55days of sun in Bitterroot Valley, Mt? (Billings, Missoula: how much, home)

[katbhappy]

Is this true? This is what the data is telling me off the internet?

[Haakon]

Seems a bit on the low side. According to CityRating Missoula gets 75 clear days, 83 partly cloudy and 208 cloudy days. Not sunny like southern states, but a bit better than Seattle, worse than Billings at 89 clear, 112 partly cloudy, 164 cloudy.

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[organick]

seems way off to me. I mean there are 5 straight months of grey weather but the summers are sunny. I would consider the partly sunny days nice weather also.

[cedar_bluff_tree_farm]

Probably not too far off.

In Whitefish, October through June was generally cloudy except for some nice weather in May. July, August, September were nice although there was usually a week or two of gray weather at the end of July. So I'd guess about 75 nice days in Whitefish and the remaining cloudy / crappy weather.

[LostinPDX]

Are you talking about the whole Bitterroot Valley or just Missoula? I have heard that the Bitterroot Valley isn't quite as socked in as Missoula... but maybe that is just wishful thinking.

[Montana Griz]

Originally Posted by katbhappy

Is this true? This is what the data is telling me off the internet?

Variables, time of year and location determine how much sun you get in the BR Valley:
(NOTE: the valley is 71 miles long from Lolo to Sula; avg width 5 miles).

1/ where you live in the valley. many times N end of valley will be 'socked in' all day and 30/40 miles to the south it'll be clear all day.

2/ which side of the valley you live on.

3/ upper level wind direction.

4/ Many, many times I've seen the sky over the center 3 miles of the valley clear all day, and the one mile wide 'strip' on each side of the valley will be under cloud cover. Upper level wind directions/currents many times keep the clouds over the Bitterroots on the east and the Sapphires on the east.

5/ Winter time valley "weather inversions" will on occasion block the sun for several days at a time.....(very ugly and depressing). Yet, if you drive "up in elevation" about 2000/3000 feet you'll be in Bright Blue skys and full sun, (and usually about 20 degrees warmer.
i.e. 20 F on valley floor(avg 3400') and socked in.... and will be 40F at 5400' and clear.

Just as an added bit of local weather info:
Highest temp at my location (several times in 30 yrs): 103F
Lowest temp at my location over the last 30 years: minus 42F

IMHO: "Horse shi@" months....Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, March & April.
"Great months": June, July, Sept & 1/2 of Oct.
August (and sometimes early Sept can be "TERRIBLE" due to
constant--I mean constant--wild fire smoke in the valley.
Example: 8/6/2000 to 9/16/2000.
(when I say terrible, I mean TERRIBLE!!).
May can go either way....sometimes good...sometimes bad.

Oh, I almost forgot..........Can you say: "Black Ice!"

P.S. Don't confuse the The "Missoula Valley" with the "Bitterroot Valley". They differ in many respects.

[rickers]

Originally Posted by LostinPDX

Are you talking about the whole Bitterroot Valley or just Missoula?

Keep in mind that Missoula is not in the Bitterroot valley, it is near the northern end of the Bitterroot valley.

[Montana Griz]

Hey Rickers...................

You're 100% correct about Missoula not being in the BR Valley. I love the shopping, restaurants, and the competitive marketing practices that many of the merchants adhere to, but live there NO.......I've got to have my space.

Example re shopping: At 47000 miles on the OEM tires on my 4x4 SUV, I started to shop around for a set of (4) Generals 265/70R17 all season. Best price I could find in the BR valley was $648.

Did some phone calling around Missoula and internet shopping (Tire rack; Tires Easy & Discount Tire), and found a small tire (and misc auto) shop in Misssoula that will sell me the exact tire I want for $520.---mounted, balanced etc and no freight charges. They have to order them in, but since I don't need em for 4 weeks...for me it worked out perfect. The internet pricing was good....but when you add the "freight-in" it knocks them out of the picture.

RE: "Mayberry, MT"; You'll get a kick out of this.........................

This morning I had to have a medical test run at Marcus Daly Hosp in Hamilton.
In the short conversation I was having w/ the surgical nurse just prior to going into "la-la-land", she mentioned she had moved here from Conrad several years ago, and had owned a restaurant there. As I was "slipping away into dream-land", I told her about your name for Conrad..............all I can remember is her hearty laughter and her saying: "true, oh how true!!"

Restaurant was: " Mom's Home Cookin' "

See ya!!
,

[rickers]

I think we know the nurse you're talking about. I think she travels a bit on her job. We talked to her once and she said she eventually wants to move back to Conrad.
As far as the 55 days of sunshine in the Bitterroot Valley goes, it seems that it's a lot sunnier there than those stats would have one believe. When the sun pops in and out and the rain comes and goes throughout the day, do they call it a partly sunny day or a partly cloudy day ?
Statistics are a bit misleading it seems.

[Haakon]

Assuming they count sunny/partly/cloudy days the same they have sensors that measure direct sunlight. These are the numbers I've seen:
If it's in the sun 80%+ of the day it's a sunny day
20%-79% partly cloudy
0-19% cloudy

That leaves a pretty big "partly cloudy" range, one "partly cloudy" day could be pretty nice, while another quite dark.

You know the old saying, I think from Mark Twain "lies, damn lies and statistics".