The top 101 list (Cheyenne, Cody, Wheatland: house, refrigerators, live in)

[WyattE]

So on this very site there are numerous Top 101 lists in a lot of categories and viewing the Top 101 places with the coldest temps and a seperate category for the highest amounts of snowfall, my town appears on both lists. I don't understand how Wyoming was not listed. Though it is based on population sizes of more than 50,000 people, which there just aren't that many towns in Wyoming with that amount.
As far as snowfall amount, I believe I get more than certain towns in Wyoming.
I live in Northern Indiana right off of Lake Michigan so the cold temps and snow definitely is a factor which is why my location makes the top 101 lists. And here I thought Wyoming was colder and got more snow. Am I wrong? I love Wyoming and Montana. Seems to suit my personality in both states but I favor Wyoming more.

[ElkHunter]

There are only 2 towns that have over 50,000. So it's like how we are seen on the National news. We can have a devastating snow storm that puts thousands out of power and we have people die. But it's only a couple people so we're not important so the news doesn't announce it.

A few weeks ago, we had over 20 tornado's in Wyoming. At the same time, Colorado had 20+ tornado's and one person was killed. Nebraska had 20+ tornado's. This was over a two day period. When GMA and the other news teams reported the news they talked for a long time on the devastating tornado's that his Colorado, killing one person. Then they mentioned, "Oh, and there were some tornado's in Nebraska. And then they went on with the news. Never mentioned Wyoming. A couple days later we had an outbreak again. The only thing GMA said was, "There were some tornado's "Out West" but New York had some flooding....."

So I think the stats are the same way. We have heavy snow, high winds, cold temps, but because it doesn't effect too many people, and we know how to deal with it, it doesn't warrant a mention. haha

Rest assured that a good old Wyoming howler is much worse then anything Michagan has ever experienced. With the lasting economical situation in Michagan has had, several have moved here for the oil/methane boom. I've spoke with a few of them and they said last winter was devastating here, how do we do it? Truth be told, last winter was the mildest winter I've seen in a good number of years.

[WyattE]

Funny how the media only wants us to know certain things. They are so persuasive when it comes to knowing only certain facts. Here we thought the President ran the country but the Media chooses for us.

I don't think I want to visit Wyoming in the winter time now. I won't complain of our winter's here in my town knowing it's bad elsewhere.

[WyoMama]

Well, having grown up in Ohio, winters are wicked back there around the lakes because they have somehing there we pretty much NEVER see here - ice storms. Wicked, dangerous, & devastating. But Wyo's areas for the worst winter conditions are just simply not very inhabited! So they don't get reported. Talk to Amoco oil field employees in the southwestern part of the state - or up towards Daniel (can't think of the name of the area specifically) but they have to watch the temp very close because of their biz & my son did diesel mech calls out there from Kemmerer & there were times they worked at -50 to -70 weather with the winds a'howling on top of that in several feet of snow. But never reported because there are no "official weather watchers" in that area. Don't fool yourself - or rather let the media - it gets cold as a witch's nose in many parts of our great state. Cody is in a banana belt & we unfortunately do not get a LOT of snow (esp in the last 10 yrs of drought) here in town, but up in the mountians can get pretty deep & of course Y'stone gets BURIED. The WEEK we moved from Littleton, CO (southern 'burb of Denver) to Wheatland, WY - 160 miles - it took 5 days to drive thru the blizzard w/everything we owned in an 18' Budget Rent-a-Truck. This was the week of Thanksgiving 1979. It took us 2 days to get north of the Boulder turnpike (north Denver), spent the next night 35 miles further north in Ft. Collins, the next day ANOTHER 40 miles to Cheyenne. There were - and this is recorded history, new record back then) 102" drifts - over 4' of snow as I recall. I-25 & I-80 cross in Wyo & all were closed in all directions for several days. The NEXT day they opened I-80 east (we needed to go north) so we took it into Nebraska & took the hwy thru the "sandhills" north to Scottsbluff, Neb from Kimball - a single lane had been cleared for both directions of traffic to share. I was toasted by 9 AM on Black Velvet because I was POSITIVE we were going to die out there. But when we FINALLY on day #5 of a 160 mile trip (that turned into 240 miles) we finally made it to or destination and when we pulled up behind our house we were moving into we had to shovel about 50' of 4-1/2 to 5' of snow to move the crap in from the truck. So, yes. WYOMING GETS SNOW!!!!!!! I didn't want to move to Wyo in the winter, but the job was too good to pass up & to me Nov wasn't REALLY winter yet but surprise surprise!!!!!!!!

[WyattE]

Wow, that is quite a story! Nothing like that happens in Northern Indiana, even on a bad day during the winter.
I started looking at the weather lists on this site to help me decide which places to possibly move to and weed out the one's that would not be a good family move. So I was quite shocked seeing that Wyoming doesn't make the Top 101 lists in important categories that I'm looking at. But I guess Wyoming just gets overlooked which can be a good thing for those that live there because if this country found out if there wa a hot spot in Wyoming, you would see an influx of people migrating to the state. I for one would like to see Wyoming left untouched as much as possible because of it's history, it's beauty, and it's National Park. And for many other reasons.

[sunsprit]

My wife, who grew up in upstate WI ... where the weather conditions are so bad that they "shut down" and seasonally moved back to their other home in Janesville ... has repeatedly commented that the weather fronts coming through SE Wyoming are much more severe than she ever saw in WI.

We've had snowstorms come through so violently that you could not see our near barn from the house ... about 50' away. Our bigger barn, 300' away, was totally hidden. You could get lost trying to find your way back to the house if it weren't for other structures to help guide you ... and that's in the middle of the day. Even in mid April ...

We've had winter drifts build up in front of our two-story house so high that you could not get out the front door as the snow piled up higher than the eaves of the 1st level. We got in/out by going through a 2nd story window that was at the snow level.

I've had nights where I thought I was going to use my JD4020 tractor loader to clear a path out my driveway, thoughtfully plugged it in the night before a storm ... and came out the next morning to find my tractor totally buried in a drift that took weeks to clear away enough to even see the top of the tractor cab. And it's located in an equipment area that is sheltered by a barn and hillside on three sides ....

Due to the wind, it's not uncommon for a 3"-4" snowfall to build drifts on the county roads around here that are 4'-8' deep, and we generally get 4 drifts across our driveway that are 12'-30' wide and 4'-6' deep. Our stock fences frequently disappear for portions of a mile under drifts that are so windpacked the livestock can walk away on the drifts.

Power outages are nothing unusual for us. Some last only a few hours, some last for days. We are prepared with a wood-burning cookstove (Waterford, absolutely wonderful) to heat our little farmhouse and cook on, Aladdin kerosene lamps for light and heat (Colonial's and Corinthian's), flashlights, emergency stand-by battery back-up lighting in the barns .... and, if absolutely needed, a small stand-by generator to power the freezers/refrigerators/water well. We'll let the stock tanks and waterers freeze up in a prolonged outage, they seem to thaw out OK when the power comes back on.

I've seen minus 10-20 temps inside a fairly tight barn filled with sheep. Knowing that sheep throw out so much heat that they'll overheat in confined spaces, it had to have been much colder than that outside the barn.