[gaoshan]

I've lived in Finland and spent time in Sweden in the winter and I grew up in Ohio (went to college in Michigan) and I can tell you that the winters in the midwest vary greatly depending on which part you live in. Finland and Sweden both had longer, colder, winters than Ohio does, for example. Chicago will get super cold and windy but the winters still aren't as long as in Scandinavia.

Basically, much of the midwest has shorter winters but some parts of it have equally harsh or even harsher (the Dakotas, for example) weather. Northern Michigan is quite a bit like Finland, for example, while the lower portion of Michigan is nothing at all like Finland.

Totally depends on where you go, even within the midwest.