Retiring to the Rockies Mtn States

[Richie Rich ID]

Originally Posted by cleosmom

Rich, you'll have to come over and visit Idaho Falls, we have a decent NY style pizza here. Small local chain with three locations

What is the name, next time I am in town I will try it out

[Fanjet]

Originally Posted by MattieJensen

We were both pilots BAe146-100's

Prior to working for United (actually started with Contnental Airlines in 1989), I worked for Avco-Lycoming as Production Support Engineer for the ALF-502 engines on your BAe-146's.
Mark

[Fanjet]

Hi again guys,

It's getting closer to my convention trip to Ogden, UT & I will have to make some plans as to where look around for some ideas as to where to retire in 2 1/2 - 3 years.

The Union Pacific Historical Society Convention that I am going to is from July 30 to August 3. After that, I don't have to be back in NJ until August 13, so I will have 1 1/2 weeks to do some poking around.

I went on a ski trip to Canyons Resort in Park City, UT in late January & got to witness an inversion layer down in the Salt Lake Valley when I arrived. It was not present in Park City, where I was staying, but I would like to avoid areas that are prone to inversion layers during the winter. I think I heard / read somewhere that Boise is prone to inversion layers. Is this the case?

Someone mentioned the Coeur d'Alene area. That seems pretty far north. How cold does it get in that area during the winters? I know I was wanting 4 distinct seasons, but on the other hand, I don't want VT, NH or Upstate NY cold. I've spent too many days skiing in minus 20° F (plus the wind chill) weather over the years. Here in Northern NJ, typically we have lows in 20's, highs in the 30's in the middle of winter. Every 3 or 4 years will we get sub zero F. weather for a day or two.That would be fine by me.

I was thinking of looking around in the Boise, Idaho Falls, & possibly Coeur d'Alene areas.

Any ideas on where to look around would be appreciated.

Thanks
Mark

[IdaD]

Boise is prone to inversions so if that's a big deal to you it won't be ideal. It isn't nearly as bad as SLC most winters, but we do get them some for sure. Personally it isn't that big of a deal to me - the wildfire smoke we get some summers is a far more objectionable air quality issue in my book (something you'll have to live with most anywhere in the west).

As far as winters go, Idaho Falls will be substantially worse than Boise or CDA. Colder, snowier, windier and longer (really quite a bit colder). Boise and CDA are actually pretty comparable temperature wise. Check out the average high and low temps for November through February in each, starting with November:

CDA: 44/32, 34/25, 36/25, 40/27 (record low -30)
Boise: 48/32, 38/24, 38/25, 45/28 (record low -28)

That's pretty similar, with Boise generally warming slightly more during the days while cooling off to the same at night (or slightly cooler in January). Both will have lots of days with lows in the teens and single digits, plus generally a few days below 0. Your bigger differences in terms of climate will be precipitation and summer heat - CDA is wetter (26" of annual precip vs under 12") and Boise is a fair amount hotter in the summer. Sorry if I'm coming off like a weather geek here. I run outside daily in the mornings, including in the winter, so I'm pretty tuned into daily lows. Right now through mid September is heaven, incidentally.

I've lived in Boise and northern Idaho. I prefer Boise for a variety of reasons but I do like northern Idaho and CDA a lot. I wouldn't personally live in Idaho Falls, though.

[Fanjet]

Thanks for the response IdaD.

Mark

[boisefan88]

Do a search for inversions in this forum. They are a common and significant event in the winters here, simply due to our location and geography.

It was so bad this year, for the first time in my life I had to purchase a happy light.