Winter in Wyoming isn’t always the snowscape you see in other parts of the world. I can’t remember the last time we actually had a white Christmas. But even when it’s not dumping piles of the white stuff on us down in the cities and towns, it’s usually blanketing the high country with mounds of snow.
That snow is needed. As it melts in the late spring or early summer, it refills our reservoirs and the aquifers, and it feeds the plants that keep the cycle going for countless species. When we don’t get the snow in the high country, we know we’re in for a dry, hot summer.
We haven’t been getting nearly enough snow up there in the mountains. But don’t panic yet. We typically get more snow in the spring than we do in the winter. All the seasons seem to be delayed somewhat here in the Cowboy State. That old missive about April showers bringing May flowers – well, in Wyoming, it’s May showers that bring June flowers. It kinda’ ruins the punchline of that old joke, though.
So there’s still hope for us yet. However, in order to get the snowpack we desperately need, we’re going to need to get walloped by a snowstorm of Biblical proportions. I’d be content with a series of storms like the last one we just got that made the roads gnarly for a few days, but didn’t require airlifts of animal feed for the surrounding ranches. If we could get a storm like that about twice a week between now and the end of March, I think we’d be in good shape. We’d be cranky, for sure, due to the cabin fever it would induce, but all those critters out there in the woods could sure do with the vegetation that would be helped by that snowfall.
Here’s wishing you a stormy – but not too stormy – March.
