Steve_

I don't disagree with you, Coeur D'Alene is much nicer than Spokane, but on a practical level you can live in Spokane and visit the lake whenever you want. The taxes are lower and it's a bigger town, so more jobs.

morpeth

In fairness I believe Steve was trying to be helpful. I have also been in Montana in the dead of winter , and I have bene in various countries with cold weather. Montana and North Dakota , and I assume some parts of Canada, can be very bitterly cold which is sometimes hard for someone to appreciate unless they have experienced.

BritishGuy36

There's a big difference between being helpful and having a condescending "I know better than you so don't dismiss what I'm saying" attitude and acting like you'd be a dumb@$$ for not forgetting the whole idea of moving based on their advice.

That's crap and I don't need it.

morpeth

Agree about the taxes, but I honesty cant imagine living in Spokane compared to Coeur d'Alene. To me a difference waking up to the wonderful views all around, than living in Spokane of all places. When I was in north Idaho I rarely ever went to Spokane for personal reasons. The drive to Spokane is not far. Also typical of many American cities Spokane's "amenities" really not that much different than those in a smaller city.

morpeth

For whatever it is worth the prior post you refer to I do not think was condescending, sorry that you took it that way. I guess having lived in the Pacific Northwest I may have also posted in that manner emphasizing anyone wanting to Montana would have to grasp the weather issues- I have lived in various places with cold weather, but the times I was in Montana during winter was something else.

SultanOfSwing

Steve's not joking about the extreme cold though. For two years in a row (2014 and 2015), we had a stretch of at least a week in January where we had air temperatures of anywhere between -30F and -40F, before even calculating windchill.

I'm much like you Britishguy, I don't mind the average Midwestern winter temps. 30F is light sweater weather, windows down in the car, etc. I can handle 10-15 if I'm out and about. But once you get into that -25F range for an extended time, it's a different world. I'm sure you've had cold spells like that in Ohio, right? When your nose freezes shut in the two minutes it takes to walk out to the mailbox, it gets old pretty quickly. Not to mention having to start the car every 90 minutes at work for 10-15 minutes just to keep everything warm enough so it starts when you need it to go home.

Nah, sod that . I like moderately cold weather and Montana is undoubtedly beautiful but I doubt I could handle living there myself.

dj6372

Cold enough that I would need long trousers?

SultanOfSwing

That really depends on how you define cold, I suppose.

Shorts are pretty common around my way down into the 40s. I'll still wear shorts for running around that range quite happily. But you might think 60 is cold, given your location.

The kind of cold I was talking about in the previous post though, you might want to wear two pairs of long trousers

morpeth

In southwest Ohio the dampness can make some time in the winter unpleasant, nothing like the sheer cold Montana can experience. The driving is a pain in that cold, especially if for whatever reason car stalls while you are on the way somewhere. I presume some parts of Siberia or Alaska are colder, but most of Montana that I know is pretty difficult in winter. But the western part of Montana ,like north Idaho very pretty !

Beaverstate

Anything below 32F I consider long johns.

SultanOfSwing

32F? You must be spoiled in winter up there in Oregon. I usually still have the windows open in the car at 32F

morpeth

I am the same ! Only time for long johns I have had were walking in winter in Northumberland a few times with the north sea wind cutting through me like ice. On the other hand a few times in Montana I should have had !

SultanOfSwing

Obviously, the 'average' temperature in the winter here is warmer than Montana too. Just because it can get down to -40 or below doesn't mean it will. For the most part it'll average in the 10-20F range in the coldest months.

morpeth

I am only going by personal experience and that of others. It was very rare for me to feel extremely cold in north Idaho, but it often happened on trips to parts of Montana, and I don't know the statistics on average temperatures and average lows in both locations, and taking into account humidity and wind chill factors. I find 20f acceptable, 10f cold, but below negative 10 starts to become too much if for long periods of time.

I just cant imagine everything else equal in terms of job or family, choosing to live in Montana when one can cross over the pass and reap the benefits with better weather in the Panhandle of Idaho ( in vicinity of 90, north towards Sandpoint and Canadian border weather a bit more bothersome during winter. Friends up in the far north of Idaho Panhandle for example experienced more days where they were snowed in at home than I ever was.

SultanOfSwing

Outside of windchill, I don't usually have to deal with -10F too much where I live, but I could see how it would get hard to deal with for an extended time.

I'm sure a lot of the attraction is the space and the scenery. It's probably quite easy to get distracted with things like that from the reality of what living there is.

If I was relocating, and maybe one day we will, it certainly wouldn't be to somewhere that gets more snow than where I currently live