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MONTANA 19U 



Stirs a leaf; there are great plains, level as a floor/and there are many 

 foothills and stretches of rolling- land. All these have their own effect on 

 the climate of the State, making- for different temperatures and different 

 weather conditions in different sections of the State. The most pronounced 

 of these diversified conditions is due to the influence of the main range of 

 the Rocky Mountains, on the western slope of which there is, generally 

 speaking, much milder winter weather and considerable more precipitation 

 than on the eastern. 



The climate of Montana is conducive to good health. Fogs are prac- 

 tically unknown, and malarial conditions are entirely absent. The winter 

 <iea.son is not one of continued cold. Bright, sunshiny days in December, 

 January and February are the rule rather than the exception. 

 The When the State is visited by a snow storm the temperature 



Climate Is may drop considerably below zero, but these cold spells are not 

 Conducive only infrequent, but are also short, being rapidly modified by 

 to Good what is knowm as the "chinook" wind, a western breeze, which 



Health. warmed by the Japanese current in the North Pacific, spreads 



its modifying influence as far east as the Dakotas. 

 Montana is blessed with bounteous sunshine, there being sections of the 

 State where an average of more than 300 days of clear weather is expe- 



FlG. 11. — Rainfall map of Montana. The figures show the average annual rainfall in inches 

 From Bulletin No. 188, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



rienced each year. The altitude makes for a clear, dry atmosphere, and the 

 disheartening, cloudy, damp day is seldom witnessed here. 



Many enthusiastic tributes have been paid Montana's climate. A federal 

 government report contains the following: 



"The light snowfall in the valleys throughout the state during 

 the winter months is usually speedily evaporated by the chlnook winds 

 which are prevalent from Oregon to Nebraska, from the Peace River 

 to Arizona, being particularly common in Montana, where they do 

 much to modify the climate." 



In his book, "The Treasure State," James H. Mills said: 

 "The average temperature in Montana is about the same as in New York or 

 Pennsylvania. The snowfall in the valleys is less than in either of those states- 

 there is more sunshine than in any Middle, E astern or New England state, and the 



—Even heai-ts and brains grow bigger and better out here. 



Nature 

 Bestowed 

 Her-Bless 

 ings Here 



