Considering moving to Bristol, weather question (Martin: 2010, house, neighborhood)

[FreezinVermonter]

Hi I am thinking of moving to Bristol TN. I have a friend who is coming to and she has MS. I am interested if anyone can tell me how the weather is year round. We live in Vermont right now and it gets ridiculous snow and freezing temperatures. She has to wear flip flops and capri pants year round so we are looking for a warmer place that has good schools for her daughter and not so bad weather! Can you help? It would be greatly appreciated

[DubbleT]

Not too sure about flip flops and capris, the low temps have been staying around the freezing point for most of this month and last.

The address above will take you to a weather calendar where you can get a really good idea of the weather year round. I found it really helpful when trying to make up my mind where to move. Good luck!

[jabogitlu]

Flip flops and capris year around basically would limit you to the extreme SW and Florida, no?

It definitely gets cold (like 15-20 degrees) here.

[Tennesseestorm]

Well, it will definitely be milder than Vermont! We are well south, but it is still a mountainous region, which keeps temps a little cooler than say coastal areas. We do not get many twisters thanks to the mountains, but we occasionally get the remnants of hurricanes. Thunderstorms are common - even in the winter. In fact, we had a bad electrical thunderstorm tonight in the area, which caused a house to burn down.

We offically average 13-15 inches of snow per year (which is much less than anywhere in Vermont) and the snow we get rarely stays around for more than a couple of days. Typically it rains here, even in the winter. It does get cold in the winter, but the "artic blasts" normally only last 1-3 days. Typical winter lows are in the 20s-30s and highs in the 40s-50s, but during the harshest artic outbreaks, highs may only be in the 20s and lows in the upper single digits-lower teens, but again, this is a seldom occurance and does not last very long at all.

Winters can occasionally be very warm - 70s are not out of the question. Just a couple of weeks ago it was in the 70s here.

Summers are not as hot because of the mountains, but upper 80s-lower 90s are common in the summer. 100s are rare, but not out of the question. It hit 102° three different days at my house in summer of 2007 when we had that horrible drought. Also its humid, but more tolerable than places like the southeast coast and Florida, but dewpoints are still typically in the upper 60s to occasional lower 70s, which is "steamy". Also the winters are mild enough to grow "hardy" palm trees. I have several.

Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by FreezinVermonter

Hi I am thinking of moving to Bristol TN. I have a friend who is coming to and she has MS. I am interested if anyone can tell me how the weather is year round. We live in Vermont right now and it gets ridiculous snow and freezing temperatures. She has to wear flip flops and capri pants year round so we are looking for a warmer place that has good schools for her daughter and not so bad weather! Can you help? It would be greatly appreciated

[FreezinVermonter]

Thank you very much I really appreciate it.

[FreezinVermonter]

How are the schools around that area?

[MrsMtnsOnTheMind]

Originally Posted by FreezinVermonter

Hi I am thinking of moving to Bristol TN. I have a friend who is coming to and she has MS. I am interested if anyone can tell me how the weather is year round. We live in Vermont right now and it gets ridiculous snow and freezing temperatures. She has to wear flip flops and capri pants year round so we are looking for a warmer place that has good schools for her daughter and not so bad weather! Can you help? It would be greatly appreciated

MS patients do better in tropical environments. They really need access to a warm temperatures and a pool for therapy. Why don't you move to Northern Florida?

[leonard]

Originally Posted by MrsMtnsOnTheMind

MS patients do better in tropical environments. They really need access to a warm temperatures and a pool for therapy. Why don't you move to Northern Florida?

Not necessarily. A friend of mine lived in San Diego county, probably the best weather in the USA. Yet he moved to Idaho because the warm weather was harder on him than cold. Extreme cold was bad as was extreme heat. He felt and did better when it was a bit cooler than the typical SD weather.

Florida may not be a good choice.

[MrsMtnsOnTheMind]

Originally Posted by leonard

Not necessarily. A friend of mine lived in San Diego county, probably the best weather in the USA. Yet he moved to Idaho because the warm weather was harder on him than cold. Extreme cold was bad as was extreme heat. He felt and did better when it was a bit cooler than the typical SD weather.

Florida may not be a good choice.

I am in the medical field and I am basing my comment on many studies of MS patients, not just on one person. That is why I suggested North FL instead of South FL. North FL does not experience the extreme heat that South FL does. Also access to a pool is important with regards to therapy.

[Rcm58]

The school system closed one elementary school last year and is in the process of building a larger beautiful new one in its place, completion date some time in 2010. In the mean time the students and teachers are being dispersed to two other schools so they are a bit over crowded at the moment. When the project is completed they will close a school on Martin Luther King JR Blvd and things should get back to normal.
The local school system is ok, much better funded than the Sullivan Co school system is, the high schools currently average 17% drop out rate which isn't great. If the daughter is highly motivated she will be fine. If she requires much in the line of assistance you will have to stay on the phone with the teachers because they tend to not get in touch with you until your child is failing. The school bus system is through an outside company so if your child has a problem the school claims no responsibility. We personally had a problem when during a snow day the bus driver put our 9 yr old son out of the bus in a neighborhood he was not familiar with and we did not find him until a policeman found him crying by the side of the road and called us from the station. We were told that the drivers are not required to deliver them to their bus stop if they are afraid of snow on the roads. Anyway you might want to consider driving her yourself as we have since then.