An early spring snowstorm dumped more than 3 feet of snow on Casper this week, closing schools and businesses while burying neighborhoods and vehicles and creating a chore of opening roads.

A record-breaking 26.7 inches of snow fell in the city on Monday. It was the single snowiest day for the city since records began tracking snowfall in 1937, according to the National Weather Service in Riverton. The previous single-day record was 24.3 inches on Dec. 24, 1982.

Total snowfall from the event also set a record — 37.4 inches — breaking the previous snowstorm record of 31.3 inches, also from December 1982.

A tower of frosty refreshments gives scale to the deep blanket of snow in Casper April 4, 2023. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile)

Casper may set another record for seasonal snowfall. As of Thursday, seasonal snowfall was at 132.7 inches — just about 20 inches shy of the record 151.6 inches set in the 1982-83 snow season.

“The snow season’s not over,” NWS Riverton meteorologist Celia Hensley said. “We’re only 20 inches away, and you could get that in a single snowstorm.”

But, Hensley said, it’s too early to know what spring might still have in store. So far, the forecast calls for cooler than usual temperatures overall in April. However, a period of warmer temperatures will push Casper into the 50-65 degrees Fahrenheit range early next week, bringing a lot of snowmelt.

“We’re watching for the potential for flooding in some lowland areas,” Hensley said.

Dustin Bleizeffer is a Report for America Corps member covering energy and climate at WyoFile. He has worked as a coal miner, an oilfield mechanic, and for 25 years as a statewide reporter and editor primarily...

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  1. With that image of a tower of beer cans used to gauge snow depth , you have created a new standard of measurement , Dustin. It is good you did not use politically sensitive Bud Light beer cans for the quantification. While Busch beer is marked ‘ Safe’ for calibrating , it lacks luster and the company is now owned by a Belgium- Brazil consortium. We can do better

    I suggest we honor one of America’s domestic brews from the glory days. Blatz. The unbiquitous brand was brewed and sold for 150 years but did not survive into the 21st century. The last bottle and cans of Blatz left the loading dock in Milwaukee in 1996. We should revive the name by adopting the ” Blatz” as the new standard gauge for snow depth , 1 blatz being the height of the can equivalent to 4.8 inches / 12.2 cm . But the letter are awkward units on their best day.

    It appears that Casper recieved 4.5 blatzes of snow. Coincidentally , that is very close to 1 bleizeffer…

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