The plains or prairie? (Boise, Coeur d'Alene: houses, to live in, shop)

[californiasucks]

On my drive from Twin Falls to Boise a few weeks ago, I remember the "scenery" and/or landscape as follows:

Farmland for a few
Canyons for a few
1 hour of driving along what appeared to be some sort of prairie or plains. It appeared to be a vast nothing of emptiness.

Is there anything to do in the plains area just outside of Boise? Outdoorsy type stuff or anything else?

And if I'm not mistaken...the plains area is at a higher elevation than Boise?


Just curious. Never seen anything like that before in my life.

And bonus question: The weather says it's going to be 109 degrees next week for most if not all of the week. What time of night does it start cooling down (in other words when do you turn off the a/c in your house?). Does a breeze come off the foothills at night to help cool things down?

And is Boise's summer comparable to the summers in Vegas? Hotter than hell....but very little humidity so it's kinda sorta bearable? As opposed to an 90 degree day in So Cal with 90 percent humidity where the air just clings to your skin and you feel miserable.....

[George Frankly]

You are referring to the Mountain Home Uplands. Much of the land you see is rangeland, or used by the Air Force / National Guard for exercises. Reservoirs on the Snake River are popular for recreation.

You might find this map of ecoregions interesting (6mb file):
ftp://ftp.epa.gov/wed/ecoregions/id/id_front.pdf

You can see plots with temps, dew points, and relative humidity here:
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/get...I&num=48&raw=0

[Carlyee3]

Originally Posted by californiasucks

On my drive from Twin Falls to Boise a few weeks ago, I remember the "scenery" and/or landscape as follows:

Farmland for a few
Canyons for a few
1 hour of driving along what appeared to be some sort of prairie or plains. It appeared to be a vast nothing of emptiness.

Is there anything to do in the plains area just outside of Boise? Outdoorsy type stuff or anything else?

And if I'm not mistaken...the plains area is at a higher elevation than Boise?


Just curious. Never seen anything like that before in my life.

And bonus question: The weather says it's going to be 109 degrees next week for most if not all of the week. What time of night does it start cooling down (in other words when do you turn off the a/c in your house?). Does a breeze come off the foothills at night to help cool things down?

And is Boise's summer comparable to the summers in Vegas? Hotter than hell....but very little humidity so it's kinda sorta bearable? As opposed to an 90 degree day in So Cal with 90 percent humidity where the air just clings to your skin and you feel miserable.....

We use to call them sage-range steppes. Much the same as you head to Bend thru eastern Oregon.

We never turn our A/C off, even at night, but set it to about 74°F, so it may not run all the time. Ceiling fans help nicely. We use to live in LV, but find this area nothing like it. Comparatively, it does cool down at night, often into the low 70s by 3 AM.

[TohobitPeak]

Yes, there is outdoorsy stuff out there to do. The Interstate between Twin Falls and Boise bypasses the interesting nature and landscape to see to the south. For example, there is the Thousand Springs Scenic Byway south of the interstate between Twin and Bliss, and there are other state highways south of 84 towards Boise which offer a completely different view than what you see on 84.

The Snake River Canyon is close and south of Boise and Kuna and the Bruneau Sand Dunes and Canyon are southeast between Boise and Mountain Home. You probably noticed the Owyhee Mountains to the south between Mt. Home and Boise and they have a lot of outdoor activities. Google the Owyhee Canyonlands, Bruneau River Canyon to get an idea of what is south of Boise.

If you want some adventure, drive the Oregon Trail byway on a dirt road along the foothills north of the interstate between Mt. Home and Boise.

The pending heat wave we are going to deal with, along with much of rest of the west, is extreme. I saw that even Portland and Coeur d'Alene will be at 100 and above next weekend, yikes. As Carlyee3 said our summers are nothing like Vegas. Before you know it September will be here and our fabulous fall weather until Thanksgiving. I like Boise summers, the nights are divine, especially the long hours of daylight we have here.

[californiasucks]

Thanks all. Map was interesting.

[ToeKnee-Baloney]

Originally Posted by californiasucks

And bonus question: The weather says it's going to be 109 degrees next week for most if not all of the week. What time of night does it start cooling down (in other words when do you turn off the a/c in your house?). Does a breeze come off the foothills at night to help cool things down?

And is Boise's summer comparable to the summers in Vegas? Hotter than hell....but very little humidity so it's kinda sorta bearable? As opposed to an 90 degree day in So Cal with 90 percent humidity where the air just clings to your skin and you feel miserable.....

Boise sits on the tale end of the Mountain Time zone. It also does Daylight Savings Time, and it just so happens to be the longest day of the year today - June 21. The sun sets around 9:30pm, but it's still quite light outside at 10pm. So, that means that hot nights last well into the wee hours on those nights that don't cool down. Everyone has AC, so we get by.

Our foothills do not produce breezes - the prevailing weather/wind comes mostly from the northeast. I used to live in the foothills just about Boise, and it was a little windier up there, but it still came from the northeast.

[ToeKnee-Baloney]

Originally Posted by ToeKnee-Baloney

Our foothills do not produce breezes - the prevailing weather/wind comes mostly from the northeast. I used to live in the foothills just about Boise, and it was a little windier up there, but it still came from the northeast.

CORRECTION … northWEST (not northeast)

[motomac]

Originally Posted by californiasucks

On my drive from Twin Falls to Boise a few weeks ago, I remember the "scenery" and/or landscape as follows:

Farmland for a few
Canyons for a few
1 hour of driving along what appeared to be some sort of prairie or plains. It appeared to be a vast nothing of emptiness.

Is there anything to do in the plains area just outside of Boise? Outdoorsy type stuff or anything else?

And if I'm not mistaken...the plains area is at a higher elevation than Boise?


Just curious. Never seen anything like that before in my life.

And bonus question: The weather says it's going to be 109 degrees next week for most if not all of the week. What time of night does it start cooling down (in other words when do you turn off the a/c in your house?). Does a breeze come off the foothills at night to help cool things down?

And is Boise's summer comparable to the summers in Vegas? Hotter than hell....but very little humidity so it's kinda sorta bearable? As opposed to an 90 degree day in So Cal with 90 percent humidity where the air just clings to your skin and you feel miserable.....

There are tons of things to do in the surrounding area. Depending on your age and likes/dislikes, get an off-road motorcycle or a mountain bike or an ATV or a Jeep or a horse or a good pair of hiking boots. All through Spring and Autumn, the desert areas offer fun times for all members of the family. There are many clubs and organizations for the various users of these areas, and thousands of miles of designated trails for each. The desert in the summertime is only for the hearty and very-experienced.

So, in the summer, you head up into the mountains to do the same sort of thing you were doing in the desert, only among the forests and mountains. The scenery is stunning, the weather is cooler, and there is just as much fun to be had.

As for the weather.... Yes, the temps are fairly high, but the humidity is almost always low. On average in the summer, the temperature difference between day and night is around 25-30 degrees, so the evenings are quite nice. I moved here from a very hot climate, so the first few summers I kept a light jacket in my car in case I was out at night.

Also, most houses are well insulated. Today it was 92 degrees in the afternoon. I keep all the windows open in the house most of the time, and the highest I saw inside today was 78 degrees. That's not enough for me to turn on the A/C. Once it gets above the low 80's inside, my wife will start complaining and eventually I'll turn it on, but so far this year it's only happened once.

The upcoming weekend with temperatures of 108 and 109 are definitely an aberration. Temps over 100 are generally reserved for August, and even then only a few days. Go back to the root directory of city-data.com and look at the information for Boise. It has charts for the average day & night temperatures, humidity, wind, snowfall, etc for the entire year.

On the summer solstice this year (today), we'll have 15 hrs 29 minutes of daylight, and for the winter solstice (20 December) we'll have 8 hours 56 minutes. We get a lot of sun....

[Carlyee3]

Originally Posted by ToeKnee-Baloney

Boise sits on the tale end of the Mountain Time zone. It also does Daylight Savings Time, and it just so happens to be the longest day of the year today - June 21. The sun sets around 9:30pm, but it's still quite light outside at 10pm. So, that means that hot nights last well into the wee hours on those nights that don't cool down. Everyone has AC, so we get by.

Our foothills do not produce breezes - the prevailing weather/wind comes mostly from the northeast. I used to live in the foothills just about Boise, and it was a little windier up there, but it still came from the northeast.

I always found it interesting how time zones are laid out. I know the original lines were often set due to commercial ties (e.g. Boise-Salt Lake, Las Vegas-LA, etc). But if you look at the map, Boise is farther west than Las Vegas, yet we are in the Mountain TZ, while LV is in the Pacific. Always seemed that we should put Boise in the Pacific TZ and then Northern ID and S. ID would all be in the same TZ.

Another trivia on TZs, ever wonder why AZ doesn't want DST? Some have told me that it is so damn hot that no one wants the daytime with the sun to last another hour later. When it gets evening is when the sane people come out for strolling, dining and shopping.

[californiasucks]

Originally Posted by Carlyee3

I always found it interesting how time zones are laid out. I know the original lines were often set due to commercial ties (e.g. Boise-Salt Lake, Las Vegas-LA, etc). But if you look at the map, Boise is farther west than Las Vegas, yet we are in the Mountain TZ, while LV is in the Pacific. Always seemed that we should put Boise in the Pacific TZ and then Northern ID and S. ID would all be in the same TZ.

Another trivia on TZs, ever wonder why AZ doesn't want DST? Some have told me that it is so damn hot that no one wants the daytime with the sun to last another hour later. When it gets evening is when the sane people come out for strolling, dining and shopping.

If you were to drive from Vegas to Boise, where exactly (geographical location) does the time change to 1 hour ahead? Right outside of Jackpot, NV at the border?