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And once again, in what has become a pattern, Powell got more snow than most surrounding areas.
“The particular pattern we’re in, it seems we’ve just had a couple of events where it’s actually concentrated that snowfall in the northern …
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Yet another snowstorm dumped snow over Powell Monday evening through Wednesday morning in what could be the first part of a double-whammy.
And once again, in what has become a pattern, Powell got more snow than most surrounding areas.
“The particular pattern we’re in, it seems we’ve just had a couple of events where it’s actually concentrated that snowfall in the northern Big Horn Basin,” said meteorologist Brett McDonald of the National Weather Service Office in Riverton.
McDonald said most of Wyoming’s moisture comes from a westerly flow pattern that tends to put “a lot of snow” up in the mountains.
“The pattern we’ve seen just recently, though, is still westerly, but when you get that northerly wind, it brings cold air from Montana and provides the means for generating the snowfall in the Basin as well,” McDonald said. “It’s almost like it sets up a boundary, and it’s where those boundaries set themselves up that determines where you get the good snowfall in the lower elevations.”
It is unusual, he said, since the Big Horn Basin often is drier than surrounding areas.
“Powell is one of the driest locations in western and northern Wyoming,” he added.
Still, McDonald said he wouldn’t necessarily call the current pattern a fluke.
“It’s just kind of the way it is,” he said. “It’s kind of abnormal, but I’m sure if you looked back at past years, we’d find some years where it did the same thing.”
As of Wednesday morning, reports from the Powell area measured 4 inches of snow northeast and south of town, and 2.5 inches west of Powell.
“It looks like you could potentially get another 2-3 inches (Thursday),” he said.
Lovell had received 2-3 inches of snow as of Wednesday morning, while reports from Cody indicated 1-3 inches.
However, areas farther west of Cody, particularly the North and South forks of the Shoshone, got a lot more snow.
“South Fork has been reporting 9-10 inches, and in Wapiti, they say 12-14 inches,” McDonald said.
The same phenomenon occurred east of the Big Horn Mountains, where Sheridan, Story and Dayton all reported between 8 and 10 inches of snow Wednesday morning, he said.
Tribune photo by Toby Bonner
