High pressure system brings weirdly warm winter weather

There has been no lasting ice on the river or snow on the ground in the lower elevations of the Big Horn Basin so far this winter. Richard Lowe, lead forecaster at the Riverton Office of the National Weather Service, confirmed 2025 had the fourth warmest December on record at an average 34ºF, based on Greybull temps, and five days of the month had record highs. Christmas Eve reached a high of 65ºF. 

“There’s a high pressure to the southwest that’s been pushing up our way; it’s been pretty entrenched in there for a few weeks now, so that contributes to [the warm weather] quite a bit. Then there’s a lack of snow cover, so no coldness to the ground right now, either,” Lowe said on Tuesday. 

The lack of snowfall has been due to a westerly flow, dropping precipitation west of the Continental Divide and leaving Wyoming’s Big Horn and Wind River basins dry. Typical snowfall accumulation would be at 5 to 7 inches by this point in the year for lower altitudes in the region. Numbers were unavailable for 2025-26, but observation suggests this winter has been below average.  

“From forecasting so far this winter, it hasn’t seemed like y’all got a lot of snow, and none of it has stayed on the ground very long, if any,” Lowe said. “Definitely a little behind, I wouldn’t say that it’s that much behind but definitely is below average for what it should be right now.”

Winter may try and finally show its teeth Wednesday through Friday of this week, bringing in a cold front that will drop temps to the low to mid 30s, but even that will be fleeting, with little risk of lasting snowfall and temperatures back in the 40s by the weekend. 

“Even for a long-term trend, it looks like it will stay in the 40s for at least another week before we see probably another cold spell,” Lowe predicted.