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I've recently been considering moving to Idaho, been looking at houses, neighborhoods, churches, distance to a decent sized city and financial center, etc. I believe I've found an area that meets just about all of my needs in Bannock county.
My only concern is the weather and climate. I'm not a stranger to the cold, I currently live in the Appalachian mountains in the East Tennessee/South West Virginia area, but from my research I get conflicting info about the area.
Some people say it's below 20 three quarters of the year, others say it's got mild winters with occasional large snow storm and comfy summers. Others say it's basically like a less intense Alaska, Aurora and all. As a result I'm kind of lost on this considering all the conflicting information I'm being given. Figured I'd ask some people who actually live there.
Thank you in advance for any help in clarifying this!
hi, I don't live in Idaho myself (yet; looking into moving) but I am into gardening and refer back to a lot of gardening maps for questions like this. Here is a map of the coldest annual temp (this could be for as little as one night) so you're looking at 0-5°F in the valleys to -15 at higher elevations: https://www.thespruce.com/thmb/_sGJX...b7d0fc9a29.jpg
If you scroll down on the city-data page for Pocatello and Chubbuck, you can see highs in December and January are right around freezing with lows around 15. Nighttime average lows get above freezing for good in mid-to-late April and drop back below around mid-October. Those are averages though; with cold fronts, I would imagine that puts the last freeze date in spring sometime in May and the first freeze sometime in September, so you're looking at 4+ continuous frost-free months, I would guess.
It would help to know what region of Alaska the people who called Bannock County a "less intense Alaska" were comparing it to; Alaska is more than twice the size of Texas and has a lot of climate variation. Fairbanks, with a record low of -66°F and 11 inches of preciptation a year, is nothing like Sitka, with a record low of -1°F and 87 inches of precipitation per year. If they meant Anchorage, the comparison isn't terrible, but then again, several big cities in the continental US are as cold or colder than Anchorage in winter (Milwaukee, Minneapolis) or receive roughly the same or more snowfall (Cleveland, Buffalo).
Maybe you could specify what your limit is in terms of how many months with highs below freezing/how much snowfall/how short of a summer you can tolerate?
Pocatello (Bannock co) has a somewhat dry continental climate with cold temps in the winter, however it is somewhat warmer than Idaho Falls just 50 miles north. Another feature is more summer thunderstorms than surrounding areas probably due to downslope winds. As in, Pocatello is more mountainous than IF. Still the average high low in January is 33-16, and snowfall is common all winter. Though major snow events are not common. In my years residing there I noted constant snow but rarely great accumulation at one time. More lots of small accumulations over the course of winter.
Pocatello (Bannock co) has a somewhat dry continental climate with cold temps in the winter, however it is somewhat warmer than Idaho Falls just 50 miles north. Another feature is more summer thunderstorms than surrounding areas probably due to downslope winds. As in, Pocatello is more mountainous than IF. Still the average high low in January is 33-16, and snowfall is common all winter. Though major snow events are not common. In my years residing there I noted constant snow but rarely great accumulation at one time. More lots of small accumulations over the course of winter.
I've lived for most of my life in Idaho Falls, and this post is the most accurate overall as to how the winter weather actually is like in Bannock County.
I.F. is almost always a few degrees cooler than Pocatello. Pocatello rests in a hole surrounded by mountains, and I.F. is on a foothill that leads up to the west side of the Tetons. The elevation and the exposure make for the difference in temps.
One typical thing is a cold snap of about a week where the nighttime temps drop below zero, sometimes quite a way below. -20º isn't uncommon for these cold snaps, but that temp usually comes just before dawn and doesn't last for more than a few hours.
Idaho can get bitterly cold, but colder than -20º is quite rare. The coldest I've ever seen it personally was -50º on New Year's Day in Island Park, about 2000 feet higher than Pocatello and 100 miles northward.
Wind chill plays a huge part in feeling the cold. The air here is dry, so cold on a calm day often doesn't feel cold, but a wind can really make it feel cold. At zero or below, wind chill can become dangerous if the wind is brisk.
Pocatello (Bannock co) has a somewhat dry continental climate with cold temps in the winter, however it is somewhat warmer than Idaho Falls just 50 miles north. Another feature is more summer thunderstorms than surrounding areas probably due to downslope winds. As in, Pocatello is more mountainous than IF. Still the average high low in January is 33-16, and snowfall is common all winter. Though major snow events are not common. In my years residing there I noted constant snow but rarely great accumulation at one time. More lots of small accumulations over the course of winter.
That's about it.
Lived here six years, only one really nasty winter, 2016/17 and three or more blizzards blew into the area dumping more than eight inches at a time (two storms did over 12 inches) and one of those 12 inchers was Christmas or Christmas eve. But usually, just a few inches at a time.
Last year, most snow came in Feb/March and it looks like this year might be the same.
Temps....I walk my dogs from 3:30 AM to 5:30 AM almost everyday; this morning it wa at 2:30AM.
Temps can vary, today high 20s yesterday was low 20s for a few days it was in the teens. However, day temps get up to around 30 and a few days ago it hit the 40s.
I believe at this time, ID falls has snow, we don't. There is some snow on the surrounding mountains, but not much.
Wind...this area is very windy at times. Lost two sections of fence last week...really fun to put them back in by myself. Not one of those really nice Idaho grown neighbors would help....NOTE THAT MIKE?
Some snow examples....
January 2017....backyard
January 2019---night walk with one of the dogs in the local park
I've recently been considering moving to Idaho, been looking at houses, neighborhoods, churches, distance to a decent sized city and financial center, etc. I believe I've found an area that meets just about all of my needs in Bannock county.
My only concern is the weather and climate. I'm not a stranger to the cold, I currently live in the Appalachian mountains in the East Tennessee/South West Virginia area, but from my research I get conflicting info about the area.
Some people say it's below 20 three quarters of the year, others say it's got mild winters with occasional large snow storm and comfy summers. Others say it's basically like a less intense Alaska, Aurora and all. As a result I'm kind of lost on this considering all the conflicting information I'm being given. Figured I'd ask some people who actually live there.
Thank you in advance for any help in clarifying this!
OP, I originally come from Carter Country TN, and have lived most of my life in the southern Appalachians. The big differences I have found in our few winter weeks in and around ID (plus summer trips too) is the dryness. The humidity levels on average are far, far below what you have known. Those drizzly, clammy cold days of 35F and 95-100% humidity like you have no doubt experienced are rare out in the northern Rockies. So for me, the lower winter temps in that area is offset by the winter air typically being much, much drier.
You can put on layers of woolen and synthetic clothes with a wind-proof outer layer and not feel the dry cold. Just trend away from cotton clothes in winter, even down to your underwear. We have been out snowmobiling at -35F in the central mtns in ID and felt pretty good. So just some simple adjustments to things like that can make a big difference.
The dryness can also be a bother for sinuses and related respiratory conditions; that seems to vary a lot from person to person. We met a 'rangerette' from Bluff City TN who did not have problems with it, but another fellow from that area, who we spoke with in Boise, was really bothered by it. My wife has more issues than me, and we both buy 'nasal gel' to help keep our nasal passages moistened when we visit, winter or summer.
Wind can be another matter. If you live in a 'holler' back here in the Blue Ridge Mtns, then the wind may be a factor that can be disconcerting in some parts of the west. But it will varies locally in ID; if you are in a open plain area or in a long high valley that is open at both ends, and into which the wind can 'settle' and blow, then you can get lots of really windy days. But other valley areas in ID and that region can be much calmer; the valleys like around Jackson Hole and Star Valley, WY, and Stanley ID, are deep closed valleys and the winds push up and over them a lot. But places like the Camas Plain, the Wind River and Madison River valleys in WY and MT, and probably much of the Snake River Plain, are quite exposed to wind. (Now, if you want WIND move to WY!)
SE ID climate is typically going to be a lot milder than some places further north, and is pretty sunny overall. But as BJM notes, your local elevation is going to also be a determinant in your temps.
If you are looking at Pocatello, my take on the snows is mostly 'pffft' LOL. Yes, it snows and it can hang around but what you deal with depends more on how level your roads are. In the Appalachians, the matter is not the depth of snow, but the steeper average grades on the roads that you have to deal with. We were in Boise in their worst winter in years (2017) and it was a breeze getting around due to most road grades being fairly mild. Of course, if you live up on the northern hillsides above Pocatello, then you can have more issues.
So, think about the dryness, where you proposed home will be to try to account for winter winds, and the actual roads to/from where you plan to live. If you are out and away from town, the being out in the mtns in SE ID could be a challenge; you can be a loooong way from anywhere. Then you need to start think about studded winter tires and chains and such. But parts of the Appalachians require the same thinking. (I had no problem getting around in winter for 7 years in the midwest, because I was prepared from my time back home.)
If you want to be more specific about where you are thinking of in Bannock County, that might help get better info. It is a big county, with quite a variety of terrain and elevations.
Thanks for all the replies so far, been much more helpful than what I've found in my own research, so far I haven't found anything that would greatly deter me. nm9stheham in particular was helpful given we're basically from the same area for all intents and purposes.
For those who've asked for some more info, I'm particularly looking around the Inkom area. I'm pretty stuck on having a decent amount of trees so after looking I managed to find a ranch there with a good portion of forested area set on the side of a mountain. Obviously I haven't went out and looked in person yet, but from the pictures provided It seems to more or less be a semi flat plains area smack dab between 4 mountains. I'm not really worried about wind for the most part. I've lived in hollers before, but more often than not I've lived on mountain tops outside of towns/cities and I tend to get wind all year.
The dry air is actually a plus for me, I despise humidity and find that it usually causes me to become more congested, so that little tidbit actually makes this seem more like a good idea than I already thought.
The presence of a lot of trees in that particular region usually means a couple of things:
- Higher elevation, so colder temps than Pocatello. A 4F degree decrease per 1000' added elevation is the standard rate of cooling that might be useful, but local conditions, like cold air pooling in a calm valley can change that a lot. (We have experienced a 15F RISE in temps in Stanley ID on a calm winter day, by just climbing a 300' hill in winter! So weather can be much more severely 'local' IMHO.)
- The snow lies regularly through the winter. That keeps the moisture in the ground and promotes tree growth. (But being on the north side also helps ground moisture, so it might be just that.) It might also mean more grasses in the summer, which I find to be nice. If you are talking remote from Inkom, than that can be modestly to pretty remote, so be prepared with studs and chains and 4WD.
Good on the winds but realize that winds out in that regions can mean WINDS! ID is not so bad, but WY is the top state in the continental US for winds. So just be aware that 'windiness' can be different than what you know. We live up on a mtn top in VA and it is windy, but 'western windy', when it is severe in an area, is usually a lot more frequent and sustained.
To get a better idea on that, you can just monitor the winds and wind direction at a nearby location on the NWS website. McCammon is south of Inkom, in that same long north-south valley. A quick look right now shows the wind being from the south or SW for the next few days. Since the elevation gets lower as you go north in that valley, that would make sense. I'd monitor that for some weeks to come, to get some idea on the winter winds.
Are you planning on any livestock, OP? It is a whole different world out there than in the eastern mtns; you need many, many times more acreage per head, and a good water source, and water rights.
BTW, down in the bottom of the valley between Inkom and McCollum is pretty much all 1 big lava flow of basalt, rough, rugged, and little vegetation. So It sounds like you are looking up on the sides of the mountains. Geology out there is super varied compared to the Appalachians. Drive 20 miles and the geology has probably changed.
Haven't decided completely on whether I'm going full on rancher yet, but it does have a massive amount of acreage. Just under a 300 acres with some more attached that I could buy if I wanted to to push me over the 1000 mark. My understanding is that it's currently set up as a horse ranch and already has horses on the property with water sources and rights included. I'd have to think about and look into expanding to cattle and such for the exact reasons you mentioned, but I'm open to the idea.
As for the remoteness, I already live in an area where the DOT refuses to do anything so every winter we have to go through most of that anyway. As such it wouldn't be much of a change. Just looking at the maps it's about 20-30 minutes either way to Inkom or Pocatello, so I guess it's decently remote? That being said I checked and compared elevations, and you're pretty spot on. Just under a 1000 feet higher than Pocatello.
Overall I'm not really seeing anything that would deter me. Like I said in my first post, the info I was finding was basically saying that it's like northern Alaska with 2 feet of snow constantly and semi-frequent Aurora's. I'd imagine it might be like that near the Canadian border, but I didn't think it would be that bad in the southern part of the state, and this thread has so far confirmed my suspicion
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