The other climate matters, too

For all the talk about northern Nevada's attractive business climate, some of the region's growth is driven by something simpler its climate.

Not the business climate, but the day-in, day-out weather of the high desert.

Take a look, for instance, at Kimmie Candy.

The company, which is moving its candymaking facilities to Reno,was attracted in part by the region's low humidity.

That allows each of the seven or eight coats of hard candy shell on some of the company's products to dry quickly, speeding production, says Chief Executive Officer Joe Dutra.

And low nighttime temperatures means that storage of finished product is simplified.

The candy warehouse, Dutra says, can't be warmer than 82 degrees, and it's easy to maintain that standard when overnight temperatures stay cool.

"For candy-making, the climate is very important,"Dutra says.

"It was a big consideration for us."

In fact, the low humidity and cool nights gave Reno the edge over Texas locations as the company formerly headquartered at Sacramento looked for ways to bring its manufacturing back to the United States from Korea.

While economic development specialists ordinarily don't make it a practice to target industries on the basis of their fit with the region's climate, northern Nevada's cool nights were a key selling point as plastics manufacturers were wooed to the region during the past decade.

Grant Sims, manager of economic development for Sierra Pacific Power, says some plastics manufacturers were able to shave 6 percent or more off their power costs as the result of relocating to the high-desert climate.

Plastics manufacturers who require cooling water in their process, Sims says, can use less-expensive evaporative coolers rather than chillers.

And like other industrial and distribution companies, plastics manufacturers find it's an inexpensive proposition to cool their facilities.

In many instances, Sims says, simply running intake fans at night will pull in enough cool air to keep a building comfortable through the day.

For industrial companies that need more cooling, the ability to use swamp coolers rather than air conditioning in big facilities is significant "The impact on our costs is huge," says Greg Fisher, vice president of B&J Machine & Tool Inc.

in Sparks.

Unless the company's facility is cooled during the summer months, workers' productivity falls off, he says.

But air conditioning costs easily could consume the benefits of higher productivity.

Equally important for the metals company, Fisher says, is its ability to store unfinished material outside without fear of rust.

That provides a competitive advantage as companies elsewhere either need to build climate- controlled storage or face the costs of removing rust, he says.

For all the benefits the region's climate brings for specific industries, Ron Weisinger at Carson City-based Northern Nevada Development Authority says the weather usually plays a more straightforward role in companies' decisions to locate here.

Executives, he says, want to live somewhere with four seasons of nice weather.

And on that score, he says, northern Nevada does well.