The Weather and Climate

"Montana? Sure hope you like wind and lots of snow!!"

We hear this a lot from our skeptical friends in Yakima when we tell them our plans to move. Then we have to explain the following: Sanders County is known as the "Banana Belt" of Montana. It's in the extreme northwestern corner of the state. As Jake Spoon would say, "You can smell Canadee from there." Sanders County is a large piece of real estate encompassing the WETTEST area of the state (Heron, on the west end of the county) and the DRYEST area (Hot Springs, on the east end). It also has the HOTTEST average temperature (our town, Thompson Falls, in the middle) Snow can be light, moderate or heavy, depending on the the annual whims of nature. But every summer we have quite a few days of 100+ heat. The saving grace is that it cools off so much at night. Typically a midsummer morning can start at 45 degrees and zoom to 102 by 3 p.m.

The real secret, however, is the LACK OF WIND. We might get some pleasant, playful gusts in the early evening, but basically there is NO APPRECIABLE WIND in Sanders County. 3 to 5 mph is a high average! The next question our skeptical friends will ask is, "Just how familiar are you with the area?" They think we've been sold a bill of goods, weatherwise, by the local Chamber of Commerce. It's nice to be able to say, "We've owned the property for four years."