66 MONTANA FAEM REVIEW 



colder than this. Records of four stations available here, Boweii, Brenner, Dell, and 

 Hebgen Dam, average 35.6°. Bowen, the coldest station in the Montana group of records, 

 shows 32.3° as its annual mean. The elevation of this place is over 6,000 feet. 



The general average of annual mean temperatures over the east slope region in 

 the south, as well as in the north, is 41.6°. Roughly quartering the part of Montana 

 east of the Main Range of the Rockies, the northeastern quarter has an average annual 

 temperature of 41.1°, and the southeastern quarter, which has been mentioned as the 

 warmest part of the state, 43.7°. That part of the Missouri Valley which extends from 

 Three Forks northward into Chouteau County is one of the warmest sections of the 

 state, and has temperature means approaching those of the Yellowstone Valley. 



The Bitter Root and the Clark Fork valleys, and the Mission Valley, extending 

 southward from Flathead Lake, have annual means similar to these and placing them 

 in the warmer sections. The counties west of the Continental Divide, over which region 

 as a whole the annual mean temperature is 42.9°, average warmer than other parts of 

 the state excepting the southeastern, though the higher stations mostly have annual 

 mean temperatures near 40°. In the matter of temperatures climatic conditions in these 

 western counties differ from those east of the Main Range principally in their being 

 subject to less extremes and less persistency of cold. The winters are milder, the 

 summers are cooler, than in the eastern part of the state, and summer months are 

 frequently a little cooler than in the central sections. 



False T^® customary prominence which extremes or unusual occurrences 



I . naturally receive in press and conversation through the country has 



served to create rather a widespread false impression in regard to the 



o Mon ana severity of winter weather in Montana. It is not the purpose here 



to make invidious comparisons, but it is not fair to Montana that she should suffer by 



them. It is of record that this state has shown some very low minimum temperatures, 



and furthermore, that the lowest temperature recorded in the United States has occurred 



here. A fact which has not been given equal prominence, however, is of somewhat 



greater importance: the mean or average winter temperatures do not place any section 



of Montana within the area of coldest winters in the United States. Because of its 



cool summers rather than the cold of its winters, the strip on the Montana slope of 



the Main Range of the Rockies, along the Idaho line in the southwest, the mean annual 



temperature of which has previously been cited, is the coldest considerable area in the 



United States on yearly averages as the basis of comparison, but not, be it remembered, 



on winter averages. 



Over the eastern end of Montana the summers are hotter, generally speaking, 

 than in other large sections, and the winters colder. Maximum temperatures of 100° 

 or higher ordinarily are reached in June, July, August, and in about as many years as 

 not in September. There is usually a large daily range of temperature, however, when 

 such maxima are reached, and the early morning temperatures are often as much as 

 or more than 30 degrees lower. The highest temperature ever recorded in Montana was 

 117° at Glendive on July 20, 1893. The low humidity greatly reduces the discomfort and 

 danger from the high temperatures, and heat .prostration is seldom or never heard of 

 as occurring in the state. 



The extreme minimum temperature record is -65°, reported from Ft. Keogh, near 

 Miles City, in January, 1888. The average January temperature for northeastern Mon- 

 tana is 11.0°, and the winter daily range is not as great as in the summer. Minimum 

 temperatures east of the Main Range fall to 40 degrees below zero in most winters, and 

 sometimes go lower. But such conditions are not as extensive or as frequent as is often 

 thought, nor does extreme cold weather in most cases last more than a few days at a 

 time. Owing to low humidity, and the usually light winds or near calms when such cold 

 prevails, the severity of the weather is less than is imagined by persons who have not 

 experienced it, but the activities of life must, of course, be sensibly goverened. Such 



