JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — The veritable ‘heatwave’ that gripped most of Wyoming for the past two weeks appears to be over but is the drought?
No doubt Wyoming wrung all it could out of autumn with summer-like temperatures enjoyed by much of the Cowboy State. In Jackson Hole, where the end of summer is usually marked by the beginning of winter—usually anytime from Halloween to Thanksgiving—area ski resorts have been waiting on Mother Nature to comply this season.
Not only is the snow late in getting here by most accounts, but temperatures have been downright balmy through November, preventing even decent snowmaking conditions for ski resorts.
The ‘warmwave’ has also been felt across the state right through the beginning of December. Rawlins, Laramie, Cheyenne were among many towns and cities in Wyoming to experience record-setting high temps for December. Rawlins 60 degrees on December 2 broke the previous high set on December 17, 1962. Laramie broke a 41-year-old all-time December high mark with 62 degrees on December 2 and Cheyenne’s 70 degrees on December 2 was the highest ever recorded in December since 1939.
“Right now, normal temperatures are supposed to be in the upper 30s to low 40s. But we’ve been about 25 to 30 degrees above normal,” Jared Allen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Cheyenne, Wyo., told Wyoming Public Radio.
J.J. Shinker, a professor of geography at the University of Wyoming who studies climate, drought, and water resources across the West, also expressed her surprise.
“It’s pretty spectacular to think that we’re seeing some radical changes in terms of climate and water resources play out in real human timeframes,” Shinker said.
Extreme drought persists in parts of Wyoming typically immune to dry conditions such as the Yellowstone region and Jackson Hole.
According to U.S Drought Monitor: In Wyoming, many basins had below to well below normal snowpack with no snow across the High Plains portion of the state. Snow, where it has occurred, was confined to the highest peaks (above 8500 ft). The snow conditions combined with excessive evapotranspiration, drying soils, short-term dryness, and longer-term dryness to prompt expansion of moderate to extreme drought in parts of the state.
The current forecast for Jackson Hole shows more typical winter-like temperatures with highs in 20s and 30s, overnight lows in the teens and 20s, but precipitation models indicate a mere scattering if snow and no big dump in sight.
