More cold, more snow

Posted 2/25/14

In Arizona and Florida, Major League Baseball teams are preparing to play the opening games of the spring training season. Stores are stocking Easter items, complete with the bright colors of the season.

Meanwhile, it snowed in Powell again …

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More cold, more snow

Posted

Winter refuses to loosen icy grip on area as March approaches  

Saturday is March 1, the first day of what is termed meteorological spring, which divides the seasons into four three-month blocks.

In Arizona and Florida, Major League Baseball teams are preparing to play the opening games of the spring training season. Stores are stocking Easter items, complete with the bright colors of the season.

Meanwhile, it snowed in Powell again Monday, capping a run of snowy, colder than normal days.

The long winter of 2013-14 continues to drag on. More snow is expected today (Tuesday) and again on Thursday and Friday.

Temperatures may drop to 3 below tonight, with a windchill of 15 below zero, according to the National Weather Service. While the forecast calls for temperatures to top 30 on Wednesday and Thursday, more bitterly cold weather will come into the area this weekend, with below-zero weather predicted for Saturday night.

Chris Jones, a NWS warning coordination meteorologist, said March will “come in like a lion.”

Jones said snow may fall for several days at the start of the month and temps will remain far lower than normal. If there are no clouds, the lows could be in the single digits or even below zero for the next week or longer.

“The start of March looks unfortunately like it could be chilly across the entire northern tier of states again,” he said. “We may see lows 30 to 35 degrees below normal conditions.”

Jones said 3 to 5 inches of snow fell in the Powell area over the weekend, with 6 to 8 inches reported in the foothills near Cody.

The wintery conditions led to several minor accidents in the Powell and Cody area in the past few days. In several crashes, vehicles were unable to stop on the slick roads and slid through intersections.

Access from South Fair Street onto Coulter Avenue (near Subway) was closed Saturday and not reopened until Monday morning. Powell Police Chief Roy Eckerdt said the closure came after an officer investigating a crash at the intersection watched several northbound vehicles slide into Coulter Avenue.

“Without the ability to call out a sander, that’s all we can do,” Eckerdt said, adding that, “Even with sand, that one is bad and it has been for years.”

He said the Fair Street approach is scheduled for reconstruction.

The city does snow removal and sanding only during the work week and during normal business hours, according to Public Works Director Gary Butts. Crews may start early on a work day if they feel it will help, he said.

Some events also have been impacted by the cold, snowy conditions and the slippery roads.

The Community Health Center presentation scheduled for Monday night was called off because of the weather. It now is scheduled for March 26.

The Shoshone National Forest postponed public meetings on a new forest plan in Cody, Dubois, Lander and Thermopolis this week “due to winter storms in the area and adverse driving conditions.” No new dates have been announced.

The good news is, days are getting longer with more sun and, eventually, warmer conditions. The weather will become more spring-like at some point.

“I would say by June,” Jones said with a chuckle. He was joking — we think.

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