Madison County micro-climates (Birmingham, Huntsville, Decatur: tornado, living in, cost of)

[Charles]

Withing a 30 mile radius of downtown Huntsville or in Madison County, are there microclimates and how would they be described?

Microclimate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[zenjenn]

One thing I noticed, again continuing comparisons between Madison and SE HSV. Madison is often windier. And it makes sense.. Madison has more flat, SE HSV has more hills. We have on occasion noticed no wind, and then drove NW for some reason and end up with killer straightline winds.

I had heard some people speculate SE HSV gets fewer tornadoes than NW HSV and Madison. Others say that is hogwash. Looking at the tornado history online, it appears to be somewhat true. For whatever reason, the area of southeast HSV near Owens Crossroads and Gurley northeast, has had almost no tornado activity, the tornadoes it does have are fairly mild.



Coincidence? Maybe! This history project is only for the past 50 years or do. I have no idea, but it's interesting!

[HouseFullaBoys]

I have been in Harvest (right on the border of Madison and Limestone counties) for 2 months. We have had to take cover from severe storms/possible tornadoes more in the past 2 months than in over 4 years living in Hampton Cove!! The cost of living here in the county is less - but you have to budget in another $5-6,000 for a storm shelter! I didn't really think about it, but when I started telling people we were moving here they all commented on how bad the storms were-they were right.

[Southlander]

It's not within 30 miles of Huntsville, but one of the best known micro-climates in north Alabama is the Dismals, near Russellville. It has flora and fauna not found anywhere else in this part of the country.
I think quite a few microclimates are set up by the Tennessee River. So often Huntsville and even Birmingham has snow and ice that never hits Decatur, which is right on the river.