Before moving to Albuquerque for graduate school, I was living up north and braving the nasty winter blizzards every year.
As someone who naturally struggles with anxiety, constantly wondering if my electricity was going to stop and my 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 and other extreme spring storm weather. A few times in my childhood the sky turned green and we heard the tornado sirens warning us of an impending funnel cloud in the area. I never saw a tornado first hand, but I saw more than enough on the news and weather channels that I was scared for life. Moving down to the southwest was a nice change, as there aren’t nearly that many tornadoes down here. Take my current city of Albuquerque for example. We only get weaker tornadoes that die down quickly, and 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 temperatures in this part of New Mexico stay above 30 degrees for most of the season. If you have plants you might need to cover them for frost protection, but other than that the temperatures are easy to acclimate to compared to the places I’m used to instead. My house is in Sandia Heights and my neighbors and I all have heat pumps for heating and cooling purposes. They’re effective in temperatures that aren’t too cold, but at 30 and up I can’t imagine ever needing a supplemental heating system. My HVAC company is on Alameda Blvd as well, making them much closer than my last heating and cooling contractor.