TORRINGTON – Blizzard conditions affected Torrington and the surrounding area on Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 13 and 14. While there are no official reports at this time in the city limits, the snowfall south of Torrington was estimated to be 11 to 13 inches. The maximum wind gust during this event was 50 to 55 mph on Dec. 13. The minimum visibility got down to a quarter to a half of a mile.
“Certainly, blizzard conditions in the terms of visibility, with those really strong winds and snow,” Incident Meteorologist Brandon Wills from the National Weather Service in Cheyenne said. “The wind chill that we have is definitely in the negative digits. The lowest was five degrees below for the overnight hours, (Tuesday night). It was a little bit colder (Tuesday during) the storm with those higher winds. (Tuesday) morning it was between negative five and negative ten degrees because of wind chill.”
On Monday before the storm hit, those in the area were warned about the upcoming storm. The blizzard warning was issued for southeast Wyoming, with the expected snowfall estimated between eight to twelve inches. People in the area were also warned of high wind, low visibility and low temperatures.
The storm began early Tuesday morning. Overall, the storm hit as expected with the addition of added moisture that accumulated before the snow began to fall. This moisture added a hidden layer of ice under the snow creating extremely slick conditions. The wind carried the snow into large drifts that quickly added to these hazards.
“It’s been miserable,” Mayor Randy Adams said.
The streets in and around town were very slick with drifting snow. Wills also said WYDOT closed all roads in the area to through traffic.
“Our guys and gals have found that a lot of folks have been stuck,” Chief of Police Matt Johnson said. “The drifts have caused issues for people sometimes even here in town. I mean, it doesn't take a lot to create some big drifts in town.”
Johnson said the snow has been piling up in between cars and the middle of the sidewalk throughout town. Many elder folks had problems with large drifts blocking their doors. On the first night of the storm, Johnson and others helped clear many paths to help these residents.
“We were fortunate that we haven't had any big safety concerns here in town,” Johnson said. “A lot of folks have been doing extra work to keep people safe. This is definitely a time to stay home by the fire and let some of this blow over, literally.”
Luckily, there were no known power outages caused by the storm.
“We were a little concerned early on yesterday when the power lines were icing up on the Sheep Creek Road out by the prison and they were swinging back and forth,” Adams said. “If they had made contact then we would have had a problem, but the wind shifted, and it stopped. I don’t think we had any problems other than that.”
Both Adams and Johnson commented on the great work that the city’s streets department has done to clear the snow.
“It’s been a long day for a lot of people in the city,” Adams commented. “All of our streets and sanitation people were up really early this morning doing the streets. They did a great job! I couldn’t believe they got all of that snow off so fast. I was up at 4:00 this morning and they were out ahead of me.”
“Our Streets Department here in Torrington has done an awesome job of working really long hours to get roads clear so that they're passable at all,” Johnson exclaimed. “They're making great progress. We're thinking hopefully tomorrow things will be much more along the lines of normal.”
Wills said other reports of snowfall in the area include Lingle with four inches, Cheyenne with one to one and a half inches, Scottsbluff, Nebraska with eight inches and Minatare, Nebraska with 11 inches. Chadron, Nebraska had the highest amount of snowfall with a range of 16 to 24 inches.
