I haven't verified it, but my guess would be the the biomes (growing zones) of Montana (higher latitude) and Colorado (higher altitude) are similar, and might be expected to predict comparable results with specific tobacco varieties.
Bob
Montana much colder. They also have the artic air masses that drop out of the gulf of Alaska and Canada when the jet stream dips. Colorado has many, inhospitable, to plants, areas that are mainly related to altitude but have fewer times when jet streams dip south. The high mountains block a lot of weather, cause moisture laden Pacific air to drop snow on them instead of further east thus creating a rain shadow, snow shadow if you will, where we have dry, high desert conditions with attendant ecosysyems.
Mountain valleys are protected from many extremes and are where the streams and rivers flow to irrigate our fields and farms. We have huge reservoirs that store a bunch of snowmelt water that acts as heat sinks to store heat and modify the winter temperatures and snowfall in an even more complex pattern.
There are several areas of Colorado that are at lower elevations, not even 5,000 ft that are considered "Banana belts". Much warmer, winter and summer. We're a dog's breakfast of climate zones here.
Seems that Spokane, Washington with their attributes are closer to my particular area.
My gf has a work assignment contract in Billings, Montana at the moment..
