The recent cool snap got me wondering about how the weather has changed over the years in southwest Idaho.

I remember the late summer and fall weather pattern being a lot different 30 or so years ago. Maybe my memory has gone sour but here's what I remember, gauging it from outdoor experiences.

You could bank on a cool snap hitting the second or third week in August. I remember one Main Salmon float trip where instead of buying more beer at Mackay Bar, we were buying hot chocolate. Rain hit on that river trip and it was wetsuit city.

After the cool mid-August weather, most of the doves flew the coop for places south.

The rains would hit by the opening of chukar season in mid-September and it would start getting the ground in the mountains wet so it would set up perfectly for the snow. I remember one opening day for chukars around Lucky Peak Reservoir where you couldn't climb the hills because of the mud. Seems like over the last 10 years, it has been drier than a bone on opening day for chukars.

I don't remember it being so dry during deer and elk seasons way back then. A lot of times, by the last weekend of the deer season, you'd be hunting in knee-deep snow. I remember slogging around in wet, heavy snow in the fog trying to stalk a buck in the upper Boise Foothills.

Seems like cold weather all across the Northwest and Canada back then drove big migrations of mallards into Treasure Valley by Thanksgiving. I also remember trying to get my kids up to Bogus Basin the day after Thanksgiving one year and it was a blizzard in the valley. Some of the last Thanksgivings have been, well, dusty.

OK, maybe my memory is going sour but that's the typical weather pattern I remember, based on hunting and other outdoors experiences.

The hot chocolate at Mackay Bar on the Main Salmon in August really sticks in my mind.

Hopefully, we'll have a cool, wet fall.