We had a really dry and warm fall for SW MT. I would say it is about "normal" now, whatever that means. The older I get, the less tolerance I have for winter. I used to own a t-shirt that said "summer sucks" back when I was an avid snowmobiler, now I am really wanting to head south to some warmer weather.
Sometimes I do wish for a winter similar to what I experienced when I came here from Central MT back in 96-97. In Central MT we would get some extreme cold, but we also got some warm chinook winds frequently to warm it up. Not so much in the southwest part of the state. 96-97 it snowed about 2-3' here in late October and it hung around til about mid May. Man the snow really piled up that year. It was absolutely bone chilling cold December-February, with the highs in the -10s. If we got a winter like that I think many of the people that have flocked here from CA and the Pacific Northwest would be thinking twice about their choice.