By Joe Stuver
Eastern Montana saw a very nice early October, but a beautiful fall turned downright chilly as folks wondered if the season had again missed us. Later in the month, though, temperatures warmed along with everybody’s spirits.
Another shipping season is also underway, but with disappointing prices for some of the finest, fattest calves raised anywhere. Ranchers got less money this fall than last, with fewer numbers thanks to a horrible calving season, which went from winter into early to mid spring.
Steer calf weights are incredible though. One Powder River ranching duo followed in their dad and granddad’s footsteps with the heaviest steers at the market; an average of 672 pounds! Their weaning was also a month earlier.
It is indeed fortunate that the year turned around weather wise into a wonderful spring, summer and now, early fall with abundant grass and lots of good hay. Prayers go out for a couple repeats, minus the winter. It’s going to take a few more good, decent years for folks to recover from their losses and expenses from last winter.
We also need to pause here to thank all of the VOLUNTEER weather station observers across the area. Their service is invaluable. These dedicated folks used to have to monitor their stations manually with day and night checks, but in today’s computerized world most of the information is simply downloaded onto their NWS site.
The weather has also brought a bit of that dreaded four-letter word, SNOW, which fortunately quickly melted off. Dang cold temps with highs only into the 30s are predicted this week.
Broadus received nice but not great moisture of .85 inch for October, as recorded at the National Weather Service observatory overseen by the Sheriff’s Department.
The medium high for October here was a pleasant 60.7 degrees, but there was also a stretch of cold, dismal days of highs only into the early 40s and lows down to 21. The nicest rain day was on the 7th with .27 inch; the high that day was 55 and the low 39.
November got off to a nice start moisture-wise, with .21 over the first four days.
Biddle was a bit cooler but with more rain, as recorded at the Mader Ranch a few miles away. Their daytime mean was 58.1, with a night mean of 32.7 degrees. Their low was 19 on the 15th, too cold too early, but the next day the temps climbed to 61. Their average mean came in at 45.4 degrees.
They reported a very nice rain total of 1.19 inch in October, with .23 thus far in November.
Following the area weather stations in alphabetical order, Mizpah’s 4NNW reported .44 inch of moisture. Their mean daytime high was 58 and the night mean was 27.7, for an average of 42.9 degrees. It got dang cold a few days and nights, with a high of 39 and low of 28 on the 10th, and 36 over 23 on the 14th. Their coldest night was really chilly, 17 degrees on the 11th followed by a second cold night of 21.
That area has already received .74 inch of rain in November. Nice!
Bowers’ Moorhead station showed .76 inch, with a bit of snow, in October. They too had some really nice temps and some really chilly ones in October. The night mean was 29.2 degrees, but the daytime mean was 57.6 degrees. Their low was 21 degrees on the 15th, and the high 79 on the second day of the month.
With the 4th day of November not shown, .24 of an inch of rain, snow mix has fallen.
Down Powder River at Powderville’s NWS, .74 inch of mostly rain fell in October. Their low was 17 degrees on the 15th, but there were lots of lows in the low 20s. Their night mean temp was 30.8 degrees and the daytime mean was 30.8, with the average mean temp coming in at 44.3. They, too, have already received some very nice early November moisture, with .71 of an inch.
Sonnette’s station showed an October total of .89 of an inch, but there was also nearly three inches of snow also reported in that beautiful high country. Their night low mean was 26.8 degrees, the lowest of any of the area stations. Their low temps were 16 and 14 degrees on the 14th and 15th, but again there were lots of early 20s.
Their mean high was 56.2 degrees, with highs of 73 and 74 on the first two days of the month. The average mean was 41.5 degrees.
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