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For many folk not from this area of the USA, it's been a common point of disbelief that Wyoming presents the cold/windy climate that it does and for so much of the year.
So, allow me to put this in perspective for a lot of you. Compare these conditions to the far more pleasant Fall conditions that you're dealing with ...
We're now in our "Fall" season. The high temps of our short Summer are now gone ... and we've had a week of windy conditions with dropping temps.
How windy, you ask? we've had days on end of 25-35 mph winds with frequent gusts of 55-65 mph. Some of the frequent known windy areas on the highways were getting 75 mph gusts.
These are the winds/gusts that are strong enough to blow semi's over, or at least off the road. "lightweight hi-profile vehicle" warnings and road closures are posted by WYDOT. These are not conditions to mess with ... folks towing lightweight trailers or driving a pick-up truck with a camper can easily get blown off the road or tipped over. Even when not at the extremes, it's not uncommon to see a lot of "near-misses" when a semi-trailer is swinging over the lane into yours ... best to give them a wide berth in passing.
These are the winds/gusts that make walking outside difficult. Wear glasses? they'll get blown off your face a few times each winter. Wear contacts? the wind-blown dust/dirt/particles/leaves will be an irritant. Like to keep a clean house? wait'll you see how much wind-blown dust/dirt accumulates on the surfaces inside your house. Parking your car or opening a car door can get your attention ... you'll want to park your car facing into the wind, or you may get a surprise when a wind gust takes the door out of your hand when you're opening the door, blowing it wide open. Same thing with entry doors and screen doors ... they can get ripped out of your hand and tear up hinges/doors.
Low overnight temps? We're now seeing hard frosts ... below freezing temps overnight. My local forecast is for 27F for tomorrow night. It'll be down into the mid-to-high teens overnight in a few days.
These are the conditions where you're running your residential heating system for comfort ... and that started in early October. In an average year, it will be late May before you'll not need the heating system for overnights ... and for most of November through April, you'll need it through the day, especially when we have cold snaps where the temps don't get above 0F for a day or two or three. That's a lot of degree-days of heating season ahead for us. I've already been firing up my big wood-fired cookstove for overnight heat in the house. Got my stock tank heaters running already to keep my livestock waterers from freezing up overnight, too.
I was down in the Fort Collins CO area two days ago. They're just now getting around to their last hay cutting, the fields are quite green. How's that compare to where you are? Is Fall just setting in where leaves are turning and crops are being harvested? Is it still nice motorcycle riding weather for you? Are your normal outdoor activities still comfortable in shorts and tee-shirts?
Jogging or bicycling still a fun outdoor activity for you, and you don't have to bundle up to be outdoors and moving?
PS: just for grins, I looked at New England weather forecasts ... and even Maine is only dropping to overnight temps that are a few degrees colder than our daytime highs now. "Windy" Chicago? their strongest forecast gusts are no stronger than our normal winds ... and our gusts are forecast to be double that velocity. Other areas around the Eastern seaboard, or inland states like TN and KT and OH ... have conditions that are mild compared to what we're dealing with already in Wyoming.
I know about Wyoming weather, and to a certain point, so does my wife. We've visited "windy" Cheyenne in the Fall. I've been in Cheyenne when there was 6 inches of snow at the motel I stayed at. Went to Yellowstone N.P. and it poured down rain just outside of Cody, by the reservoir. Got hit by two hail storms, at a Holiday Inn Express, in Douglas, on our way back home to Parker, Colorado. Been in Laramie, for a rodeo. And, way before getting married, was in Sheridan for a week or so.
But, I still don't think the weather in Wyoming is nearly as bad as it is/can be in Minnesota or Wisconsin.
When we were going to Target, in Loveland, yesterday, I noticed freshly cut alfalfa bales. When I owned a rope horse, I fed 1st cutting alfalfa.
Funny, a lot of folks here in Loveland, have the impression that farming is gone, but I see somewhat different. I still see some cattle grazing, tractors and other farm equipment.
Another funny thing, there are many people that live in the South and Eastern states that don't even know where the Rocky Mountain states are and have no interest in knowing anything about them.
For many folk not from this area of the USA, it's been a common point of disbelief that Wyoming presents the cold/windy climate that it does and for so much of the year.
So, allow me to put this in perspective for a lot of you. Compare these conditions to the far more pleasant Fall conditions that you're dealing with ...
We're now in our "Fall" season. The high temps of our short Summer are now gone ... and we've had a week of windy conditions with dropping temps.
How windy, you ask? we've had days on end of 25-35 mph winds with frequent gusts of 55-65 mph. Some of the frequent known windy areas on the highways were getting 75 mph gusts.
These are the winds/gusts that are strong enough to blow semi's over, or at least off the road. "lightweight hi-profile vehicle" warnings and road closures are posted by WYDOT. These are not conditions to mess with ... folks towing lightweight trailers or driving a pick-up truck with a camper can easily get blown off the road or tipped over. Even when not at the extremes, it's not uncommon to see a lot of "near-misses" when a semi-trailer is swinging over the lane into yours ... best to give them a wide berth in passing.
These are the winds/gusts that make walking outside difficult. Wear glasses? they'll get blown off your face a few times each winter. Wear contacts? the wind-blown dust/dirt/particles/leaves will be an irritant. Like to keep a clean house? wait'll you see how much wind-blown dust/dirt accumulates on the surfaces inside your house. Parking your car or opening a car door can get your attention ... you'll want to park your car facing into the wind, or you may get a surprise when a wind gust takes the door out of your hand when you're opening the door, blowing it wide open. Same thing with entry doors and screen doors ... they can get ripped out of your hand and tear up hinges/doors.
Low overnight temps? We're now seeing hard frosts ... below freezing temps overnight. My local forecast is for 27F for tomorrow night. It'll be down into the mid-to-high teens overnight in a few days.
These are the conditions where you're running your residential heating system for comfort ... and that started in early October. In an average year, it will be late May before you'll not need the heating system for overnights ... and for most of November through April, you'll need it through the day, especially when we have cold snaps where the temps don't get above 0F for a day or two or three. That's a lot of degree-days of heating season ahead for us. I've already been firing up my big wood-fired cookstove for overnight heat in the house. Got my stock tank heaters running already to keep my livestock waterers from freezing up overnight, too.
I was down in the Fort Collins CO area two days ago. They're just now getting around to their last hay cutting, the fields are quite green. How's that compare to where you are? Is Fall just setting in where leaves are turning and crops are being harvested? Is it still nice motorcycle riding weather for you? Are your normal outdoor activities still comfortable in shorts and tee-shirts?
Jogging or bicycling still a fun outdoor activity for you, and you don't have to bundle up to be outdoors and moving?
PS: just for grins, I looked at New England weather forecasts ... and even Maine is only dropping to overnight temps that are a few degrees colder than our daytime highs now. "Windy" Chicago? their strongest forecast gusts are no stronger than our normal winds ... and our gusts are forecast to be double that velocity. Other areas around the Eastern seaboard, or inland states like TN and KT and OH ... have conditions that are mild compared to what we're dealing with already in Wyoming.
For many folk not from this area of the USA, it's been a common point of disbelief that Wyoming presents the cold/windy climate that it does and for so much of the year.
So, allow me to put this in perspective for a lot of you. Compare these conditions to the far more pleasant Fall conditions that you're dealing with ...
We're now in our "Fall" season. The high temps of our short Summer are now gone ... and we've had a week of windy conditions with dropping temps.
How windy, you ask? we've had days on end of 25-35 mph winds with frequent gusts of 55-65 mph. Some of the frequent known windy areas on the highways were getting 75 mph gusts.
These are the winds/gusts that are strong enough to blow semi's over, or at least off the road. "lightweight hi-profile vehicle" warnings and road closures are posted by WYDOT. These are not conditions to mess with ... folks towing lightweight trailers or driving a pick-up truck with a camper can easily get blown off the road or tipped over. Even when not at the extremes, it's not uncommon to see a lot of "near-misses" when a semi-trailer is swinging over the lane into yours ... best to give them a wide berth in passing.
These are the winds/gusts that make walking outside difficult. Wear glasses? they'll get blown off your face a few times each winter. Wear contacts? the wind-blown dust/dirt/particles/leaves will be an irritant. Like to keep a clean house? wait'll you see how much wind-blown dust/dirt accumulates on the surfaces inside your house. Parking your car or opening a car door can get your attention ... you'll want to park your car facing into the wind, or you may get a surprise when a wind gust takes the door out of your hand when you're opening the door, blowing it wide open. Same thing with entry doors and screen doors ... they can get ripped out of your hand and tear up hinges/doors.
Low overnight temps? We're now seeing hard frosts ... below freezing temps overnight. My local forecast is for 27F for tomorrow night. It'll be down into the mid-to-high teens overnight in a few days.
These are the conditions where you're running your residential heating system for comfort ... and that started in early October. In an average year, it will be late May before you'll not need the heating system for overnights ... and for most of November through April, you'll need it through the day, especially when we have cold snaps where the temps don't get above 0F for a day or two or three. That's a lot of degree-days of heating season ahead for us. I've already been firing up my big wood-fired cookstove for overnight heat in the house. Got my stock tank heaters running already to keep my livestock waterers from freezing up overnight, too.
I was down in the Fort Collins CO area two days ago. They're just now getting around to their last hay cutting, the fields are quite green. How's that compare to where you are? Is Fall just setting in where leaves are turning and crops are being harvested? Is it still nice motorcycle riding weather for you? Are your normal outdoor activities still comfortable in shorts and tee-shirts?
Jogging or bicycling still a fun outdoor activity for you, and you don't have to bundle up to be outdoors and moving?
PS: just for grins, I looked at New England weather forecasts ... and even Maine is only dropping to overnight temps that are a few degrees colder than our daytime highs now. "Windy" Chicago? their strongest forecast gusts are no stronger than our normal winds ... and our gusts are forecast to be double that velocity. Other areas around the Eastern seaboard, or inland states like TN and KT and OH ... have conditions that are mild compared to what we're dealing with already in Wyoming.
Nice reminder. I for one do not miss driving on interstate 80 in the winter. That is an experience of its own.
This will be our fifth winter living in Wyoming. Our hardest winter was the one we moved here in the winter of 2016/2017. Even the locals said it was a doozy. It was the first time they cancelled school for the kids in something like 30 years, not due to snow, but rather ice all over the roads. There was so much snow that year, we were plowing every morning for weeks, just to get out of the driveway to go to work.
I'm interested to see what this winter will be like. The long winters did take some getting used to, but I still love it. My daughter teases every year when it snows on/around Easter that it's not Easter it's Chr-easter. Part Christmas, part Easter.
We don't have much to compare the Wyoming winters to, we've only lived in California and now Western Wyoming. Obviously the winters between the two places are not even remotely similar. The wind here is something else entirely, we don't even get that much in this part of the state, and it still feels like a crazy lot of wind on some days. You have to really stake down your trees, your trampoline, and basically nail down anything you don't want flying off in a gust. We're still learning. We now have a tree named Stumpy because it was not staked down well enough and part of it snapped in half.
Wouldn't trade this wild state for another one though, in any season.
For many folk not from this area of the USA, it's been a common point of disbelief that Wyoming presents the cold/windy climate that it does and for so much of the year.
So, allow me to put this in perspective for a lot of you. Compare these conditions to the far more pleasant Fall conditions that you're dealing with ...
We're now in our "Fall" season. The high temps of our short Summer are now gone ... and we've had a week of windy conditions with dropping temps.
How windy, you ask? we've had days on end of 25-35 mph winds with frequent gusts of 55-65 mph. Some of the frequent known windy areas on the highways were getting 75 mph gusts.
These are the winds/gusts that are strong enough to blow semi's over, or at least off the road. "lightweight hi-profile vehicle" warnings and road closures are posted by WYDOT. These are not conditions to mess with ... folks towing lightweight trailers or driving a pick-up truck with a camper can easily get blown off the road or tipped over. Even when not at the extremes, it's not uncommon to see a lot of "near-misses" when a semi-trailer is swinging over the lane into yours ... best to give them a wide berth in passing.
These are the winds/gusts that make walking outside difficult. Wear glasses? they'll get blown off your face a few times each winter. Wear contacts? the wind-blown dust/dirt/particles/leaves will be an irritant. Like to keep a clean house? wait'll you see how much wind-blown dust/dirt accumulates on the surfaces inside your house. Parking your car or opening a car door can get your attention ... you'll want to park your car facing into the wind, or you may get a surprise when a wind gust takes the door out of your hand when you're opening the door, blowing it wide open. Same thing with entry doors and screen doors ... they can get ripped out of your hand and tear up hinges/doors.
Low overnight temps? We're now seeing hard frosts ... below freezing temps overnight. My local forecast is for 27F for tomorrow night. It'll be down into the mid-to-high teens overnight in a few days.
These are the conditions where you're running your residential heating system for comfort ... and that started in early October. In an average year, it will be late May before you'll not need the heating system for overnights ... and for most of November through April, you'll need it through the day, especially when we have cold snaps where the temps don't get above 0F for a day or two or three. That's a lot of degree-days of heating season ahead for us. I've already been firing up my big wood-fired cookstove for overnight heat in the house. Got my stock tank heaters running already to keep my livestock waterers from freezing up overnight, too.
I was down in the Fort Collins CO area two days ago. They're just now getting around to their last hay cutting, the fields are quite green. How's that compare to where you are? Is Fall just setting in where leaves are turning and crops are being harvested? Is it still nice motorcycle riding weather for you? Are your normal outdoor activities still comfortable in shorts and tee-shirts?
Jogging or bicycling still a fun outdoor activity for you, and you don't have to bundle up to be outdoors and moving?
PS: just for grins, I looked at New England weather forecasts ... and even Maine is only dropping to overnight temps that are a few degrees colder than our daytime highs now. "Windy" Chicago? their strongest forecast gusts are no stronger than our normal winds ... and our gusts are forecast to be double that velocity. Other areas around the Eastern seaboard, or inland states like TN and KT and OH ... have conditions that are mild compared to what we're dealing with already in Wyoming.
Or, better known as...from one that loves Wyoming...skinny dippin weather!
Outside of low visibility due to freezing drizzle, WYDOT reports:
81 mph gusts at Arlington on I-80
And 67 mph gusts at Bordeaux interchange on I-25.
These are major transit points for both of these highways ... one slightly West from Laramie, and the other slightly North from Cheyenne. There are effectively no alternate E-W or N-S routes through the area that you can use to bypass these sections of highway.
Put these winds in perspective compared to the concerns when the winds get near these strengths in your area of the USA.
PS: these strong wind gusts aren’t limited to a small portion of these highways. The road conditions extend for miles, and adjacent rural areas and residents have to deal with these conditions. We’ve friends in a residential area West of Cheyenne (past the AFB base) up Happy Jack Road that are seeing 75 mph gusts at their house/barns.
The entire temperature range I see in New Baltimore over a year would be covered in 1 week for Wyoming. It’s unusual for me to see more than 20 F variation between day and night. In summer, it’s always between 72-85 F. In winter, it’s always between 18-35 F. Spring and fall can see some rapid variations, but most days are between 50-65 F. It rarely goes below 5 or above 90. Might happen 1 or 2 days every year.
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