one coming along.

Impressive use of poetic license.

I was pheasant hunting with my brother near Chamberlain, SD and the wind was flat out howling. At the crest of a hill the wind somehow angled upward and felt like it was lifting us off the ground. We were laughing and screwing around with the effect when a low passing jet fighter, probably out of Ellsworth AFB, blasted out of nowhere and absolutely shattered the world. I think I saw Jesus. The next thing I knew we were all laid out - a tangle of brothers, shotguns, and a German shorthaired pointer with a WTF-was-that-look on his face.

Always enjoy that - fantastic.

It keeps the riff raff out

You guys got that about right lol. We used to say it keeps the rifraf out, but that doesn't seem to work anymore. It's not uncommon to see the interstate overheads full of snow to the top of the bridge from the road. I'm glad I'm retired I had a crew with the DOT WINTERS GOT OLD and if your running a snowplow your going to get hit usually by a semi. My great grandparents came in an ox driven wagon and lived in a sod house. I believe there is a shrinkage warning as of now. Good stuff!!!

When I first went into the Arctic, I didn't think the winters were that much different from where I grew up in central ND.. I got back last night from several days in Eastern Montana, after a week in Ixtapa.

I haven't changed my mind.

An out-of-stater was talking to a ND farmer, and asked, "Does the wind always blow like this?"

The farmer thought a few seconds and replied, "No. Sometimes it changes direction". True also in the Arctic.

The Arctic (like ND and eastern MT) is technically a desert, so it doesn't get all that much snow, but we used the hell out of what we did get, back and forth....

Being from ND may be the reason I liked living in the Arctic. Besides, the summers are cooler - I don't do hot for very long, very well anymore. My wife and I agreed we may have stayed one day too long in that 90 degree weather in Ixtapa, but it's nice to warm up for 4-5 days in mid winter.

Before I moved to WY a longtime friend of mine that lived here told me the snow doesn't melt in Wyoming. When I expressed skeptism he responded "it just blows over to Nebraska".

I live about 12 miles from Canada in north central N.D. The best thing about the cold is that it keeps our population between 600,000 and 700,000 thousand people total. A few to many but bearable. Edk

Well damn guys, after reading these comments I believe I will mark "visit North Dakota" of my bucket list. I don't mind a little cold down to single digits but the f-ing wind can kiss my arse!

A friend of mine, who is a very successful predator hunter, invited me up to north central Nord Dakota to hunt coyotes one winter. Told me to bring three (3!!) snowmobile suits that could fit over top of one another. Only way to survive sitting still in the snow. Told him thanks, but no…