It's definitely the weather. It's the closest place you can get to (lots of flight options to multiple cities) that has reasonably consistent warm winter weather. Even GA,SC, and NC are cold in the winter and north FL can be cold too. So RI's (and NY, NJ, CT, etc) flock to south Florida, east and west coasts. Most people I know are snow birds. They go down in October. Come back for holidays, then go back down for Jan thru April and return to RI to enjoy our summer. They also come back to take care of healthcare which is generally better here.