Snow hangs on the branches of pine trees at the base of Casper Mountain Wednesday.
The cold snap that enveloped Wyoming for much of last week broke several records, the National Weather Service reported.
On Friday, Casper’s high was minus 5 degrees. That previous coldest high for Feb. 12 was 0 degrees, set in 1949, the weather service reported. On Saturday, the city broke a similar record for coldest high temperature with minus 4 degrees, breaking the mark of 11 degrees set in 1949.
Temperatures in Buffalo, meanwhile, were even colder. According to the National Weather Service, they bottomed out at minus 20 degrees on Saturday. That set the all-time low, breaking a mark of minus 1 degree set in 2007.
Other record lows recorded Saturday, according to the weather service, included:
- negative 18 degrees in Greybull;
- negative 15 degrees in Riverton; and
- negative 13 degrees in Cody.
We've done some number crunching for the recent cold weather and few new records were set for daily cold high temperatures and daily low temperatures. Check the chart below to see the new records. #wywx pic.twitter.com/ZKBHL1AmPm
— NWS Riverton (@NWSRiverton) February 14, 2021
- Typically, temperatures in central Wyoming top out in the mid 30s this time of year. Normal lows are in the teens.
More typical temperatures began to return to the area on Monday. Casper’s high was forecast to climb to 25 degrees.
However, wind chill warnings were still in effect Monday morning on the state’s eastern side.
The coldest, snowiest and windiest towns in Wyoming
Coldest
The coldest town in Wyoming is Bondurant, which is located in Hoback Canyon between Jackson and Pinedale. The average temperature in Bondurant for the months of December, January and February is 10.7 degrees. That’s only slightly warmer than in International Falls, Minn., where the average temperature is 7.4 degrees during the same months.
Runners up
Daniel, which is located west of Pinedale, is the second coldest town in the state with an average temperature of 11.8 degrees from December to January.
Big Piney has the third coldest winters in Wyoming with an average temperature of 12.5 from December to January. The town, which is located in Sublette County, was called the Icebox of the Nation starting in 1930 because it had the coldest year-round average temperature in the nation. Today, that slogan is reserved for International Falls, Minn., which won the legal trademark for Icebox of the Nation over Fraser, Colo., in 2008.
Snowiest
The town of Moose, which is located north of Jackson, gets more snow than any other town in Wyoming with an average 172.2 inches per year. Bedford, in the Star Valley, comes is the second snowiest town with 155.9 inches of snow per year, and Moran comes in third with 145 inches of snow.
Windiest
For wind speeds, Jones looked at records for 19 Wyoming towns dating from 1996 to 2006. Wind speeds are generally recorded at airports, he said. Rawlins is the windiest town in Wyoming, with the wind averaging 12.9 mph. Laramie and Cheyenne tied for the second windiest town in the state with an average wind speed of 12.4 mph. Casper comes in third with an average wind speed of 12 mph.
Least windy
If you want to escape the wind, head to Worland. It’s the least windy town in Wyoming.
“It sits in the basin and is relatively sheltered,” Jones said.
Its location in the basin also makes it one of the colder towns in the state, he added.
