Advice on cold weather states

[briant_az]

For most of my life I have always wanted to move to Montana. I’ve visited a couple of times now and absolutely love it. I’ve only been there when it’s snowing once and it was only for 2 days. I didn’t think it was that bad, but I also didn’t live my day to day life in it. I was just offered a job near Helena and my wife and I are really considering putting our house up for sale and leaving Az. 
Just curious if anyone is from Montana or anywhere else that has similar weather. Looking to get opinions on the living conditions year round in a place like that. 

[bigorange]

I’ve never lived in an area like that myself but some good friends moved to MT from Tucson a few years ago. It makes total sense in hindsight, but they said it was very different than they expected living there day-to-day even when they had visited for several weeks at a time during the coldest part of the year. It took them a lot of getting used to. I don’t think that’s a negative though, since they love it there year-round. 

[wish2hunt]

My daughter moved to Grand Forks North Dakota and she adapted to it fairly quick

[CatfishKev]

From what I understand public land hunting in Montana is much much tougher than it is in Arizona.  I guess if that's a factor to you that's one you might want to consider.  If you're going to be paid well enough and be able to take time off to hunt I would get the AZ lifetime license and come back here when you get lucky enough to get a tag but that sounds easy and real life doesn't always let you do those things.  

Some other minor considerations would be the amount of snow and salt and wear and tear on vehicles up there compared to down here, also do you and your wife like to garden if so that's also going to be harder up there.  

Lots of things to consider.  

[Couzer]

Just think of it like our summers, it's hot as heck for a few months and it's cold as balls for a few months there. 

[yotebuster]

I was born and raised and currently live in ND.  I spent 4 years in AZ.  I felt like the summers in AZ were much worse than a winter in ND.  That being said I was raised here and this is what I’m used to.  I felt like eirher one is miserable, but I got borderline depressed in AZ in the summer as there’s zero relief in sight, until October.  In ND jn the winter, it might get down to -20 for a low for a few days but there’s always relief on the horizon.  We get what they call Chinook winds and they’ll bring in some 40-50 degree days here and there throughout the winter.  Sometimes weeks of it.  Helena will be even warmer.  You can atleast go out in it and enjoy the day.  The summers I spent jn the valley, there was a 0% chance of any change in the weather, even the Monsoons just brought humidity and little relief in my opinion.  
As far as the hunting, MT public land hunting is not as good as AZ, BUT, you get to hunt every year.   OTC rut hunting for elk and deer every year.   You can very easily kill a small 6pt bull elk, and a 150-170 class muley or 135-150 class whitetail every year if you hunt a little.  You can’t do that every year jn AZ with the draw.  Antelope are about every other year for resident draw.  AZ otc is coming to an end so if you want to hunt elk and deer every year, MT is your place.  Breaks archery elk tags are every other year or so and may not offer the top end as a high end AZ elk unit, but you’ll be hunting 300-330 bulls daily in there.  The bird hunting is expceptional if that’s something your into, and the fishing top notch. 

[Curtis Reed]

I was born and raised in MN. You couldn’t pay me to go back there. Winters suck and are 5 months long. Always cloudy…. spring time, everything is soggy and muddy. Bugs and ticks are horrible and salt on the roads destroy your vehicles.  We had to plug in our cars at night in the winter just so they would start in the morning (cars there usually have block heaters to keep oil from gelling.  Nothing worse than getting your a$$ out of bed in the winter mornings when it’s still dark and -10° and your windshield is solid ice and you can’t drive anywhere until you scrape the ice off for 20 min.  Or if there is a snowstorm and you can leave until you shovel your driveway to get out of garage. 

There is a reason this state is full of people from the midwest.  I moved here in 2002 with my wife and didn’t know anyone. Now my folks live here and so does my sister and her family, my aunts, uncles and cousins. They came to visit and decided to leave that he!!hole too

I do miss small town living though. 

for me an AZ summer is so much easier than a midwest winter. Summer just deal with heat. Winters you deal with snow, cold, ice, crappy roads, wearing boots everywhere, shoveling snow, short days, no sun.

Never been to MT but i’m guessing winters are just as bad. 

[muledeerarea33?]

I lived in Wyoming for a spell. I often think of returning. I hated the wind and cold while there but dream about it while here. I prefer cold to heat.

[briant_az]

10 hours ago, yotebuster said:

I was born and raised and currently live in ND.  I spent 4 years in AZ.  I felt like the summers in AZ were much worse than a winter in ND.  That being said I was raised here and this is what I’m used to.  I felt like eirher one is miserable, but I got borderline depressed in AZ in the summer as there’s zero relief in sight, until October.  In ND jn the winter, it might get down to -20 for a low for a few days but there’s always relief on the horizon.  We get what they call Chinook winds and they’ll bring in some 40-50 degree days here and there throughout the winter.  Sometimes weeks of it.  Helena will be even warmer.  You can atleast go out in it and enjoy the day.  The summers I spent jn the valley, there was a 0% chance of any change in the weather, even the Monsoons just brought humidity and little relief in my opinion.  
As far as the hunting, MT public land hunting is not as good as AZ, BUT, you get to hunt every year.   OTC rut hunting for elk and deer every year.   You can very easily kill a small 6pt bull elk, and a 150-170 class muley or 135-150 class whitetail every year if you hunt a little.  You can’t do that every year jn AZ with the draw.  Antelope are about every other year for resident draw.  AZ otc is coming to an end so if you want to hunt elk and deer every year, MT is your place.  Breaks archery elk tags are every other year or so and may not offer the top end as a high end AZ elk unit, but you’ll be hunting 300-330 bulls daily in there.  The bird hunting is expceptional if that’s something your into, and the fishing top notch. 

Thank you for your insight. I think I would like the cold better also but maybe that’s just because I’m so sick of the heat. 
what size town did you grow up in? One of the towns that we are looking at only has about 1000 residents. To me it was the best place we saw while we were there. I’d love to raise my kids in a place like that but also that means less kids for them to play with and less influences, whether that’s good or bad. 

[Curtis Reed]

2 minutes ago, briant_az said:

Thank you for your insight. I think I would like the cold better also but maybe that’s just because I’m so sick of the heat. 
what size town did you grow up in? One of the towns that we are looking at only has about 1000 residents. To me it was the best place we saw while we were there. I’d love to raise my kids in a place like that but also that means less kids for them to play with and less influences, whether that’s good or bad. 

About 2,000 people. Mostly rural. Yeah, weather aside, I loved living in flyover country small town.

[yotebuster]

12 hours ago, briant_az said:

Thank you for your insight. I think I would like the cold better also but maybe that’s just because I’m so sick of the heat. 
what size town did you grow up in? One of the towns that we are looking at only has about 1000 residents. To me it was the best place we saw while we were there. I’d love to raise my kids in a place like that but also that means less kids for them to play with and less influences, whether that’s good or bad. 

I grew up on a farm, nearest town was 65 people.  Went to high school 20 miles away in a town of 800.  Great place to grow up.  I really enjoyed growing up in a small town and still have a farm there where I try to get to on the weekends.  There’s nothing in a city that I need.  

[yotebuster]

22 hours ago, Curtis Reed said:

I was born and raised in MN. You couldn’t pay me to go back there. Winters suck and are 5 months long. Always cloudy…. spring time, everything is soggy and muddy. Bugs and ticks are horrible and salt on the roads destroy your vehicles.  We had to plug in our cars at night in the winter just so they would start in the morning (cars there usually have block heaters to keep oil from gelling.  Nothing worse than getting your a$$ out of bed in the winter mornings when it’s still dark and -10° and your windshield is solid ice and you can’t drive anywhere until you scrape the ice off for 20 min.  Or if there is a snowstorm and you can leave until you shovel your driveway to get out of garage. 

There is a reason this state is full of people from the midwest.  I moved here in 2002 with my wife and didn’t know anyone. Now my folks live here and so does my sister and her family, my aunts, uncles and cousins. They came to visit and decided to leave that he!!hole too

I do miss small town living though. 

for me an AZ summer is so much easier than a midwest winter. Summer just deal with heat. Winters you deal with snow, cold, ice, crappy roads, wearing boots everywhere, shoveling snow, short days, no sun.

Never been to MT but i’m guessing winters are just as bad. 

Having lived in MN and western ND, I will say that MN is the a55hole of the earth.  Liberal govt combined with cold weather is as bad as it gets.  The cold and gray over there in the winter is terrible.  Western ND and Helena MT (where OP is talking ) is NOTHING like the winter in MN.  Average temps will be similar but it rarely warms above freezing in MN from December to April.  The high humidity and all the snow just keep it cold.  It’ll get into the 40-50’s around every other week in NW ND and the snow melts off so when the sun comes out it warms up.  I spent one winter in MN and I’m gonna do my best to stay as far away from that 5hithole as possible.  All the bad things about a populated state (traffic, liberal govt, high taxes, crappy hunting, too many people) without the nice weather that comes along with that stuff most of the time. 

[Curtis Reed]

55 minutes ago, yotebuster said:

Having lived in MN and western ND, I will say that MN is the a55hole of the earth.  Liberal govt combined with cold weather is as bad as it gets.  The cold and gray over there in the winter is terrible.  Western ND and Helena MT (where OP is talking ) is NOTHING like the winter in MN.  Average temps will be similar but it rarely warms above freezing in MN from December to April.  The high humidity and all the snow just keep it cold.  It’ll get into the 40-50’s around every other week in NW ND and the snow melts off so when the sun comes out it warms up.  I spent one winter in MN and I’m gonna do my best to stay as far away from that 5hithole as possible.  All the bad things about a populated state (traffic, liberal govt, high taxes, crappy hunting, too many people) without the nice weather that comes along with that stuff most of the time. 

Yeah MN stinks. But I’ve spent a lot of time in Minot and it’s not much better lol 😆

[yotebuster]

Just now, Curtis Reed said:

Yeah MN stinks. But I’ve spent a lot of time in Minot and it’s not much better lol 😆

Minot is the third worst place in ND behind Fargo and Grand forks.  Gotta get west if there.  There’s a line where the sun shines more and humidity is way less.  If you go an hour anmd an half east of my house and fish lake sakakawea in early March there’ll be 40” or more of ice on an average year.  If you go the same distance west and fish fort peck you’re lucky if there’s even enough ice to drive an ATV on to fish in march (12” or so usually).  Huge difference.  

[Curtis Reed]

Just now, yotebuster said:

Minot is the third worst place in ND behind Fargo and Grand forks.  Gotta get west if there.  There’s a line where the sun shines more and humidity is way less.  If you go an hour anmd an half east of my house and fish lake sakakawea in early March there’ll be 40” or more of ice on an average year.  If you go the same distance west and fish fort peck you’re lucky if there’s even enough ice to drive an ATV on to fish in march (12” or so usually).  Huge difference.  

Good to know. Haven’t been west of Minot.