Before moving to Albuquerque for graduate university, I was living up north & braving the nasty Winter blizzards every year.
As someone who naturally struggles with anxiety, always wondering if our electricity was going to stop & our pipes freeze was more than enough to push me southward.
On top of that, I lived in an area that was surprisingly susceptible to tornadoes & other dire Springtime storm weather. A few times in our childhood the sky turned orange & every one of us heard the tornado sirens warning us of an impending funnel cloud in the area. I never saw a tornado first hand, despite the fact that I saw more than enough on the news & weather channels that I was scared for life. Moving down to the southwest was a nice change, as there aren’t nearly that various tornadoes down here. Take our new neighborhood of Albuquerque for example. The people I was with and I only get weaker tornadoes that die down hastily, & they usually only happen once every 10 years or more. Our winters are fairly mild as well compared to what I’m used to, as hot & cold temperatures in this area of NM stay above 30 degrees for most of the season. If you have plants you might need to cover them for frost protection, however other than that the hot & cold temperatures are easy to actemperature to compared to the sites I’m used to instead. My house is in Sandia Heights & our neighbors & I all have heat pumps for heating & cooling purposes. They’re effective in hot & cold temperatures that aren’t too cold, however at 30 & up I can’t imagine ever needing a supplemental oil furnace. My Heating, Ventilation, & A/C company is on Alameda Blvd as well, making them much closer than our last heating & cooling company.