"Banana Belt" of North Dakota (Fargo, Grand Forks: versus, to move)

[CA central coast]

I understand this is in the SW corner of the state. The City of Mott is encouraging people to relocate or retire there and claiming to be a "banana belt" area. What exactly does that mean in ND? What is the weather like in that part of the state? Is it really so much unlike other parts of the state?

[DaninEGF]

Originally Posted by CA central coast

I understand this is in the SW corner of the state. The City of Mott is encouraging people to relocate or retire there and claiming to be a "banana belt" area. What exactly does that mean in ND? What is the weather like in that part of the state? Is it really so much unlike other parts of the state?

Yes there is often a large difference in temperatures and weather from the southwest part of the state to the eastern Red River valley. The area of ND south and west of the Missouri has very very changeable weather and is often windiest part of the state overall due to frequent airmass changes. But the term banana belt is usually assigned to what is the warmest part of each state. For example in South Dakota the area just east of the Black Hills around Rapid City often gets to claim that title. The main reason has to do with the more frequent warm spells in the winter and the overall lack of consistent snowcover during the winter season. In North Dakota areas west and south of the Missouri will see just as many days (if not more some years) with bare ground in the winter versus just east of the Missouri that changes and areas from east of Minot to Grand Forks to Jamestown and Fargo will often have snowcover for several months in a row in most winters. As storm systems travel from northwest to southeast from western Canada and into the central Dakotas...winds west of these systems will turn west originating in the downsloped areas off the Rockies in Wyoming and Montana and surges east into southwest ND and upping their temperatures quite a bit higher than the rest of the state. Also in the summer that area is often hotter....though humidity often much drier than the eastern part of the state.

Dan
meteorologist in Grand Forks

[CA central coast]

Thanks for all the good info. Sounds like there is a trade off. It's warmer, but windier.

[dutchinnd]

It also, as Dan indicated, is much drier. Right now the Red River Valley is quite green (finally!) but the SW corner of the state is under severe drought conditions. I spoke w/ an emergency management official here last week, and statewide there is a concern about wildfires and they're preparing to deploy people as necessary.

[Roloff1976]

It seems we always hear about the "banana belt" of ND...but all in all, when they do average temps for the different areas of ND...aren't they all about the same within a few degrees when you average out an entire year?

[DaninEGF]

Originally Posted by Roloff1976

It seems we always hear about the "banana belt" of ND...but all in all, when they do average temps for the different areas of ND...aren't they all about the same within a few degrees when you average out an entire year?

You are correct....yearly average temps vary about 5 degrees from northwest to southwest...from about 38 in the Langdon area to about 43 in the far southwest. See link below from the ND climate office

http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndsu/ndsco/Normals/TempNormals/images/annual.png (broken link)


Winter does show the greatest difference with January average temps from about 3 in the northeast corner to nearly 15 in the southwest corner.

But we all know North Dakota rarely gets "average" temperatures....usually well below one day and then well above the next.

Dan

[ryperry]

My family and I moved to dickinson which is in southwest north dakota, and we have noticed that some days it can be 80 degrees and no wind or 59 or more with 60 mph wind. The other day I drove to bismarck and literally the trailer truck's boxes were leaning to the side because of the wind. I am originally from Maine and this is not that surprising to me. We saw it all there. All in all, this area is very nice. The people are extremely friendly. This is a good area to move.

[chester]

It seems in the winter, you see the western part of the state with milder temps vs. the eastern part on some days. I have notice it could be -15 in Grand Forks, +22 in Williston, and +32 in Dickinson one day, but then the very next day, Grand Forks will get above 0, but Dickinson and Williston will drop below 0.....but in the summer, it seems that Williston might be +85 but Fargo is +101...so yes, very extreme...no ryhme or reason, and seems to all average out in the long run...so "banana belt" seems to be true in the winter time on certain days...however you certainly could never grow bananas in ND's banana belt.