The staff at Thrillest is at again, this time to rank U.S. states to see which one has the absolute worst winters. 

Both authors of the article grew up in the midwest and their research consisted of:  factoring in everything from weather patterns, average temperatures, and how effective and quickly their department of transportation clears highways, to interviews with locals and the historical success rates of their winter-season sports teams.

Wisconsin comes in at 7, while the land of 10,000 lakes gets ranked as the absolute most miserable winter in all of the U.S. The top 5 worst states were:

  1. Minnesota
  2. Michigan
  3. Alaska
  4. North Dakota
  5. Maine

The site went on to say this about the frozen tundra of Minnesota:

To think of the generally cheerful brood of Nordic-bred people being the winners in any sort of a contest of misery seems downright crazy. How can you remain so upbeat when you get all the winter weather patterns? Alberta clippers? Sure. Panhandle hooks? You betcha! Parts of northern Minnesota see up to 170in of snow in a winter. One hundred seventy inches! That’s like two and a half times the height of Kent Hrbek!! It can get down to -60 degrees, a temperature at which frostbite can occur in fewer than five minutes. There are no chinook winds or moderating oceans to temper things outside of a small area by Lake Superior. Your sports teams never win championships. All of your good high school hockey players end up starring for NHL teams in other cities. Ice fishing can’t be that cool, really.

And for Wisconsin:

Look, there’s a reason it’s practically state law that every block in a Wisconsin city or town must have a minimum of three bars on it. There’s a level of persistently grey, soul-squeezing frigidness here that can only be combatted with liberal doses of brandy Old Fashioneds and Spotted Cow along with various forms of fried dairy products. If you go tailgating at Lambeau when Green Bay’s buried under feet of snow, you could be forgiven for surveying the relatively lively demeanor of the local populace and think that everything must be reasonably cool, but that’s just because all these people have been intoxicated for 72 straight days, and it’s all going to come crashing down eventually, likely in relation to some head-scratching playoff game management courtesy of Mike McCarthy.

While I only have lived in Minnesota, I'm 1000% positive that got it right with our state. Let me know what you think of the rankings in the comments below.l

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