Wyoming Weather

We had a tornado watch out this last week.  It was the same night that we went to the Ft. Caspar program.  It must have gotten pretty wild outside as we could hear the wind roaring outside the doors that seemed to want to pop open at any time.

Though I might be terrified of violent thunderstorms, I am still in awe of them and just had to get out of the car to take these pictures while the rain started falling.

This is looking in the direction of our home.

This is looking out towards the interstate.

It got so dark you couldn't see the mountains, but here was a rainbow that just appeared out of nowhere.

Another Beautiful Sunrise On My Way To Work

Storm At The Oilfield

Snunderstorm

Last week on the way home from the oilfield, while riding in the truck with some of my co-workers, I experienced some very unusual weather. On one stretch of road for about 1/2 mile, we encountered - at the same time:

• rain
• hail
• sleet
• snow
• thunder
• lightning
• ice
• wind
• sunshine

All we needed was the moon to have come out and I would have thought the end of the world had arrived. I did make the comment about "where was a rainbow"?, turned around and there it was - a rainbow, but better than that, it was a double rainbow! Where was my camera at a time like this? Home awaiting the arrival of new batteries!

It was a though God or Mother Nature had a basketful of leftover weather systems and decided to dump them out all at the same time. It was absolutely incredible!

Hence the name Snunderstorm!

It Never Rains In Central Wyoming....

...well hardly ever. On my way home from work the other day I encountered some rainclouds hanging into the sky. The weather forecast for that day had predicted that we would be receiving some rain that afternoon and evening. That would normally not have seen unusual before moving here, but in Wyoming seeing and feeling rain has been a rarity. Basically the only time I've used my windshield wipers is for the removal of snow and not rain.

The fascinating thing about the rainclouds out here is that you can see them a such great distances because of the unencumbered views of the landscape. These photos were taken on the interstate so notice the clouds AND the lack of traffic.

The next two photos show what appears to be a window in the rainclouds...

This view is looking towards Casper Mountain...

I took this picture to show the difference in the clouds...

Greetings and Salutations - I'm Back!

Yep, I'm finally able to blog again and it seems like forever since I've had contact with friends and family. There have been so many things that have happened in the two weeks since we've become citizens of Casper, Wyoming. I've got lots of thoughts, observations, pictures and descriptions to cover and they certainly won't get covered tonight since it's so late. I know you're thinking "late"? "Late for Carol"? Like I said, lots of things have happened and I'll explain that in an upcoming post.

I cannot believe that I am finally able to be back on line - to be able to check emails and blogs again after almost 3 weeks! We had to wait for about a week and a half before our cable, telephone and internet was installed. Then when I finally hooked up my computer a couple of days later, it wouldn't work. It was checked out by a computer dude who pronounced it dead. Oh great! So today, Joe and I spent the major portion of the day going from one place to another checking out computer prices. Would you believe that Casper has a Staples, Office Max and Office Depot? All within two miles of our house! Anyway, finally about 9:00 tonight I had my computer set up, plugged in and ready for action.

It was fun catching up on everyone's blogs - well those of you who had blogged since we left anyway. Please blog regularly since it helps us keep up on the family and friend doings!!!

During our runs around town today, Joe and I went and searched out the chapel where we'll be going to church. (No, we haven't gone yet. The two previous Sundays have been spent unpacking boxes and bins and trying to get settled in). Anyway, we discovered just how close the chapel is to us. It's probably less than three miles from the house. Waahoo!!! No more getting up at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings. We could actually sleep in until 7:45 a.m. if we wanted and still make it to church in plenty of time.

I'm sure that our weather will be a topic of conversation in many of my blogs. Weather is a BIG deal here in one way or another every day. For example, let's take our weather for tonight and tomorrow...

Tonight: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 29. Windy, with a southwest wind around 33 mph, with gusts as high as 47 mph.

Saturday: A slight chance of rain and snow after 11am. Cloudy, with a temperature rising to near 41 by noon, then falling to around 19 during the remainder of the day. Windy, with a west southwest wind between 29 and 33 mph, with gusts as high as 46 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Saturday Night: Snow. Low around 4. Wind chill values as low as -18. Blustery, with a north northwest wind around 23 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.

Now, I'm not complaining, only commenting. It's still quite funny to me how the weather is around here. I now wear gloves, boots, pants (every day), and am equipped with wool hats which will most likely get used next week as the weather will be getting worse on Sunday and through the next week. The dogs look at me sometimes as if to say "when are we going back home"? or "what did I ever do to you to deserve this"?

It's been a long day - my body is still adjusting from Georgia time so I'm calling it a night. But, I'll be back!