Is it horribly cold all over Montana? Is there are part of it that is more moderate?
What part are the prettiest / most lush?
Which cities are considered the nicest?
If you had to recommend one are of Montana to someone who was concidering moving there, which one would it be?
Helena or Great Falls.
Why? WHat is the climate there like? What advantages do those towns have?
Come on please! I need more of a response!
They are all out enjoying the town and the weather.
Born and raised in Helena here!
If you look at a map, you’ll see that Montana can be segregated roughly into thirds, like the three rectangles on a tri-color map. (Like Ireland’s or France’s or Italy’s.) The western third is west of the Rocky Mountains; the eastern two-thirds are (obviously) east of them.
IMHO, by far the more beautiful and certainly the more temperate part of Montana is the part West of the Continental Divide. Greener, lusher, more mountainous, cooler in the summer and (sometimes) warmer in the winter. (Don’t get me wrong – all of Montana gets cold in the winter).
Towns:
West of the Divide you’ve got Kalispell in the north and Missoula about 120 miles south of it. Kalispell is much smaller, very pretty (the area, not the town), and near Glacier Park and Flathead Lake, which makes it a prime tourism destination in the summer. Missoula is much larger – it’s now the 2nd biggest town in Montana, after Billings. It’s where the University of Montana is located, and due to that it is by far the most liberal town in Montana. It’s pretty, set conveniently close to recreation, and a river runs through it. The only downsides I can think of are (1) it’s growing very rapidly now, with lots of out-of-staters moving in and (2) when the wind blows right, in the winter, you can smell the smelter in Frenchtown and it stinks to high heaven. Not all the time, and you get used to it, but some. If I were to move back to Montana, I’d move back to Missoula and if I couldn’t live there, I’d move to Kalispell. But Kalispell is a small town.
In central Montana, east of the Divide, again going roughly north to south, you’ve got Great Falls, Helena, Butte, and Bozeman. Great Falls is a agriculture town, set out on the prairie on the far side of the Rockies, and the wind blows all the time. It is conservative and IMO there’s not a lot to do there. With all due respect to VIOLET, it’s one of the last places I’d recommend. It does have a set of impressive waterfalls on the Missouri (hence the name) but otherwise isn’t even very pretty.
Helena is the capitol city and has a very rich history. It has a historic district with many beautiful mansions from when Helena was per capita the richest “city” on earth (back in the 1870’s, during the gold boom). It’s not real pretty but not ugly either, and there’s some recreation around. Like most government towns, it’s pretty conservative. I wouldn’t want to move back there, but it’s hard to say whether that’s because it’s so sleepy or because I was raised there. It’s a great place to raise a family.
Butte is an ugly, depressed mining town full of insular Irish-Catholic families who think they’re liberal (they all vote democrat) but who aren’t (they’re all Catholic). This is an indefensible gross over-generalization, of course, which most Butte citizens would take great umbrage at. But there’s not a lot going on there, unless you like to drink. I’d still probably live there before Great Falls, though, just because it’s more centrally located and it’s prettier (if you avert your eyes from the Berkely Pit, the huge gaping hole in the ground left by the mining).
Bozeman is a lot like Kalispell in that it’s set in beautiful mountainous scenery and is close to a national park (Yellowstone). Bozeman is historically an agricultural town, and very conservative, but there are a lot of wealthy liberal people buying land down there now, which makes for an interesting mix. Bozeman is where Montana State University is located – a second-rate institution which accepts those who couldn’t get into the University of Montana. 
(Keep in mind that I am an alumna of the U of M, and the rivalry between the two is pretty strong.) I lived in Bozeman for a year and didn’t like it much; it’s over-run with tourists in the summer, far too sleepy in the winter, and if you don’t ski, there’s nothing to do all winter long but freeze.
Farther east there is Billings, which is the largest town in Montana. It’s pretty conservative and pretty provincial despite its size. It’s the central trading and shopping center for a large area of eastern Montana and Northern Wyoming. There’s undeniably more opportunity there due to its size, but you’re also out there in the middle of nowhere, on the prairie.
And that’s it, in a nutshell, from a native. Others will of course have other opinions. But if I were to recommend towns, I’d recommend Missoula first, and then Kalispell or Helena, interchangeably in second and third place. But I’d more strongly recommend you go check it out yourself before you pack the moving van. Parts of it are undeniably beautiful; the people are friendly; and it retains the history and flavor of the “Old West” (sometimes annoyingly so). But the economy is pretty depressed and even where it isn’t, salaries are not good. The scenery’s nice, buy you can’t eat the scenery. The desire to make a more decent living is the precise reason – and the only reason – I’m writing this from Washington State and not my beloved Montana.
Feel free to e-mail me if you have any other questions. 
I’m not a native, but I spent my summers in Montana (my father was from Anaconda, which escaped Jodi’s list—for good reason, believe me), and I went to college in Helena, so I guess I’m entitled to a very humble opinion.
I have little to add to the preceding excellent post, other than to second Missoula as a preferred destination. As for the Helena/Kalispell ranking, I agree that Helena is quite conservative; but in the far NW of the state “they” take conservatism to a whole 'nother level. A year or so ago the state and feds busted a group calling itself “Project 7” (7 is Flathead County’s license plate designation), whose avowed goal was to knock off a good portion of the law enforcement apparatus. This was supposed to bring in the National Guard, which would trigger the Second American Revolution. Granted, it was a small cadre of wackos, and portraying everyone in Flathead County as an anti-government loon is as inaccurate as portraying everyone in Butte as an Irish-American drunk; but the point is, if you have any kind of a liberal bent, it’s probably a place to avoid.
As to the weather, one thing to consider is that it comes in two flavors: “West of the Divide” and “East of the Divide.” The Continental Divide runs generally north to south about 1/3 of the way across the state, and the west (Kalispell, Missoula, Butte) tends to be more temperate and moister than the east (Great Falls, Helena, Bozeman, Billings). All relatively speaking, of course: the west is still colder and drier than here in western Washington. But there are compensations. YMMV, but I found that I could take +100 or -20 (F) much more easily than +85 or +20 here.
Oh, and if you’re a drinking sort, two words: “bourbon ditch.” If you ask for a bourbon and water, you’ll label yourself a dog-faced flatlander for sure.
Oh, and if you do end up in Missoula, be sure to stop by the Oxford. If you’re sufficiently familiar with Missoula, you know what I mean; if you’re not, there’s no possible way to describe the experience.
Yes, I was out & about enjoying the long daylight in the state of Washington. Well, the above posts cover everything and more. I only worked in a bunch of cities in Montana, and found that people were very friendly & helpful everywhere, but particularly in Great Falls. I like the history & landscape in Helena. The southern area, like Billings, seemed more desolate and dryer.
Glacier National Park is fantastic, as well as Yellowstone. A cruise along Beartooth Mountain (exiting Yellowstone to the east, heading back toward Billings) was a “trip” because I was caught in a snowstorm one August!
I would also suggest a road trip through the various parts of the state before a relocation. Also, if you do a Google search for the different towns, you can see their plans for growth (if any).
Montana’s a BIG state. What kind of weather do you like? You’ll probably find it (and, if you don’t, wait five minutes.) Also, bring your jacket in the summer if you’ll be out after dark…it cools off quickly at night, especially in the mountains. It took me a while to break that habit upon coming to Minnesota.
I’d recommend Bozeman…simply because I used to live near there. It’s a nice college town (which moderates the conservative tendencies of the area a bit), and being near Yellowstone Park, etc., etc., etc., is wonderful. Of course, the craptacular economy forced our family out of the state in the late '80’s, so I guess I’d really recommend the Twin Cities if you actually would like to work and make a living!
Jodi’s post reminded me of something I heard someone say when I was a kid…Montana has enough land to make a state west of the Divide, a state east of the Divide, and enough land leftover to make a third state!
Eastern Montana is dry, and hot in the summer. IIRC, Billings often sees 100 degree days in the summer. It’s not as bad as 100 degrees in a more humid area, though.