Winter Storm in Wind River Mountains West, Wyoming

Heavy snow fell in much of the western Big Horn Range. The highest amount of snow was 14 inches at the Big Sandy Opening SNOTEL site.

The last of a series of potent Pacific storms moves through the area from February 8th through February 10th. This storm was warmer than the previous systems and much of the precipitation in the western valleys fell as rain rather than snow. This led to localized flooding of low lying areas, although no damage from flooding was reported. Very heavy snow fell again in the higher elevations, with Jackson Hole Ski resort picking up another 28 inches of snow with locations in Yellowstone Park, The Absarokas, Wind River Range and Salt and Wyoming Range picking up over a foot of new snow. Up to 2 inches of rain fell in the western valleys. Rain falling on a heavy snow load caused minor damage to some buildings in Jackson, including the police station. In addition, the heavy wet snow caused numerous avalanches that closed Teton Pass as well as Hoback Junction at times for several days. Meanwhile, East of the Divide very strong mid level winds and the right front quadrant of a 150 knot jet streak brought very strong winds to some areas. The strongest winds occurred over the Cody Foothills. There was numerous gusts of hurricane force near Clark including a maximum gust of 118 mph! Wind gusts past 60 mph were also reported in Fremont and Natrona Counties.