Took a drive today (home, move, pools)

[cleosmom]

We took a drive up to Jackson today, the trees near Palisades are at their peak!

[pnwguy2]

Perhaps leave soon...early winter storm coming!!!

https://weather.com/forecast/regiona...n-rockies-snow

[cleosmom]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

Perhaps leave soon...early winter storm coming!!!

https://weather.com/forecast/regiona...n-rockies-snow

We didn't stay, we're back home in the rainy valley

[volosong]

Snow and wind most of the morning. Hasn't been sticking at all and melting on contact. Just rain now.

[pnwguy2]

Some of these weather forecasts and blogs tend to be all hype. The sky is falling! Nope, just a little storm that doesn't amount to much. Though I guess Western Montana is going to be slammed. Northern Rockies snowfall? Not that unusual, but a bit early in the season...

[turkeydance]

jealous.
oh so jealous.
our Uncle said the same thing.
wishing Winter holidays were
in the Fall so we could take
the time to see it all.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

Some of these weather forecasts and blogs tend to be all hype. The sky is falling! Nope, just a little storm that doesn't amount to much. Though I guess Western Montana is going to be slammed. Northern Rockies snowfall? Not that unusual, but a bit early in the season...

Montana lies north of the Great Divide, so it gets a lot more Arctic weather than Idaho gets, especially during the winters.

Idaho's winter winds generally come from the mid-north Pacific; while the winds carry a lot of moisture, most of it is squeezed out by the coastal mountain ranges. By the time the winds reach Idaho, they are generally a lot drier and somewhat warmer. Fresh out of the ocean, the winds are quite warm, but as they shed moisture and gain altitude, they grow colder as they move inland. All of Idaho is higher than the coast, so our height alone makes the winds colder when they get here.

The Arctic winds tend to sweep straight south and don't have anything to break them up until they reach the Divide. The Rockies act like an enormous curtain wall; the winds hit them, go up, and then tend to curl back onto themselves like big waves.

An Arctic front has to be very cold, dense, and strong to be able to flow over the north side of the Divide, but when it happens, Idaho always turns into a deep freeze. The cold air pools on our side of the Divide and is so dense it takes a strong Pacific front to blow it out. Those fronts are the real blizzard-makers here.

I always was surprised at different the weather can be on the Montana side of the Divide. It can be quite warm in Idaho and cold and snowing like crazy 200 miles away on the other side, and vice versa. Usually, though, I expect to see a lot more snow in Western Montana than what's in Eastern Idaho.