A week into summer, at least as far as the calendar is concerned, most of the state is still experiencing wet, cool weather. While many would naturally think of precipitation as a positive in the region, it is leading to several problems — from flooding to agricultural challenges.

“We have to consider that we’re still in spring,” said Trevor LaVoie, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Riverton. “I think if we just kind of shift our weather calendars a month, everything kind of makes sense,” he said in a Tuesday interview.

It has been since 2016 that the Big Horn Basin has experienced such a wet spring, and that year the moisture came during April and May.

“If you kind of look at it from how long winter lasted — through March and into early April — then it kind of shifted our spring,” he said.

He explained there’s a trough sitting off over the Pacific Northwest that keeps bringing moisture to the Big Horn Basin. In other areas of the state, moisture from the Gulf of Mexico has been bringing precipitation. As a result, there have been daily threats of rain across the state.

Worland has received three times the average precipitation since just before the Memorial Day weekend, while Buffalo has received about four times the average precipitation in the same time period. In Powell, there has been minor flooding in isolated neighborhoods with some reports of flooded basements and other issues, including as recent as late last week.

“We’ve had dew points in the 40s and 50s; that’s more like springtime than summer. And because of those dew points, we’re seeing heavy rain with some thunderstorms,” he said.

Agricultural concerns

The rain, combined with snowmelt, has caused flooding and has had a major impact on area agriculture, making all kinds of aspects challenging and difficult within operations, said Jeremiah Vardiman, a University of Wyoming agricultural extension educator stationed in Powell.

“We’re seeing many impacts to crops; delayed growth, difficult harvests and difficulty of field operations — specifically cultivation, weed management and pesticide applications. We’re having really big impacts to the area,” he said.

At this point, he said, it’s a little early to tell how detrimental the wet, cool weather will be. Yet, he stressed that crops are definitely being held back and that hay, edible beans and corn are being hit the hardest.

Hay has been ready for harvest for the most of June, but farmers are having a hard time harvesting due to wet fields. The crops of edible beans that germinated are having a hard time growing without heat and sunshine. Those that haven’t germinated are rotting in the fields, he said. Corn is well behind schedule and, depending on the rest of the season, will produce much lower harvests due to the late start for summer.

There are also worries of increased infestations of damaging insects and problems with weed control — largely due to farmers not being able to get out in the fields to spray.

Vardiman has recently been named the assistant pesticide safety program coordinator and worries if farmers are not able to get in the field and take care pest and weed control in a timely manner, it can become a much larger problem.

He said there is still time for crops to rebound, but he is concerned about how winter moves in.

“If the back end shuts the door early on us — if we get an early winter — that would be very tough,” he said.

There are also concerns that high winds and hail, which is typical in spring storms no matter when they come on the calendar, could damage delicate crops and open them up for diseases.

“We can lose crops to hail. But the other aspect — especially with dry beans — is if we have even a minor hailstorm, it opens up the plants with injury to disease, specifically Halo blight,” he said. “If it stays like this, it might be a very difficult year to even get a crop — or to get crops to mature and get quality commodities coming out.”

Flooding in the region

The storms last week did damage to infrastructure as well, stranding visitors at local parks and those using some area roads. The Beartooth Pass was even closed most of Saturday (from about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.) due to heavy snow.

Due to flash flooding last weekend, Wyo. Highway 37 past Horseshoe Bend in the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area was temporarily closed, according to Christy Fleming, who leads the Interpretation and Education Division at the park.

A significant storm came through the area causing Crooked Creek to flash flood out of its banks and over the park road leaving visitors and emergency personnel stuck on the north side of the creek. Once the water receded, emergency personnel began to remove debris and evacuate visitors north of the flood area including Barry’s Landing Campground. No one was injured.

The road was significantly impacted and was not safe for travel. There were multiple large rocks, brush, trees and mud across the roadway. It is currently open, but future precipitation could cause more flooding.

“As it continues to rain, visitors may find large rocks, mud and gravel on the road,” Fleming said.

Horseshoe Bend marina and campground are open and boat tours continue to run at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. However, there are no utilities at the campground and it may be a week or two before power can be restored.

The roads to the Mason-Lovell Ranch and John Blue Road are wet and travel is not recommended. The North Kane boat ramp was flooded and extensive rutting occurred. Several roads in the Yellowtail Habitat were affected as well. Habitat roads off County Road 8 1/2 will remain closed until standing water and debris is removed from the roadways. Park and Game and Fish staff will be working on these areas as they can over the next several weeks.

After the event Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon responded to the severe weather, saying state agencies are assisting local teams as needed and are ready to provide assistance as requested.

“We are actively monitoring the situation and the responses of local teams, and stand ready to provide support as requested. We are deeply appreciative of our first responders, who are our eyes and ears on the ground. We are grateful for their diligence and professionalism,” he said Saturday.

He cautioned that the event should serve as a reminder for how serious extreme weather can be.

“I ask everyone to please pay attention to weather reports in their areas and be ready to take precautions,” he said.

The silver lining

One of the few silver linings to the weather is the delay in temperatures in or above 90-degrees Fahrenheit, LaVoie said. “You have to take the good with the bad. The silver lining may be that we’re not going to get any kind of heat waves soon as a result of [the weather patterns].”

LaVoie said we can expect more of the same wet weather through Friday, a dry weekend and then more possible storms by Tuesday next week.