LOL!!! you trying to lead the lambs to the slaughter???
Montana is nearly as large as California, but with only 1 million people, and the majority live in 6 larger towns or close by. Leaves a lot of unoccupied space, so yeah, low population density.
Wyoming has fewer people, but is a much smaller state.
Every year in the summer you have a lot of out of staters, Californians especially, that move here and build their dream McMansion and plan on staying.
We can and do get snow any month of the year, but normally the first killing frosts hit in early September.
By October, the snow is starting to stick.
November, the mercury drops below zero.
December, January and February the snow piles up, the mercury stays down close to zero and takes several trips south to the -30 or more range. Add in winds that can and do blow at 70 MPH and can blow for a week causing drifts higher than the houses and dropping the wind chill into the -60 or worse range. Worst I have seen was in the early 80's when the temps were at -70 and with wind chill it was a nippy
-120 degrees.
Last February, one storm alone it snowed for 56 hours straight dropping nearly 3 feet of snow, then when it broke, the temps went down to -35 and stayed there for a week.
March comes along with longer days, more snow, and just for fun, you add in flooding or freezing rain that turns the whole place into a skating rink.
April finally comes along, more snow, ice storms, freezing rain, but some days will warm to 50 degrees. Planting a garden means starting your seeds in the house because it is still far too cold to plant.
May, Spring is here! If you have a greenhouse or hotbed. Killing frosts are still the norm as nighttime temps are usually around 20 degrees.
June. Now you can plant your garden, but don't rule out killing frosts or late snow.
July, Hot. Usually it doesn't get over 100 degrees, but the winds dry out the vegetation, so this is the start of fire season. Thousands of acres of forest on fire means thick choking smoke.
August. Hot, dry, the height of fire season, no rain, dust and smoke. Some days you can't see across the road. The only thing that saves you is if you are lucky enough to get the early snows in September.
Every spring there is a new crop of McMansions for sale as all the folks that didn't believe the stories move back to warmer places.
Montana is a great place to vacation in the summer, but you better know your business if you plan on trying to live here. The same story has played out year after year, why do you think that a vacation destination like Montana only has 1 million people?
It sure ain't because the living is easy.
Very few people stay here for 5 years. There are no amenities you find in the city, you actually have to be able to take care of yourself, think ahead and actually be self sufficient enough to fix your own car on a lonely road, or keep yourself alive in sub-zero temperatures.
I think those stats you quoted are put together by either the realtor association or the tourism bureau. They don't reflect what life can really be like here.
Folks are welcome to try and prove me wrong though, thousands have tried and failed before.
P.S. I WORK in Helena, I don't live there as no-one that doesn't want most of their income going to city taxes lives in Helena.
My primary residence is in Sweet Grass county, whole lot different from where I work. And no, I only commute on weekends, but I have a small place outside of Helena where I live during the week.
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Hotter than hell.
