Intermountain Region Climate and weather definition:
The Intermountain West, or Intermountain Region, is defined as being located between the Rocky Mountains on the east and the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada on the west. However, depending on your source weather and climate information it might also be defined as the Mountain States Region. The Old Farmer’s Almanac defines it as Region 13 , the USDA reports the region as Northwest while the USDA Forest Service defines our location, Athol, Idaho, as Region 1.
We follow many sources when forecasting our own weather for on farm activities, from planting seeds, running heaters in the greenhouse, bringing in more plants,etc. We’ve found that through the years we hold more to a USDA Zone 4 climate because of the micro-climate in our area, it not unusual to see -25°F during the winter months with a little wind to make for a much colder day or night because of the wind chill factor.
Here’s a look at what we can expect for the 2013 growing season in the Idaho or Northern region.