Forget Your Forecast Wyoming, It’s Now A Crap Shoot

Every weekday morning on Wake Up Wyoming I have a live, on air, chat with regional weatherman Don Day, of Day Weather.

On Monday, 02/27/23, I asked him about the long-term forecast.

Are we coming out of this winter mess?

Are things easing as we get closer to spring?

He did not tell me what we wanted to hear.

"Throw away your 10-day forecast," he said. "There is a lot going on in the atmosphere and it's hard to predict what's coming next."

Don was not too confident of our 3-day forecast either.

Most of us have heard the saying, if you don't like the weather in Wyoming, wait 5 minuets.

Here is Don Day's latest video on what's going on up in the atmosphere. 

Let's take a deep dive into what is going on here.

Everything we are experiencing is natural. Seasons like this happen now and then.

As we move toward spring, and the days get longer, the weather never gets a chance to settle down.

We have competing seasons here.

Spring and winter are going to be battling it out for a while.

So you might step outside and think, 'Oh this is nice. The sun is shining, there's isn't any wind.' But make sure to take your coat with you. Because what you are experiencing isn't going to last long.

Still, it has to settle down at some point -- right?

Sure, but when it is not known.

The good news is that this drought that the western states have been experiencing is ending.

Those natural cycles of La Nina and El Nino are trading places.

El Niño and La Niña used to describe these complex weather patterns caused, on Earth, by cycles of the sun. Long term oscillating temperatures of the sun effects weather patterns along the east-central equatorial Pacific Ocean. This can lead to extreme weather (think intense rains and severe droughts) in other parts of the world, such as the United States.

That takes us from several years of drought into a nice long period of wet.