Fun Facts

Snow, snow, and more snow could be the title for summing up our winter here in West Yellowstone and most of the Greater Yellowstone area! Many times, the winters here have plenty of sunshine to brighten up those short days, but this winter it was not that way. This winter it was snow storm after snow storm, and then snow in between, with very few days of sunshine. That being said, living in an area surrounding by mountain forest wilderness we are happy to have that snow to build up the snow pack! More snow means better fishing conditions too and who doesn’t want that?! So just how much snow did we get here in town? A lot! In our backyard we had drifts well over 8 feet high and snow that wasn’t drifted was well over 4 feet. Behind the fly shop the parking lot was full of snow. The mountains of snow extended the whole length of the parking lot, with just a single space for a car to fit parallel alongside the back of the building, and I haven’t even told you yet that that mountain of snow was higher than the roof of building. The kids in town and the dogs in the neighborhood could actually walk between buildings and homes and be on piles higher or level to roofs and 8-foot fences. The pictures above show our backyard with our 8 foot fence and Arrick shoveling out snow from our front door after just one snow storm. Needless to say, our snowpack this winter was excellent. We were at one time in the winter season sitting at in the Madison range at 124% snow water equivalent. We drove into Yellowstone yesterday and there is a lot of water from the snow melt and the rivers are already at the top of their banks. Below are some percentages for the Madison and Gallatin ranges.

Current snow water equivalent:

118% Madison

115% gallatin

Year to date precipitation:

114% Madison

121% Gallatin

-Lorie and Arrick