Winter Weather

In the month of February, I have had the opportunity to get out in our state a bit.  I was in Billings recently for the annual 4-H Update.  Billings is our largest city in Montana, and the only city with more than 100,000 people. Billings has a beautiful landscape feature in the Rimrocks that surround it.  

Hopefully finding Montana Treasures will
be easier than spotting this bunny!

Winter day at Teton Pass.  

When I returned home to Choteau, my brother-in-law called to invite me to Teton Pass for a day with my nieces and daughters.  They enjoyed skiing, even though the winter winds were whipping enough that the lift was closed for the day.  I thought some of our winter scenes might be interesting to our colleagues in the south. 

Winter scenes captured by John Pfister,
MSU Extension Central Region RDH.

I would doubt we will see this much snow in Big Sky in September!  Thank you to John Pfister for sharing this photo.  

Speaking of winter scenes, my supervisor, John Pfister, who makes his home in Roundup, Montana, shared these beautiful winter photos.

Of course, in Montana, as I suspect is true many places, the weather can be unpredictable.  This past weekend, I was in Bozeman on the MSU campus for Montana 4-H BioScience.  It was 70 degrees in the middle of last week, and yet, while we were doing our Montana 4-H BioScience activities there was a healthy dose of snowfall. The snowfall made me recall the time I stayed at BigSky Resort, close to Bozeman.  It was September, and as a Montana girl, I’m a little embarrassed to say that I failed to pack a winter coat, gloves or an ice scraper.  Sure enough, there was snow … in September.  I should have known better!  I even remember on Fourth of July in Choteau when we wore winter coats to the local rodeo!

As you get ready to come to Montana next fall, remember to check the weather reports, pack warm clothes and think about layers. It is hard to predict weather, particularly when it is so unpredictable. But, I do think I’m safe to predict cool mountain evenings.

Use the comment box below to tell us about the weather in your area.  You can send photos to share to jwolery@montana.edu.  We had a conference call this morning with colleagues from Cornell who said they had 20 inches of snow in 18 hours!  Wow!