Wyoming
Storm To Bring Up To 9 Inches Of Snow, 50 MPH Winds Across Parts Of Wyoming
It’s getting colder around the Cowboy State, with some serious snow expected in parts of Wyoming this week.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a Winter Storm Warning for the Northern Black Hills of Wyoming and South Dakota through 5 a.m. Wednesday. And it’ll be a doozy for the first significant winter storm of the season for the region.
Although the snow has been flying in the higher elevations of Wyoming, up to 9 inches of snow is expected across the Black Hills, with wind gusts as high as 50 mph. Shane Eagan, a meteorologist with the NWS Office in Rapid City, South Dakota, said the impact will be determined by elevation.
“It’s highly elevation-dependent,” he said. “Sundance will probably get 3-6 six inches by Wednesday, and there could be a foot or more as you go up.”
Meanwhile, there might be a few flurries across the rest of Wyoming, but most spots will be spared snow for now. Crook and Weston Counties will bear the brunt of the blizzard-like conditions.
“It’s all driven by the terrain,” Eagan said. “The snowfall potential increases as the cold air hits the upslope, while everywhere else won’t get much, if any.”
Catching The Edge
Northeast Wyoming is catching the edge of another cold surge that will bypass most of the state.
Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day said waves of winter weather could make travel difficult in Crook and Weston Counties this week.
“It’s going to be persistent snow,” he said. “There may be heavy accumulations over the next two and half days, but it’ll come down in sheets and curtains rather than a steady curtain.”
Beyond the Black Hills, Sheridan and Gillette might see a sprinkling of snow, but the system won’t extend into the lower elevation areas of northeast Wyoming. That could cause some travel impacts on the Interstate 90corridor, especially since the cold weather will persist into the weekend.
“In general, we’re not warming up this week,” Eagan said. “The trend is warmer into the weekend, but it is hard to say how quickly the snow will melt once it falls. It should be here for at least a few days, if not longer.”
The impacts of this week’s winter storm will vary depending on one’s proximity to the Black Hills. Winds will get stronger, and the snow will become deeper along the highest sections of I-90 between Wyoming and South Dakota.
“This is a fairly common pattern in the winter for that region of the state to get snow when northwest winds push into the Black Hills,” Day said. “The closer you get to the Black Hills, the more snow you’ll get.”
Cold And Blustery
While Crook and Easton Counties get covered, the rest of Wyoming will feel cold and blustery. But Day described it as “nothing to write home about.”
“It’ll be a lot colder across the state on Tuesday, with brisk winds and snow flurries on the plains,” he said. “Temperatures will moderate a little bit on Wednesday as the colder air moves off to the east later this week.”
Nevertheless, Day anticipates that next week will be full of “active weather.” Cold fronts from the Pacific Ocean will descend into Wyoming, which means fluctuating temperatures and mountain snow across most of the state.
“We have to take these patterns on a day-by-day basis,” he said. “You can’t look too far ahead, but it’s going to be a busier pattern than what we’ve seen recently. Last week, nothing was going on. It was warmer here than in Florida. These incoming frontal systems will keep things active.”
Season’s Greetings
Meteorological winter started Dec. 1, 20 days before the calendar marks the start of winter. Wyoming has missed the worst of this season’s winter weather, but there are changes ahead.
Day said most of the winter weather this season has skewed eastward, bringing subzero temperatures and heavy snow to the Great Lakes and Midwest. He called these patterns “cold shots.”
“I think the really cold air will stay to our east this December,” he said. “That’s caught some people in the eastern half of the country off-guard, as the first week of the month was much colder than they anticipated.”
Wyoming might be missing these cold shots, but this is just the beginning of the winter season. Day believes there’s a change on the horizon, especially as 2024 ends.
“The real cold looks like it will get here in January and February for this part of the country,” he said. “Through the winter, these patterns shift around and move westward.”
The week between Christmas Day and New Year’s could be the first statewide taste of the colder, snowier winter ahead. Day thinks that’s when winter will kick in with more ferocity across the Cowboy State.
“That’s when we’ll start to see winter,” he said. “There’s already been a lot of winter this year, but it’s been to our east. We’re just getting this pattern started.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
CASPER, Wyo. — High school athletics in Wyoming could see some drastic changes in the coming years following legislative changes to the state’s education budget, the Wyoming High School Activities Association recently announced in a statement.
According to the WHSAA, Wyoming school districts are facing a projected $3.9 million shortfall in activities funding, forcing officials to consider significant cuts to high school sports and extracurricular programs.
The WHSAA shared details regarding a new “silo” funding model implemented by the Legislature, stating that the recalibrated block grant model reduced funding for student activities and extra-duty responsibilities from $46.3 million to $42.4 million, an approximately 8.4% decrease statewide.
WHSAA Commissioner Trevor Wilson said the restructuring also restricts district access to an additional $76.2 million in previously flexible funding.
“A significant portion of the [April 28 WHSAA Board of Directors] meeting was dedicated to discussing the projected funding shortfall,” Wilson wrote.
The WHSAA is weighing several strategies to address rising costs with fewer resources. Proposed changes include eliminating regional tournaments and reducing the number of teams qualifying for state events from eight to four; limiting wrestling to two classes and restricting track and field state participants to the top 16 marks; making cuts to soccer, indoor track and field, Nordic and Alpine skiing, swimming and diving, spring golf and tennis; and reducing in-person speech and debate events by half and centrally locating All-State Music events to minimize travel. The board also recommended increasing gate admission or implementing student participation fees to offset costs.
While the WHSAA release states that no plans have been finalized and the various changes are currently just possibilities, Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees member Mary Schmidt criticized the WHSAA’s handling of the news at Monday’s board meeting.
“I take some issues with this, [including] the sheer fact that we as Board of Trustees members have not talked about that at all,” Schmidt said. “It is not our intent and it has not been brought to us to cut our athletics or activities budget for the upcoming school year. … I take issue with them picking sports and getting the community upset and ginning them up to be upset that this is all going to be cut when that hasn’t been discussed.”
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Angela Hensley clarified that Natrona County School District 1’s athletics and activities budget saw a reduction of roughly $550,000 in the coming year’s budget, but said the local school district does not plan to cut any sports.
“Thank you, Trustee Schmidt, for saying this, because I think people are wondering — we are not planning to cut athletics and activities for next year,” Hensley said. “We do have to take a look at our entire budget as we have talked about, as we learn more about these new rules that come in.”
Related
Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
Cheyenne City Council has introduced a temporary moratorium, or pause, on new data center construction.
“The end goal is to actually have regulations in place, to have really heavy public involvement with this with data centers,” said Councilman Mark Moody.
The proposed ordinance is not a permanent ban on data centers and would not affect data centers currently under construction.
Councilman Moody says this is a bipartisan issue.
“I just want to make this clear, I’m not against data centers. We do need them from a national security perspective,” he said.
He said there needs to be more public input and regulations regarding data centers in Cheyenne.
The ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts such as electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater impacts, agricultural impacts, and land value.
Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County, reported in November 2025 that there are 12 operational data centers in Wyoming, five under construction and plans for 43 data centers announced across the state.
“There needs to be more public input with this, and also to see how many we can sustain here in this community, cause there are talks of 43, and then another day 70. How many can we sustain here?” said Councilman Moody.
The proposed moratorium will now go to the Public Services Committee on Monday, May 18 at noon in the Municipal Building.
Sheridan will play in the North Regional Tournament at Gillette, while the South Regional Tournament will be played at Rock Springs.
North Regional Tournament at Gillette:
Checking record vs. highest team in the quadrant not involved in the tie, Thunder Basin gets the #1 Northeast seed over Campbell County, because the Lady Bolts went 3-1 vs. Sheridan, whereas the Lady Camels went 2-2.
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 NE) Thunder Basin vs. (#4 NW) Jackson – 11am
(#2 NW) Natrona County vs. (#3 NE) Sheridan – 11am
(#2 NE) Campbell County vs. (#3 NW) Kelly Walsh – 1pm
(#1 NW) Cody vs. (#4 NE) Worland – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Thunder Basin/Jackson winner vs. Natrona County/Sheridan winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh winner vs. Cody/Worland winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Thunder Basin/Jackson loser vs. Natrona County/Sheridan loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh loser vs. Cody/Worland loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
South Regional Tournament at Rock Springs:
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 SW) Laramie vs. (#4 SE) Torrington – 11am
(#2 SE) Cheyenne East vs. (#3 SW) Green River – 11am
(#2 SW) Rock Springs vs. (#3 SE) Wheatland – 1pm
(#1 SE) Cheyenne Central vs. (#4 SW) Cheyenne South – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Laramie/Torrington winner vs. Cheyenne East/Green River winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Rock Springs/Wheatland winner vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Laramie/Torrington loser vs. Cheyenne East/Green River loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Rock Springs/Wheatland loser vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
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