All North Dakotans Know This - "You Can Die Out There"

One of the most significant things I have learned in my life in the last 9 years...

...ALWAYS have respect and fear for the weather in North Dakota, NEVER ever take it lightly, for it could cost you your life. I moved from San Diego, California back in 2014 to Fargo, North Dakota. I will never forget the night before I left, I watched the movie FARGO -after about ten minutes, I hit pause and said to myself "What in the heck am I doing?" Obviously, I wasn't prepared mentally or physically for the move for one simple reason - I had no idea how deadly and serious the weather is in North Dakota.

My whole life I had never set foot in the snow, had never experienced temps below 36 degrees

So needless to say I was in for a major adjustment. During my first week of driving a car around Fargo, all I heard from so many people was "Hope you have a survival kit in your car" - Of course, I do...."I have a jack and a spare tire...". Most people were kind and knew that I was from California, and had no clue whatsoever.

Blankets, water, spare batteries, a ladder, a blow torch, cat litter...

...were among the items mentioned to me as what every car should have if you intend on driving in the winter. "You could DIE out there" - that was always the stunning 5 words that were said to me a million times. I always thought to myself how overdramatic they were with that statement, Yep I thought that way, right up until the day I ran out of gas ( another rookie ND mistake by not having at least a half tank of fuel in your car ). Well, at least I was only like a half mile away from home. Here was my problem, I was wearing only a sweatshirt and had no gloves with me. I swear I almost lost my hands that day, as the weather was like -14, with a wind chill of -800. That 15-minute walk was memorable, to say the least, for the whole time I was trying to get home I kept thinking to myself "Yes You Can Die Out Here" - When I tell that story to North Dakotans they all nod their heads in agreement.

25 costliest hurricanes of all time

Although the full extent of damage caused by Hurricane Ian in the Southwest is still being realized, Ian is already being called one of the costliest storms to ever hit the U.S. Stacker took a look at NOAA data to extrapolate the costliest U.S. hurricanes of all time.