Wet Winter & Spring Makes Wyoming Super Green

When is the last time you saw Wyoming this green?

Every prairie, hill, butte, bluff, and mountain is a thick dark green.

Even the deserts have huge patches of flowers.

The winter of 2023 was an extra snowy one for the Western states.

That's actually an understatement.

Many predictions of continued drought were proven wrong.

In fact, several years of drought came to an end in a few short months.

Reservoirs and rivers have filled to capacity in some cases.

As we move through spring, toward summer, it's a soaking rain shower every day.

When is the last time Wyoming looked this green?

This moisture does not show signs of stopping any time soon.

Not that anyone is complaining.

So why is it so wet and green this year?

It all has to do with natural cycles that are driven by something that is not here on Earth.

Weather comes in cycles.

Times of drought give way to years we wish it would stop raining and snowing.

Western states like Wyoming were caught in a drought cycle for a few years.

But based on past trends, and what we see coming, we are back to a wet cycle that should last a while.

Regional meteorologist Don Day of Day Weather explained these cycles in a 2022 forecast that you can watch in the video below.

According to those trends, which you can see in the video below, pacific patterns, as well as Sun cycles, are changing.

Historically this changes our weather here in the West.

We are all used to the seasonal weather trends of Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall. But there are longer trends that affect us.

Periods of drought come every decade or so.

Periods of cold can last for years but then we will go through periods of warming as well.

WHY DO WE GO THROUGH DROUGHT AND WET PERIODS?

Weather trends here in North America have a lot to do with what happens in the Pacific. As we swap between what is known as La Nina and El Nino we will swap from hot and dry to wet and cold.

This is why the West has had a long period of drought.

La Nina has a lot to do with the Sun.

The Sun has cycles just like the weather does here on Earth.

When the Sun is in a calm period we tend to fall into a La Nina effect.

That can mean dryer weather, even droughts.

The video below also explains how trade winds affect this temperature and moisture swap.

As the Pacific warms, wetter weather moves toward North America.

WE ARE WITNESSING TYPICAL WEATHER CHANGES