Best town and weather in Idaho?

[Cnynrat]

Originally Posted by Syringaloid

Wow. This thread is 11 years old.

Weren't we at the tail end of the last ice age back then?

Dave

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by Cnynrat

Weren't we at the tail end of the last ice age back then?

Dave

I know this was meant sarcastically, but 11 years ago Idaho was still in the grip of a lingering drought that hadn't really lifted for about 6 years. Our winters were just as cold back then as they always are, but they didn't bring the snow that we came to expect.

That's the basic falsity about thinking of moving to a milder climate.
If a person starts looking to the mountain west seeking a mild climate, they are looking to move here for the worst reason possible.

The West has ALWAYS been the region of huge weather extremes. The Intermountain West has always AWAYS been cold and dry.

Anything other than cold and dry is a passing respite. A lucky climactic break that won't last forever, as it never has and never will.

If a person wants mild weather, look for a state with a mild climate. It isn't Idaho, so scratch Idaho off your list.

[Cnynrat]

Exactly my point Mike! 11 years in Internet time is roughly equivalent to 1 geological era.

But you are correct, as usual. If nothing else, the west is defined by its aridity. I always liked Wallace Stegner's observation that the west lies beyond the 100th meridian, which is also the point at which most agriculture requires artificial irrigation.

Dave

[nm9stheham]

Originally Posted by boyersv

My husband and I are looking for a less expensive area than So Calif to retire. We visited the Boise/Meridian area in late June 2019 and loved the area and the newer housing. The only thing I didn't love was the very high summer temperatures. Any thoughts on that? Or are there other areas of Idaho with not-so-hot summers, but also not-so-harsh winters? I think Boise winters would not be too bad (it's just the summers seem tooo hot).
Thank you

If you are experiencing milder summers, boyersv, then it sounds like you are living near the coast in SoCal. If that is the case, you have the ocean to moderate your weather all year 'round. That just does not exist in Idaho, or any of the non-coastal areas east of the first big mountain ranges as you head east. If you go to a locale with milder summer temps, then you are going to run into harsher winter temps and possibly lots of snow.



Example: Stanley is indeed much cooler and lies about 3600' higher than Boise. The winters are very harsh with temps to -30, -40, and even -50F at times, lots and lots and lots of snow, plus it is about 3 hours to drive to any large shopping center. Northern Idaho has milder summer temps and is not as harsh in the winter. Better shopping access, but considerably fewer days of sunshine up there.


It sounds like you would like a higher elevation locale for the cooler summer temps. But much colder winter temps go along with that in winter in most areas. If you don't want lots of snow, then you have to be in certain areas where the rain get wrung out of the clouds in winter by high mountains to the west. Maybe the Teton Valley in eastern Idaho would suit you better, around Driggs and Victor, though they get moderate snow. Rexburg has some winter snow but not as much.


Let us know a bit more about what you like and don't like. I too am doing a retirement locale search and have poked a lot around that region.

[Syringaloid]

Originally Posted by cnynrat

weren't we at the tail end of the last ice age back then?

Dave

:d

[Mister Torgue]

Originally Posted by banjomike

That's the basic falsity about thinking of moving to a milder climate.
If a person starts looking to the mountain west seeking a mild climate, they are looking to move here for the worst reason possible.

Agreed completely.

The West has ALWAYS been the region of huge weather extremes. The Intermountain West has always AWAYS been cold and dry.

Texas is also very extreme. I grew up here, in north Texas around the DFW area and other than the tornadoes (and now earthquakes, yay fracking) the sheer extreme weather and temperature variations in the fall, winter and spring are insanity. We can have a 90ºF+ day in December (and get tornadoes in Dec.) and within 12-24 hours it'll be 20ºF and turn in to a frozen tundra and vise versa. And unlike popular uninformed opinions across the country where I am currently in the state it is very humid and not that far off from Houston with its humidity but only add +10º or so on top of Houston's high temps in the summer and about 80% of their humidity total.

My neighbor lived in Boise and loved it and when he moved here he was telling us about the "heat" in Boise. I laughed. Not making fun laughing but laughing because he had no idea about our heat. Yes it can get hot but not that humid in Boise. He assumed we were just desert and dry like everywhere else in the state except the coast and that was his mistake. Imagine 110º or 115º and 60%+ humidity? Or days in June and September of 105º and 80% humidity or higher after a rainfall. Almost every morning during June, July, August and September the "low" temps at night won't even go lower than 80º with most often around 82-85º and 70% humidity in the AM until the sun burns it off. He quickly realized his mistake. The irony is he and his wife are thinking about coming with us to Idaho. So I guess it all works out.

So you see, you all out west have the same thing in common as we do down here in Texas. We routinely get CA (inland residents), AZ, NM, and even NV transplants who want "cooler summer weather than where they came from" only to be rudely awakened. People have to do their research and also try and visit their wanted destinations during the harshest time of the year to get a real sense of what it will actually be like. In December I'm likely going to pack up my Jeep and drive up to CDA all by my lonesome since my wife doesn't have time off left after giving birth. I wanna see NID in the dead of winter. Looking forward to it. Especially because I hate hot weather, the colder the better. My brother is more extreme than I am which is one reason why he loves living in Anchorage now. Lucky bastard.

If a person wants mild weather, look for a state with a mild climate. It isn't Idaho, so scratch Idaho off your list.

^ This. Definitely do your homework and visit. I've talked with a ton of ID natives and had about 10 different cities on my iphone's weather app for over 4 years making sure I have at least some information and expectation. I did learn to avoid in and around Island Park, Driggs/Tetonia/Victor and Swan Valley. My wife just wouldn't like that weather, especially around Island Park. LOL That's one of the primary reasons why she said no to Montana. Which was too bad as I really liked the Cameron MT area.

[banjomike]

It's all relative, Mr. Torgue. I've lived in places all over the state from the panhandle to the southern and eastern borders, and I lived for 5 years in the Treasure Valley.

I found the Boise area intolerably humid and hot compared to my hometown of Idaho Falls in the summers. Life there was not as pleasant for me as life is here in I.F. But that's because I'm so accustomed to living in a cool dry climate that it is natural to me.

Boise is nowhere as humid as Norfolk, Va, where I spent much of 4 years of naval service. I hated that humidity worse than Boise's, but the comparison didn't help me like Boise's humidity any better.

And that's not to say I didn't like living there, either. I still like Boise and Caldwell just fine. There's nowhere in Idaho I don't like. I just like Idaho Falls the best of all. Just as I like Idaho the best of all the states I've ever visited or lived in.

Here are the facts:
No amount of research from afar will ever give anyone a clue of what to expect life will be in a state this large, diverse and extreme. Only the experience of living in a place here will give you the knowledge. That knowledge won't be gained in a short visit, or a 2-week visit.
To really get to know a place here and what life is like in that place will take a month or more, just to have some honest acquaintance of the life you would lead there.

The things you may think you want the most from afar may not be very important to you once you are living here.
And the things you want to get away from the most are what you will want to find here the most after you have lived here for awhile.

Just don't be too sure of anything you think you know for sure, and don't commit to one area until you have come and experienced it for a while.

Be ready to compromise your expectations with the realities that are here.

Idaho has never been the perfect state for anyone and everyone. If you come expecting too much and have selected the wrong place for you, you may never find the best place for you here, and that place could be just over the hill from the wrong place.

So be very careful in your expectations. Be prepared to spend a lot of time here, too.

No phone app, for example, will ever give you a clue to the differences from living in Island Park and Victor. Or Victor and Swan Valley. There are a lot of differences, and a lot of different people living in them all. You have to be here to understand what they are.
Each one of them is someone's perfect place. Any of them could be your perfect place. You just won't ever know until you are experiencing life in that place.

[Slater1]

Originally Posted by banjomike

If a person wants mild weather, look for a state with a mild climate. It isn't Idaho, so scratch Idaho off your list.

Good point, Mike.

I don't want to leave California. But the state is forcing some to leave. Thanks for posting all of the information that you do.

[f5fstop]

Originally Posted by banjomike

It's all relative, Mr. Torgue. I've lived in places all over the state from the panhandle to the southern and eastern borders, and I lived for 5 years in the Treasure Valley.

I found the Boise area intolerably humid and hot compared to my hometown of Idaho Falls in the summers. Life there was not as pleasant for me as life is here in I.F. But that's because I'm so accustomed to living in a cool dry climate that it is natural to me.

Boise is nowhere as humid as Norfolk, Va, where I spent much of 4 years of naval service. I hated that humidity worse than Boise's, but the comparison didn't help me like Boise's humidity any better.

And that's not to say I didn't like living there, either. I still like Boise and Caldwell just fine. There's nowhere in Idaho I don't like. I just like Idaho Falls the best of all. Just as I like Idaho the best of all the states I've ever visited or lived in.

Here are the facts:
No amount of research from afar will ever give anyone a clue of what to expect life will be in a state this large, diverse and extreme. Only the experience of living in a place here will give you the knowledge. That knowledge won't be gained in a short visit, or a 2-week visit.
To really get to know a place here and what life is like in that place will take a month or more, just to have some honest acquaintance of the life you would lead there.

The things you may think you want the most from afar may not be very important to you once you are living here.
And the things you want to get away from the most are what you will want to find here the most after you have lived here for awhile.

Just don't be too sure of anything you think you know for sure, and don't commit to one area until you have come and experienced it for a while.

Be ready to compromise your expectations with the realities that are here.

Idaho has never been the perfect state for anyone and everyone. If you come expecting too much and have selected the wrong place for you, you may never find the best place for you here, and that place could be just over the hill from the wrong place.

So be very careful in your expectations. Be prepared to spend a lot of time here, too.

No phone app, for example, will ever give you a clue to the differences from living in Island Park and Victor. Or Victor and Swan Valley. There are a lot of differences, and a lot of different people living in them all. You have to be here to understand what they are.
Each one of them is someone's perfect place. Any of them could be your perfect place. You just won't ever know until you are experiencing life in that place.

Yes.

(So when we meeting up again?)

[Jason Floyd]

[quote=Sandpointian;55983367]I doubt any have lived in all four places, so take your replies with a grain of salt.




Meridian is like Sacramento but at a higher latitude.


for shopping and traffic but no where near the size. Similar weather patterns but colder. Rain is different . Sacramento has less rain days but can have more intense rain makers