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After doing much research, our family has decided to move to either the suburbs of Charlotte or Raleigh sometime on the next 2 years.
I was initially sold on Raleigh, given the charm, the spread, and the schools. However, after researching the occurrence of tornadoes, I'm getting the notion that Charlotte may be a safer bet. Just today there was reports of a tornado that swept through Greensboro.
What are your thoughts on the weather situation? Has anyone experienced bad tornadoes in the surrounding Charlotte area? If so, how bad was it?
Massive deadly tornadoes are uncommon in North Carolina. Small twisters will happen every once and a while in Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, etc... and they typically just damage a roof and knock trees over. They usually don't maintain formation very long. A massive thunderstorm in the summer also might knock a tree over and kill somebody as well, but it doesn't have the fear of the word "tornado". The Piedmont can get BIG thunderstorms and those probably kill many people than tornadoes, from car accidents in a torrential down pour to trees falling on people.
The Piedmont will not have the massive 1 mile+ wide super tornadoes common in tornado alley (OK, TX, KS, etc..) that cause destruction for miles and can kill hundreds. I would not pick a metro area in North Carolina over which one is more likely to have tornadoes, simply because deadly ones are so uncommon. Much more likely to get hit by a Chevy Suburban on the interstate and die on the way to work.
I think the only difference is that Raleigh might get an extra 1-2" of snow as the snow/ice/rain band always seems to be just north of Charlotte. The tornadoes this week further north were a fluke thing and not a factor you should base a relocation decision on. Not sure what you mean by "spread" and "better schools" for Raleigh vs Charlotte, but I assume you have your reasons.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Originally Posted by Denise82
Hi All,
After doing much research, our family has decided to move to either the suburbs of Charlotte or Raleigh sometime on the next 2 years.
I was initially sold on Raleigh, given the charm, the spread, and the schools. However, after researching the occurrence of tornadoes, I'm getting the notion that Charlotte may be a safer bet. Just today there was reports of a tornado that swept through Greensboro.
What are your thoughts on the weather situation? Has anyone experienced bad tornadoes in the surrounding Charlotte area? If so, how bad was it?
Tornadoes tend to be more rare east of the mountains. If they do form, they tend to be small & don't last long.
I think the only difference is that Raleigh might get an extra 1-2" of snow as the snow/ice/rain band always seems to be just north of Charlotte.
In any given year, snow is probably the only notable difference. Tornadoes should be pretty small and weak in either city with anything above F1 have an recurrence interval measured in decades (although Charlotte once had an F3).
Raleigh is also much more likely to see impactful hurricanes as the Hazel/Fran track is not uncommon and Raleigh is close enough to the coast to still get some strong gusts. On the other hand, Hugo was a once in many lifetimes kind of storm.
I think the only difference is that Raleigh might get an extra 1-2" of snow as the snow/ice/rain band always seems to be just north of Charlotte. The tornadoes this week further north were a fluke thing and not a factor you should base a relocation decision on. Not sure what you mean by "spread" and "better schools" for Raleigh vs Charlotte, but I assume you have your reasons.
Thanks for the insights. My husband will be happy to hear that there is slightly less snow, hahaha. By "spread" I meant that Raleigh is built outwards, while Charlotte seems to be built up...if that makes sense. And for the schools, I was simply looking at a list of areas in North Carolina with the best schools (i.e. scores/testing on a national level).
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