Following an extraordinarily dry and warm winter in Wyoming, recent pulses of snow and rain have been celebrated across the state.
Along with delivering much-needed precipitation to crops and streambeds, the storms have acted as reminders of how beautiful snow can be.
On Monday evening in Fremont County, snow and sleet fell in driving sheets, soaking anyone unfortunate enough to be out without rain gear. But as Tuesday morning dawned under clear skies, the landscape was plastered with white in a surreal and fleeting scene of clashing seasons.
Thick snow clung to branches, fenceposts, tree blossoms, parked vehicles and electric lines. Greenery peaked out from limbs and the edges of lawns as the temperatures warmed the earth. By 8 a.m., a second snowfall came not from the sky, but from trees sloughing it off in bursts. At day’s end, it had vanished from all but the mountains.
Because this week’s storms were so wet, it was difficult to take precise measurements. But in Cheyenne, the weather service reported the liquid snow equivalent of nearly 1 inch. In Rawlins, about 4 inches of white stuff piled on a parked car. And in Casper, a large system dropped well over a foot of snow on Casper Mountain.
One or two storms aren’t enough to make up for the state’s warmest winter on record and a severe snow drought that left many basins in bad shape by spring. As of Thursday, most of Wyoming was still categorized as being under severe drought, with spots of extreme and exceptional in the southeast, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
