Winter Storm — Owl Creek & Bridger Mountains, Wyoming

2018-12-30 to 2018-12-31 · Owl Creek & Bridger Mountains, Wyoming

Event narrative

The combination of heavy snow and strong winds caused the closure of Route 789 through Wind River Canyon.

Wider weather episode

A Pacific weather system moved across western and central Wyoming and brought locally heavy snow and high winds. In the western mountains, the heaviest snow fell in the Tetons where 20 inches of new snow fell at Grand Targhee. The heaviest snow in the lower elevations occurred at Alpine where 10 inches of snow fell. In areas East of the Divide, the heaviest snow fell near Thermopolis where up to a foot of snow fell. Elsewhere, snowfall was lighter. However, in some areas snow combined with wind gusts over 50 mph the bring near zero visibility. The caused the closure of roads in Johnson County for several hours. Other roads were closed in portions of Natrona, Hot Springs and Fremont Counties. Strong winds also occurred ahead of the system in the Cody Foothills, where a wind gust of 81 mph occurred the south of Clark. The winds extended into Cody itself where the Cody airport had a wind gust to 58 mph.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 798154. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.