In the past week in the Midwest, we went from snow, sleet and freezing temperatures on Saturday to 100 degrees on Tuesday. Welcome to spring! At least the piles of snow and ice have finally melted.

This brutal winter made me constantly think about the lovely weather of Hawaii. Along with southern California, my opinion is that you can’t beat the weather of the Hawaiian Islands. Sure, many islands are extremely rainy, but the reward is a lush, green paradise. The vast majority of our visits to Hawaii have been escapes from our long, cold, snowy winters, but we have also visited in the summer. We learned, anecdotally, that this is the time when Californians and others from the west coast tend to vacation in Hawaii. There was a bit more humidity, but the temperatures are so surprisingly consistent it is amazing to us when we have a nearly 70-degree fluctuation in a matter of three days.

Every day I check out the forecast for Hawaiian locations on my weather app, which almost always calls for sunny or partly sunny and a fluctuation of mid-70s to low-80s. When it’s below zero, this is an obsession. Sure, there are cloudy days depending on the island and some locations are some of the rainiest on earth. However, when it’s warm and there is a rainbow lurking somewhere in that rain, you don’t mind one bit. How does that Crowded House song go? Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you? It may not be the intended meaning of the song, but everywhere I go, I’d like to take Hawaii’s weather with me.