Windows in Billings should be set in the warm season, when the opening can be flashed and closed before the wind turns cold. The drafts you felt all winter are the reason. The short stretch of good weeks is the time. Hail pits west glass. Wind works the latches all year. Strong sun checks the trim. Waiting until the first hard night to decide is how you live with the ice again. Count the bad openings while you can still stand at the wall in comfort.
Older south-side wood and newer West End vinyl fail differently and still share the deadline. Soft sills mean full-frame work. Sound, square frames can take an insert. Feel the wood before you choose. A unit set on a rotten sill in a rushed cold week is the same leak with new glass. Ask how the sill sheds water and what fills the gap, especially on a west wall that sees hail, sun, and the gust off the open lots.
Do not replace the calm side of the house because one elevation howled. Note which rooms face the rims or the open approach. Fog between panes, a sash that will not stay up, and pits you can feel are different symptoms. Say which ones you have. Whole-unit specs are a comparison, not a promise that the house will use less of anything. You want the windward rooms habitable and the trim dry. That is visible. The rest is a brochure.
If a claim is open, photograph pitted glass and stained trim before the screens are thrown away. The warm season is when that glass can actually be replaced without turning the room into a wind tunnel. Chinook days are not the install window. Ask for a set that can be finished, flashed, and closed in weather that holds. Brick and older openings in the valley punish a casual shim job the first time the gust returns.
Say how many windows, which rooms, and whether the frames are soft. Name the part of Billings. If the policy is involved, have the deductible ready. The warm weeks are the whole opportunity. Call the number on this page.