Tagged: fires

The U.S. Drought Monitor says extreme drought conditions now cover much of southern and eastern Wyoming after a dry August.
 
 The program's map shows all of Sweetwater, Laramie, Goshen, Platte and Niobrara counties are in an extreme drought, the fourth-worst out of five categories.
 
 Conditions in most of Converse and Weston counties and in parts of six other counties are also classified as extreme drought.
 
Most of the rest of the state is in a severe drought, the third-worst category.
 

Wyoming’s state parks are getting fewer visitors than usual, and park officials say it’s probably because of the ban on campfires.

State Parks Chief of Operations Bill Westerfield says the decline in visitors will mean less money will be available for future improvements at parks and historic sites.

“The user fees – camping and day use fees – go into an enterprise account, and we use that money to build new facilities and to conduct major maintenance on the facilities we have,” Westerfield said.

Officials are warning that despite current wet weather, the risk of statewide fire danger will be high in the coming months.

Bill Crapser is Wyoming’s State Forester. He says, so far, this spring has seen a large amount of fires due to drier weather… and despite recent spates of rain and snow and a temporary reduction in fires, Crapser says he expects more in the near future.

Wyoming has experienced record high temperatures this month – in some cases more than 20 degrees above average. The National Weather Service says that’s because winter storms coming in from the west have been following slightly different tracks than usual.

“The lows that have developed have either gone way to our south or have gone to our north,” said Chuck Baker, a lead forecaster in Riverton.