With four distinct seasons, the Boise weather offers something for everyone. (And it really doesn’t snow that much!)
You can look up all the weather data about Boise that you want and still not really know what the weather is REALLY like in Boise.
I moved to Boise 20 years ago from California, so I’ll do my best to give you an HONEST overview of the weather in Boise and how it will actually affect your life.
I know, I know…you want to know about the snow!
I will give you my honest opinions of the snow and winter, but let’s go over all the seasons (they are so beautiful here), how they will affect your life, and what you can expect out of each one.
But first, a general disclaimer about the weather in Boise:
Plan for 2 distinctly frigid weeks in January, and 2 distinctly sweltering weeks in August; you never know exactly what the weather will bring. Some years we have cold winters, some years are mild. Some years are hot summers, others are mild. Spring covers all seasonal temperatures in one day, (sometimes within a few hours), and fall…well, we’ve had Halloween temps ranging from the teens to the 60s. So keep that in mind as I tell you the general ideas about each season.
And keep in mind that even though the data on weather is fact, reaction to that data is pretty subjective. If you are moving here from someplace like New York, you’ll think our winters are amazing. If you are moving here from Hawaii, you might not love several months of temps below 50 degrees.
Alright, let’s get to it!
Spring
It’s hard to say when spring starts here in Boise. In fact, sometimes Spring and Winter are fighting it out for several weeks. The clouds change from gray and big, to white and puffy.
The robins begin to come out first, followed by daffodils and dandelions, and green life begins to emerge from the brown and sleepy valley. But the best thing about spring in Boise is that you can actually wear clothes from all seasons of your wardrobe in one day!
Dressing for spring in Boise is all about layering. You’ll start the chilly morning (usually anywhere from 20F-45F) with a t-shirt, followed by a cardigan, and a jacket on top of that. If you leave a building for lunch, it’ll warm up to 60 F and you’ll need to lose the jacket. Go back inside and come out, and, surprise! A spring snowstorm blew in! After about 20 minutes of that, you’ll come back outside with your jacket again, only to realize you’re sweating hot and it’s time to go down to that t-shirt, because it’s now 75F. After basking in the spring sun for a bit, you’ll go back into a building, come out in your t-shirt, and need to go grab your jacket again, because it’s dropped back down to 50F.
The first several weeks of Spring in Boise bring pretty much every kind of weather Boise has to offer, from hail, to warm sun, to a quick snow, to wind and rain. Typically, a general spring pattern of 45F mornings and 70F afternoons sets in by May, but gardeners here know that the last frost date is Mother’s Day…so those mornings stay chilly for a while. Oftentimes in spring, as with this year, we have many weeks of 70F-85F weather, teasing us of consistent days of warmth (at last!). Don’t get too excited though, there will be weeks all the way into June that drop back to 50F highs.
So the take home with Spring in Boise is: be prepared for anything, celebrate the warm days, and remember the cold days will soon be gone (even if they creep back in once in a while). Oh, and no matter if it’s warm or cold, spring in Boise is always beautiful, filled with green hills, wildflowers, blooming trees, and baby ducks. Who doesn’t love baby ducks?
Summer:
Yay! Warmth at last!
Well, sort of.
Spring and Summer kind of fight it out like Winter and Spring do. There’s no set time that I can say “summer will start this week”. Maybe in June? Possibly the beginning of July? Definitely by the end of July. And what does “summer” mean to you? 70F? 90F?
The first year we moved here, I had a friend from Hawaii who had just moved here too, and we would get together with our kids for playdates and just wonder, “When will the warm temperatures come and stay???” It felt like we’d have these amazingly warm days, and then it would drop back to 50F again, up and down until the middle of June. It was discouraging for us warm weather worshippers.
For me, having grown up in Southern CA, and then later, moving to the Sacramento area (it’s hot there!), I feel like summer begins when that chill leaves the morning air. When you can walk outside in the early morning, and you just feel in the air that it will be a warm day later. When you can enjoy a dinner outside on your patio and not have to get a sweater, and then that warmth stays for a couple of weeks, just to make sure summer is really here to stay. To me, that’s when summer starts.
In Boise, that warm morning and evening feel starts staying in the middle of June. Don’t get me wrong, it can be warm and lovely many weeks before that, but I can’t put my jeans and cardigans away and switch to flip flops, shorts, and t-shirts on a regular basis until the middle of June.
Oh, and I almost forgot…when Spring and Summer fight, they do it with thunderstorms. Not like Texas thunderstorms, but we get hail that is pea sized and lasts for only a few minutes, heavy rain (or light..you know, Spring can’t ever make up its mind), wind, and then it clears out in a few hours. You know who won the fight by the temperature that results after the storm.
And then later, toward July, it will get hot.
Now I love the heat. And it is a dry heat. No humidity here! (Well, rarely, once in a great while, humidity might somehow sneak its way into our desert climate). But it’ll be 80F-100F July- August. The nice thing is that the nights usually cool to around 65F, so you can open your windows to cool off instead of running the AC all night long. Except for the first or second week of August. That’s when Summer says, “I’m here, and everyone will know it!”
In August, we almost always have a week or so of 100+F temps. That’s the time to go to the mountain lakes. It’s about 20 degrees cooler and just so beautiful and fun.
Unless we have fires.
You wanted an honest weather review, right?
So the majority of the state of Idaho is covered in forested wilderness that is very rugged terrain. There are always some sorts of fires here and there in the forests, but some years, we get big fires. Fires that last for weeks. Fires that seem to always coincide with those 100 degree days.
When my son was born here in Boise, we came out of the hospital, it was 103F, the air was thick with smoke from the forest fires, and the sky had that eery orange glow. Makes for incredible sunset watching, but horrible for outdoor recreation. This doesn’t happen every year. Sometimes the smoke just sits in the valley for a few days and clears out. Some years we don’t have any smoke. But one summer, the fires were so bad in the west, all the wind was blowing smoke from all the western states to our valley, and the smoke stuck around for weeks. The kids couldn’t go out for recess when school started. But that was just one summer (in the almost 20 that I have lived here). So, just know…Idaho is wilderness, and wilderness brings fires, and fires bring smoke.
Summer in Boise is filled with swimming in pools, lakes, rivers, rafting, hiking, mountain biking, camping, fishing, bonfires, water parks, backpacking, etc. It is a time of fun, warmth, family recreation, gardening…and happy memories. And the sun is up from 5:30 am -10:00 pm , so you can play all day.
Click here to check out some great parks to enjoy in the summer!
Fall:
As much as I love the heat, fall is probably my favorite season in Boise. Summer and Fall don’t fight so much. Summer nicely gives way to fall, as if Summer played hard and is ready to rest until next year. Fall comes in gradually – mostly. You’ll think fall is here the first few weeks of October, and then, all of a sudden, Summer shows up one last time for a week. So we’ll have these gradually, getting cooler amazing temperatures, highs in the 70s for several weeks, and the evening chill setting in earlier and earlier. It’ll be warm enough for an outdoor dinner, and then, you’ll feel that tell-tale chill in the air, get your sweater, and know..yup, here comes fall. Leaves will change color, the energy in the air changes from “play all day” to “prepare to be cozy at home”.
After that sneak-in one last time from Summer, Fall decides to stay. It’s 70F one day, the wind picks up one night, blows crisp leaves off the trees, and the next day, you wake up seeing your breath, getting out your sweaters and boots, and having a high of about 45F. It’ll make you crave apple cider, pumpkin patches, and corn mazes like nothing else.
This usually happens right before Halloween. The first Halloween we lived here, our daughter had picked out a cute little princess dress. Well, wouldn’t you know, the temps dropped on Halloween day, and it was 17 degrees when we went trick-or-treating! All the kids were covered in winter clothes so no one could tell what they were dressed up as.
Welcome to Idaho!
But that’s the coldest it’s been on Halloween in almost 20 years. Usually it’s 40F-60F and pretty mild. Kids will still need a warmer costume if they want to show it off, but it’s pretty mild overall.
As fall moves towards Thanksgiving, you’ll be raking lots of leaves, putting your yard to bed, and getting ready for the ski season (because if you want to really enjoy Boise in the winter, you’ll want to take up snow sports if you haven’t already). Thanksgiving is typically cool with highs anywhere from 30F-55F. Last year, our fall was in the 60s though…so, as usual, you never really know! We usually have our first little skiff of snow right around Thanksgiving, and if you want to drive out of state for the holiday…you can almost always count on snow over the passes.
Winter:
Finally! Winter! The season everyone seems so worried about when they are considering moving to Boise!
Fall and Winter don’t really fight over the season change…Fall just kind of gives way to winter, all those browns and grays just start blurring together. And again, when do you think winter starts? When it’s 50F? When it’s 20F?
I’ve heard some Idaho natives tell people not to worry- winters in Boise are our shortest season.
Uh….we do live in the same city, right? Because that’s definitely not what I’m experiencing.
From my California transplant perspective (although I’ve now lived in Idaho longer than I lived in California!), winter begins when the leaves are off the trees, the hills and city take on a gray hue, everything feels still and cold, the fall garden harvest is over, and the sun has dropped far enough to the south that the lighting changes. The days get short. Sun comes up around 8 am and goes down by 4:30 pm. So for me, I think winter is our longest season and lasts from the end of November until the ground thaws enough in the spring that I can plant lettuce. And that’s usually about the beginning of April.
Winter starts when I have to wear a hat to cover my ears, gloves, fleece-lined leggings, a sweater and a thick winter coat, thick wool socks, and fleece lined boots to go walk the dog. Now- I am a person who could live in Phoenix in the summer and be happy as can be. And my husband loves the cold- and when I’m bundled up, he’s wearing shorts and a windbreaker. So- again, this weather thing is very subjective.
What about snow?!?!?!
I actually prefer the snow to the cold with no snow. Why?
- It is warmer when it snows.
- The snow is beautiful.
- Snowstorms clean the air.
- We can build snow people.
- We can go sledding in the valley.
- If we’re lucky, the kids can have a fun snow day (which actually rarely happens).
- The snow usually melts the next day here and gives way to the clearest, bluest skies I’ve ever seen.
- Snow brings temporary stillness and silence to the city.
Just like everything else with the weather here, our snow is so up and down from year to year. We’ve had winters with no snow in the valley. That is sad. What’s the point of 25F temps with not a flake of snow the whole winter?
And then there was the winter of 2016..Snowmageddon, Snowpocalypse. It began snowing Thanksgiving week and didn’t really stop until March. And it got cold. Frigid. Highs barely in the tens. Lows were below zero. For weeks. We had several inches of ice and snow frozen in the neighborhood roads (where it doesn’t get plowed) and there were wheel ruts, like old time pioneer wagon wheel ruts in the dirt, but it was tire ruts in the ice. And you had to drive with your wheels in the ruts. And if another car came towards you in the ruts, someone had to back up until the other could pass…like trains on the same track. Kids missed a couple of weeks of school, the snow piled to a few feet, we had to dig our chickens out continually, and dig a path for our dog to go out continually. That was the worst snow on record here. We survived. It makes for a fun memory.
That is the exception to the rule! Usually it snows an inch or two a few times a season, melts the next day, and the sun comes out. Often we will have a week in December or January when the snow will pile up to maybe 10 inches over a week, hang around for another week, and then melt off. We have to use our snow shovel maybe a couple times a season. We talk about snowfall here in inches, not feet. More than a few inches is a lot for us.
The snow, I can deal with.
What do I hate about winter here?
The wind? Nope, that’s the worst in more Southern Idaho areas- it’s not too bad here in Boise, not really an issue at all.
What I hate about winter here: Inversion.
Gray, cold, and depressing inversion.
It usually comes in January. It is when the cold air sits in the valley and the warm air goes on top of the cloud layer. The good news is, you can drive up to the ski resort, Bogus Basin, and have 50F temps and sit at the lodge, or have awesome skiing conditions. The bad news is, you probably can’t spend every day of inversion in the mountains, so you have to just deal with it. It just gets colder and colder the longer the inversion stays. Highs go from 20s, to teens, to single digits. Makes me depressed just writing about it.
But, it doesn’t always happen. We’ve had some years, like this past winter, with no inversion at all! We did have one year the inversion sat around for several weeks and the kids couldn’t play outside at recess. Usually, it comes for a few days and leaves. And once inversion leaves, the sun will come out, and it will warm back up to the 40s. But, this is an honest review…so, you should know this inversion thing might pop up it’s ugly head once in a while in the winter here.
And speaking of winter, another big question, do you need 4-wheel or AWD cars?
Maybe. Depends on the snow that year.
But generally, no. You don’t need AWD and you don’t even need snow tires. Cars get around just fine here in the normal amount of snow.
Now, if you are going to go to the mountains, or drive to other states in the winter, then yes, you do need AWD. Most people here have one AWD car or truck and the other cars don’t have it. That way, you have an AWD car with some clearance in case you want to go to the mountains, drive up to the trees to cut down a Christmas tree, or Snowmageddon comes again.
February is usually an uneventful weather month in Boise, maybe a little snow, cold but not bitterly cold…usually a fabulous month for snow recreational activities because most school sports don’t start until March. And particularly this year, 2020, we look back on our quiet, uneventful February Friend with quite fond memories. And as much as March 2020 took a turn for the worse…our weather in Boise has been an absolute blessing. We have had some of the best, most beautiful sunny weather on record for March and April, and it has been a true lifesaver during these troubling times.
So…my personal opinion of winter in Boise? Well, for me, I wish it would get to like 80F by February, and the winter normally drags on a long time. I find myself having a hard time waiting for some really sunny, warm days. I like the snow. I love some of the beautiful things about winter like no yard work, more cozy house activities (thank goodness for Hallmark movies), icicles, sledding, and my husband and kids absolutely love snowboarding. I love the beauty of the foothills with snow on them. I love winter clothes like sweaters, boots, and cute coats. But I get tired of the cold, brown days if there is no snow..and I HATE the inversion if it comes. Winter is NOT the shortest season here – I would say it’s the longest. But winter has made me appreciate spring, summer, and fall like I never did before I moved to Idaho. Winter has made me appreciate all the detailed beauty of each distinct season and what they symbolize.
The positives of the cost of living, overall lifestyle, and all the other benefits that come from living in Boise far, far outweigh any negatives of the winter. Do people move here from warmer climates and then hate it and leave? Yes. Some people do. But that is far and few between. Most people learn to have fun in the winter and they love the four seasons, too.
My husband has a job where he can choose to work from anywhere. Most of our family lives in California, Texas, and other western states. We only have one other family member in Idaho! Yet, we choose Boise. We’ve made our home here for almost 20 years with no desire to leave. So, you know what? The weather in Boise can’t be that bad. In fact, I think I may even like it.
