A true northern winter redefines your sense of cold if you are from a more mild climate. The ambient temperatures sting any exposed skin and freeze any moisture (like the inside of your nose or condensation as your exhale) almost instantly. Add in a strong wind and you can feel the heat being sucked from your body even if you have a good winter coat on. Visually, everything changes. Snow piles up so high you can't see over it, humans travel down narrow lanes where the snow has been cleared, everything gets caked in this dirty grey powder of ground up snow, ice, and grit, sun dogs appear in the sky, plants are stripped to skeletons of their summer mass, and you start to see a side of nature that is often invisible (specifically animal trails). I've lived in Minnesota for 10 years and still love the winter and the excitement of a good snowfall!
He left out SAD and a general sense of having to live a full year's worth of life condensed into the three months where it's tolerable being out of your house.
Even the most winter wary Minnesotan will venture out far more than three months of the year! Spring, summer, and autumn are fantastic here as well. The winter can be long, but if you get outside and enjoy it, you find that you look forward to large snowfalls etc. A mid winter holiday somewhere warm also helps!
