If it has felt like an especially warm winter, you’re not imagining things. This year has been the third warmest winter on record in Wyoming. That’s according to the National Weather Service in Riverton. Meteorologist Chris Jones says all these balmy temperatures have been caused by a persistent ridge of high pressure along the Pacific Coast. He says temperatures have been as much as six degrees higher than normal, especially on the Western side of the state. And there are no signs that they will return to average in the next month.
“It does look like other than the quick blow-by’s that we may get again toward the end of next week, which change temperatures briefly and we can get a shot of snow or something like that. It’s tough at this point for that ridge to go away because it basically feeds on itself.”
Jones says healthy doses of snowfall helped keep temperatures relatively cooler in Hot Springs and Washakie counties—only 2 degrees higher than normal. Precipitation there is as much as 200 percent of normal for the season.
