Snowbirds

As people get older, some grow to increasingly dislike cold temperatures. This may be due to arthritis, sickness, or other medical conditions, or simply because of personal preference. Whatever the reason, many people choose to head to warmer climates during the winter months to enjoy the warm weather. Affectionately, these people are referred to as snowbirds.

The term snowbird was adopted from the song of the same name by Anne Murray, who herself was from Canada, a country known for snowbirds. Besides Canada, citizens of the northeastern United States are generally associated as being snowbirds due to the extremely cold winter temperatures found in these areas. Of course, many of these winter vacationers are of retirement age, and thus have no children or job to tie them down to their home state. For this reason, these people tend to bring their homes with them in the form of RVs and camper trailers.

Popular destinations for snowbirds include any area that has a warm winter, which includes mostly southern and southwestern states. Particularly, Arizona and California see a lot of snowbirds come into town in the winter. One town that is known to have a large snowbird population is Sun City, Arizona. The vast majority of the population is 65 years of age or older. Due to the town's popularity, adjoining communities are being built nearby, including Sun City West, Sun City Grand, and Sun City Anthem.

As the popularity of southwestern states increases, more and more snowbirds venture to these states to enjoy their mild winters.