NW Montana weather... grey winters..got it... but how grey? (Kalispell: 2014, lease)

[RogueYak]

Snowave, I think you'll thoroughly enjoy yourself in Montana. We moved from about 120 miles south of you (Yakima) to Hamilton nearly a year ago, and it still feels like a vacation to us! We visited the Troy area about two and a half years ago, and were impressed by the beauty of that part of the state. I'd love to venture further north sometime towards Eureka, as well as Glacier, Flathead...looks like it's all outside your front door

Good luck, and welcome! Let us know how things progress.

[snowave]

thanks, Rogueyak! Hamilton is a great town... one of our favorites... just a few too many people in the BR Valley for our tastes though!

[RogueYak]

It is interesting how size preferences vary, according to what you're used to. Living in much larger cities/areas my whole life, the Bitterroot Valley, to me, seems quite rural!

Folks refer to the Highway 2-Canada border swath as the "High-Line". If there ever was a "High-Line within a High-Line", I think that Eureka would surely fall right along it. New adventures await!

[DontLookPhoto]

From what I understand "The High-line" extends eastward and westward into our neighboring states and beyond.

[historyfan]

"Hi-Line" is within borders of Montana & is in reference to the route of the Great Northern Railroad line across Montana....as the "high line" using Marias Pass. The highway came after the RR.

[DontLookPhoto]

Originally Posted by historyfan

"Hi-Line" is within borders of Montana & is in reference to the route of the Great Northern Railroad line across Montana....as the "high line" using Marias Pass. The highway came after the RR.

Thank you, I stand corrected.
Apparently a few of our neighbors think that the high-line referred to the entire length of highway 2 and I guess I drank the kool-aid !
The grey weather seems to cause a lot of folks in our town to swill copious amounts of booze and it seems that much of what our neighbors spout turns out to be not all that correct.
Now I wonder how much other BS they fed us !

[alooknac]

snowave, I don't quite get it. You ask about the weather/grayness and get a bunch of fairly negative answers, then state "we've decided on Eureka." Did the answers not matter, you just wanted to get depressed ahead of time??? Or maybe in the middle of the discussion other factors sealed your decision?

So I don't know if you want to hear my two bits or not. I am more in the Kalispell area and my understanding is that Eureka is grayer if anything. It is very gray here in the winter. Usually the sun will peep out here and there but I'm talking you might see the sun peep out and decide to take the dog for a walk and by the time you get ready it's cloudy/snowing/blowing/raining (pick one or more). It's rare to have one or more fully sunny days in a row in winter. You can often go skiing and see the clouds below just like the picture you posted. Except when it's just as cloudy/foggy on the hill!

My daughter from Seattle was visiting and remarked that the gray here is lighter than in Seattle. She grew up here.

Another poster said something about there being more sun in Montana below a certain latitude. Hogwash. It's all about what side of the Continental Divide you are on. "West side" means gray although a milder climate. "East side" means a lot more sun but also more wind and more extremes of temps in both summer and winter (might be 60 degrees in winter on East side or then again it might be 40 below; on west side winter temps tend to hover around 25-30 degrees plus or minus 10)

[historyfan]

? I stand by my post. More sun in winter Southern "lats". We've owned places in both southeastern & southwestern MT. They have all been quite sunny in winter. Your wind assessment also does not match experience. Windy as all get out in southwest ranches & rarely any at all in southeast.
Temps warmer in southeast by 10-15 degrees, longer growing season- much shorter winter, much more rain. Also grasshoppers, wild fires, & electric storms in summer in southeast & freezing rain in winter resulting in icier roads.

[jasper12]

Montana seems pretty sunny to me in the winter. But, I am from Salt Lake City...and if you have ever been there in the winter, inversion! Gray, fog, smog, gross. Cold. Montana is positively cheery after a winter in Salt Lake City.

[alooknac]

I'm not into "I told you so." I post the following for unseen readers who might like more information.

I was not making up my statement about the Continental Divide being a sort of divider of climate. It was based on research as well as confirmed by personal experience living in the state for over 35 years in quite different areas (and deliberately seeking out a desirable climate when moving within the state).

However, Montana is a land of micro-climates so you may find "good" and "bad" micro-climates all over the map, and it all depends on what you're looking for. As far as comparing "Montana" with Salt Lake City, please....Montana is the fourth largest state and the weather at any moment across the state will include a wide variety of temps and conditions. In this thread we are trying to address trends. A person could easily come to the Flathead in winter and experience a glorious week of sunshine without realizing the entire rest of the winter was gray and overcast.

There can also be confusion as to what is "southwestern" or "southeastern" Montana, for instance, so be sure to consult a google search to see the traditional divisions of the state. "Southwestern" Montana does not include the Bitterroot Valley, for instance, even though you might easily consider it the southwest corner of the state. Somewhat counter-intuitively, southwestern Montana is primarily east of the divide so historyfan's experience does not necessarily contradict what I said. He did not mention the elevation of his properties which matters hugely.

This website describes very well the ins and outs of Montana weather: Climate in Montana

Here are some excerpts:
The 146,318 square mile area of Montana is characterized by a complex climatic pattern. This complexity is attributed to the highly variable topography within the state and the air masses which flow over the state. The principal topographic feature is the Continental Divide…..
The Continental Divide and great differences in elevation have a marked influence on the temperature distribution within the state…..
Perhaps the most important and dramatic effect that the Continental Divide has on the climate is its shielding of the Columbia Basin portion of the state from most of the winter cold waves that affect central and eastern Montana each year. The climate of eastern Montana is classified as continental, while that west of the Divide is a modified North Pacific Coast type…..
On the west side of the Divide, winters are not so cold, summers are usually cooler, and winds are generally lighter than on the east side. The lack of wind and the narrow, deep valleys on the west side result in cool nights during the summer…..
In general, the western and south-central mountain areas experience more cloudiness and correspondingly less sunshine, than the eastern slopes and plains section. Valley fog and low clouds often form during fall and winter in western Montana valleys……
Average wind speed is considerably lower on the west side of the Continental Divide than on the east side....