
Hey, Answer Girl,
Each Wyomingite says their hometown’s weather is the worst – Cody, Cheyenne, Afton, etc. Which town has the coldest winters? Which town has the most snow? The most wind? — Question Girl
Dear Question Girl,
Chris Jones, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Riverton, researched this question. While there are many ways to look at weather data, Jones pinpointed several Wyoming towns that stand out.
The coldest town in Wyoming is Bondurant, which is located in Hoback Canyon between Jackson and Pinedale. The average temperature in Bondurant for the months of December, January and February is 10.7 degrees. That’s only slightly warmer than in International Falls, Minn., where the average temperature is 7.4 degrees during the same months.
Daniel, which is located east of Pinedale, is the second coldest town in the state with an average temperature of 11.8 degrees from December to January. Big Piney has the third coldest winters in Wyoming with an average temperature of 12.5 from December to January. The town, which is located in Sublette County, was called the Icebox of the Nation starting in 1930 because it had the coldest year-round average temperature in the nation. Today, that slogan is reserved for International Falls, Minn., which won the legal trademark for Icebox of the Nation over Fraser, Colo., in 2008.
The town of Moose, which is located north of Jackson, gets more snow than any other town in Wyoming with an average 172.2 inches per year. Bedford, in the Star Valley, comes is the second snowiest town with 155.9 inches of snow per year, and Moran comes in third with 145 inches of snow.
For wind speeds, Jones looked at records for 19 Wyoming towns dating from 1996 to 2006. Wind speeds are generally recorded at airports, he said. Rawlins is the windiest town in Wyoming, with the wind averaging 12.9 mph. Laramie and Cheyenne tied for the second windiest town in the state with an average wind speed of 12.4 mph. Casper comes in third with an average wind speed of 12 mph.
If you want to escape the wind, head to Worland. It’s the least windy town in Wyoming.
“It sits in the basin and is relatively sheltered,” Jones said.
Its location in the basin also makes it one of the colder towns in the state, he added.