Dry, Dry, Dry: Wyoming Gets Less Than Half of Anticipated Precipitation in April

Wyoming’s punishing drought deepened in April, with most of the state receiving less than half of its expected precipitation. After an abnormally warm and dry winter, March was miserable, and April was only marginally better. Meteorologists say the outlook is so uncertain that even short-term forecasts have become unreliable.

“For most of the state, April has been drier than average,” said Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day. “There are a couple of exceptions, but the majority of Wyoming has had below-average moisture for the last 30 days.”

In Lander, a representative location, April precipitation totaled just 0.87 inches—less than half the normal 1.9 inches. Year-to-date, Lander has received 2.31 inches of precipitation compared to an average of 4.4 inches. Snowfall is even worse: only 24.4 inches so far, against an average of 82.1 inches by late April. That puts Lander on track for its least snowy winter since 1925.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the entire state is abnormally dry. Over 97% of Wyoming is in moderate drought, more than 80% is in severe drought, and nearly 35%—mostly in the eastern part of the state—is in extreme drought. Ground zero for the crisis is Platte, Albany, and Carbon counties, which are experiencing exceptional drought, the most severe level.

Day said the persistent high-pressure ridges that blocked winter storms from the West and shunted them eastward have barely relented. “It’s not uncommon to see that for some periods of time during the winter,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Adam Dziewaltowski. “The thing that was really surprising this year is just how stubborn and persistent that was.”

Day also points to an underreported factor: the 2022 eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcano, which injected “the volume of two Lake Eries of water vapor into the stratosphere.” Weather models, he says, cannot properly account for that variable.

There is one small hope. North-central Wyoming received one to six inches of snow over the weekend, and scattered snow was still falling Tuesday morning across the parched eastern half of the state. An emerging El Niño could bring wetter weather in May and June. But after months of false positives, Day is skeptical. “The seasonal models continue to say, yes, May and June should see an uptick,” he said. “But my confidence is really low.”

For now, Wyoming waits. “These drought situations are vicious,” Day said. “They’re self-perpetuating. The drier the ground gets, the harder it is to overcome the drought.”