You might conclude that the secret to happiness is to move somewhere like Palo Alto—a place that is nearly always sunny, warm, and not too hot. Not so fast. That consistently temperate weather isn’t all for the good. People in permanently warm places tend to be happier than their cold-weather counterparts during the autumn and winter months. But in the spring, that pattern reverses. When someone says they “enjoy the change in seasons,” they probably don’t mean they enjoy digging their car out of a snowbank but rather that they get a big, noticeable happiness boost when bad weather turns into good weather.

And then, of course, there is the problem of homeostasis. Humans are generally bad at enjoying anything for very long before we become accustomed to it and return to our baseline happiness levels. Researchers warn that the thrill of good weather will wear off in relatively short order after moving, just as thrills tend to do after other happiness-inducing phenomena (such as marriage or coming into a lot of money).

If moving somewhere warm produces such marginal and temporary gains, why is it so tempting? It turns out that people tend to think that weather matters more for their happiness than it actually does.