With the change of the season I once again find myself marvelling at the peculiarities of my very local climate. We live in the mountains of NC so the change in climates can be rapid as you travel. One mile down our road, (maybe 50' drop in elevation) the snow takes longer to stick and melts sooner than here. Where we are also affects how much snow we get. Being close to the Western slopes of the Appalachians we get "upslope" snow. This is snow caused by the rapid cooling of the air as it travels up the mountain toward us. It can snow all day at our house and not snow at all ten miles from here.

Now that it is spring, I can almost see the USDA zones marked out on the side of the road as I drive to and from work. We are as much as two weeks behind (on buds and blooms and signs of spring) places as close as five miles away. Being a life-long weather junkie this sort of thing fascinates me.

I was just wondering what sorts of interesting microclimates some of you might have.

-- gilly (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), April 19, 2002

Answers

Although we are on the top of a mountain, we are surrounded by hills (think- inside the crater of a volcano). We seldom get any wind, even though all of my neighbors might be blowing away. We've had 2 tornadoes jump right over our house. Because of the lack of wind, we are more likely to get fruit on our fruit trees. The blossoms don't blow off during Spring storms.

Snow tends to lay on the ground longer then the surrounding area, but, being on top of a mountain, we never flood. Our next door neighbor does.

-- Gayle in KY (gayleannesmith@yahoo.com), April 19, 2002.

Our back yard is surrounded by 6 foot fences. Our front is open. The back can be as much as 10 degrees warmer then the front on any givin day.

-- kathy h (ckhart55@earthlink.net), April 20, 2002.