After the last few days gave us lots of rain showers and below average temperatures, we can rest easy knowing that we are beginning a warming trend heading toward the end of the week.
More widespread showers popped up all over the Midwestern states bringing severe thunderstorms and even multiple tornadoes into Texas. There was also a general line of showers and thunderstorms along Wyoming associated with the trough that is pushing through.
“Each of us can play a role in preventing illnesses when we swim, play and relax in and near water whether outdoors in warm weather or indoors year-round,” said Courtney Tillman, epidemiologist with WDH. “Swallowing a small amount of indoor or outdoor recreational water can make people sick,”
The national satellite and radar showed widespread shower and thunderstorm activity throughout much of the United States. A couple of those showers popped up in the southeastern corner as well as the northeast.
On May 20, 2022, J.M. Smucker Co. issued a voluntary recall of select Jif products sold in the U.S. for potential salmonella contamination. The recalled peanut butter was distributed nationwide in retail stores and other outlets. Recalled products include the products below with lot codes 1274425 – 2140425. Lot codes are included alongside best-if-used-by date.
While the courts decide the future rights of both hunters and landowners, a heavy hitter just joined the fray. The Wyoming-centered, corner crossing legal battle made national news when 4 Missouri hunters won their case against criminal trespassing charges.
Lots of heavy snow in the southeast has resulted in complete closures of interstate 80 between Laramie and Cheyenne as well as Happy Jack Road due to winter conditions in the early parts of the day.
Recent upticks have been reported from the northern part of the state, including Sheridan and Park counties, as well as in southern Wyoming’s Laramie County. Commonly described as “stomach flu” or “food poisoning,” gastroenteritis can spread easily when people eat or drink contaminated food and beverages, touch contaminated surfaces or through close contact with someone already sick.
The strong wind gusts blowing in before the front comes through caused a number of travel impacts and partial closures. Most of which stuck to the southern region of the state along interstate 80. Expect more impacts as we head into tomorrow, but this time will be as a result of snow.
The Wyoming Air National Guard upgraded its 30-year-old, C-130s on Tuesday.The 153rd Airlift Wing helped outfit C-130s with new engines, propellers and glass cockpits, all in preparation for fire season. Mechanical teams from Texas and Aircraft from Nevada came to get their 30-year-old engines replaced with new modified engines that provide more power, quicker climb and better fuel efficiency.
We started seeing clear skies around much of the state today, which is a nice change from yesterday, with a lot of the activity of severe thunderstorm staying in Colorado and a lot more snowfall staying to the northwestern states for now.
The Adopt an Airman is meant to bridge Airmen into their new communities. But sometimes, this program does more than that. It brings together our shared humanity. The Adopt an Airman program helps Air Force Members anchor into their new communities.
There was a lot of thunderstorm activity with a number of lightning strikes especially in the southern border of Wyoming earlier in the afternoon. A few turned severe, but none lasted all that long.
Beginning May 17, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service fire staff plan to take advantage of windows of opportunity to conduct a cumulative 978 acres of prescribed burns on the Pole Mountain unit of the Medicine Bow National Forest. Daily decisions to burn will be dependent on fuel and weather condition alignment.
After a very warm start to our week with a number of cities getting into those 80s, lots of showers and thunderstorms came into our state with a number of them producing heavy rain, lightning and thunder.
Wyoming is known to circle the wagons when someone needs help, and that’s exactly what a local mom did when she heard about the baby formula shortage. Local Mom Kathy Scigliano started a baby-formula Facebook group on Friday, after seeing a social media post about the formula shortage.”I was watching tik-tok and saw someone who said they were going to start a Facebook group and um just to basically to get information into their community on where baby formula was and so I thought I can do that,” said Scigliano.
Water woes for a Wyoming city continue due to leaks in its 100-year-old water system. The City of Rawlins remains under a water irrigation restriction. According to city officials who say they are working to fix the issues. The City council has re-allocated some ARPA and general reserve funds for immediate repairs costing about $2M.But Rawlins City Spokesperson Mira Miller says the city needs about 15 to 20 million dollars in water infrastructure repairs.
When preparing for deployment, Wyoming Air National Guard Civil Engineers train to be ready at a moment’s notice. “Our missions are generally base maintenance and base set up. So when we deploy, this is what we do in a deployed environment. We will actually build a base from nothing. Using all these tents and various systems,” said Master Sgt. Bradly Kechter, Structures NCOIC.Training begins in the classroom, but these guardsmen and women were out at F.E Warren Air Force Base practicing for emergency situations on Friday.
“I think less and less people are unaware of mental health. I think mental health has been dominating the picture the last few years... so I think one of the challenges we begin to surmount is how to get help, as opposed to just being aware of mental illnesses, how to manage mental illness since we all struggle with some form of it at this point,” said WBI Associate Medical Director David Martorano.
A new Wyoming company is popping up in Pine Bluffs. This Crypto Mining host named Crypto Knight’s held its groundbreaking event on Friday.Crypto Knight is the 1st Wyoming family-led crypto business to set up its facility in Wyoming. Wyoming’s Crypto-forward business practices and laws have helped it become one of the 1st states to pioneer legislation providing depository institutions, chancery court laws, and custody digital assets.
The strong winds from the west all across the state caused lots of problems today with a number of partial closures along both interstate 80 and interstate 25. If there were not any partial closures near you, then you more likely saw moderate delays.
There were lots of partial closures along the southern side of the state due to very strong wind gusts and a number of moderate delays earlier in the day. This is due to a low pressure system right over the Dakotas.
University of Wyoming employees making less than $150,000 annually will receive base pay raises of $1,400 or $1,900, along with additional increases based upon merit, market and compression issues, in the fiscal year that begins July 1. UW’s Board of Trustees today (Thursday) approved the plan for employee compensation increases proposed by the university’s administration. The allocation methodology focuses on providing larger percentage raises to employees in the lowest pay grades without creating additional salary compression.
As construction season starts, WYDOT is opening one of their bridges ahead of schedule.“It is completed. They are still I believe still taking down some of the shoring some of the barriers and opening up some of the lanes to traffic. But umm as of right now the column has been fully repaired and it is operational for live traffic,” said Andrea Staley, Senior Public Relations Specialists- WYDOT.In January, the Grand Ave., I-80 interchange bridge in Laramie was damaged when it was hit during a snow event. The eastbound off-ramp was closed at exit 316.
Some strong winds coming up from the south along the southern side of the state during the day resulted in a few moderate delays along the I80 corridor, and the winds from the north along the northern side of the state helped to fuel increasing shower activity during the late evening hours.
As technology expands, so does the need for greater emergency response. On Wednesday, WYDOT held its regular quarterly meeting. But they also held their first Public Safety Communications Commission meeting.
Water is used in everything we do, but what happens if there’s not enough? As we continue to hear about drought seasons, the importance of water conservation increases. As a head water state, Wyoming decides to do with its water, and its laws matter. The select water committee had a meeting Wednesday.
Wyoming U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis has made her stance on abortion clear. She is sponsoring pro-life legislation in Congress and now she is speaking up about the supreme court leak. Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis said Tuesday she supports the leaked Supreme Court draft decision indicating its intent to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
A University of Wyoming lecturer and a graduate student recently published a new Amazon Alexa skill designed specifically to support the professional development of educators to better understand dyslexia.
Matt Bisk, a graduate student from Mount Laurel, N.J., in UW’s Science and Math Teaching Center and graduate assistant to the UW Biodiversity Institute, created phenomenon-based lessons that use the resources of the Rocky Mountain Herbarium. Explicit connections to Wyoming science standards are provided for all grade levels; however, most of the lessons may be most appropriate for upper elementary and middle school students. Phenomenon-based learning requires students to explore and explain an observable phenomenon.
A few potentially serious insect-spread diseases linked with warmer weather and outdoor activities can be avoided with simple personal actions, according to the Wyoming Department of Health (WDH).
Strong winds across the region today resulted in a few moderate travel impacts headed into those evening hours. It started going away as those wind gusts began to calm down.
The Wyoming Department of Transportation and S&S Builders have completed work on the damaged Grand Ave. Interstate 80 Interchange Bridge today. The eastbound off-ramp bridge at exit 316 has opened three weeks ahead of schedule, with an initial completion date of May 31st.
We had very strong winds around the region resulting in a number of moderate travel impacts as well as partial closures along the interstates and wind prone regions. The majority of shower activity across the country stayed in the north western corner of the United States.
The Wind River Inter-Tribal Council has voted to take immediate action in terminating administrators and the school board governing St. Stephens Indian School, following the completion of an independent federal investigation by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). A BIE report identified widespread wrongdoing by school leadership, including: sexual misconduct and harassment; bullying and a toxic workplace environment; use of drugs and alcohol on school property and at school-related functions; financial irregularities; nepotism; and a lack of supervision by school officials in ensuring employees maintained valid state certifications.
Twenty percent of state-wide Wyoming crashes in 2020 were wildlife crashes. The Wyoming Department of Transportation and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department is breaking ground on Tuesday’s Dry Piney Wildlife Crossing. “This is the first major construction project since we launched the wildlife crossings initiative. And this is the first time those license plate funds from the conservation license plates are going on the ground. To make a difference for wildlife and drivers,” said Sara DiRienzo, Public Information Officer of the Wyoming Game & Fish Department.
With Memorial Day and the summer months approaching, NFPA offers safe grilling tips and recommendations to help reduce fires and injury May 9, 2022 – Often considered the unofficial kick-off to summer, Memorial Day weekend typically includes lots of celebrations and cookouts, often with grilling as a focal point. As the holiday, and summer months, grow closer, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) reminds everyone of basic safety tips to grill and celebrate safely.
With the Supreme Court opinion leak, many people are wondering how this will affect them and Wyoming. Thirteen states now have trigger bills that will go into effect if Roe versus Wade is overturned. The action would revert access to abortions back to each state.
The winds picked up during the early parts of the day resulting in some delays around the state and a few partial closures around the Elk Mountain region. The good news is we are left with mostly clear skies around the state.
We saw that low pressure and frontal system pushing its way out to the Midwestern states and bringing some severe storms along the southern regions with it. Luckily, around our state, we saw mostly clear skies with temperatures starting to warm up.
University of Wyoming employees making less than $150,000 annually would receive base pay raises of $1,400 or $1,900, along with additional increases based upon merit, market and compression issues, under a plan to be presented to UW’s Board of Trustees next week.
Wyoming Republican Harriet Hageman -- who has been endorsed by Trump -- tweeted that she expects thousands of Wyomingites to be in attendance -- adding that it will be “A tremendous honor and incredibly exciting to have president trump visit with us, and it will no doubt be the largest political event in Wyoming history.”
Our radar was busy today showing that rotational low pressure system right over the eastern side of the state and helping to bring a lot of rain into our region throughout much of today.
It was another gloomy start to our day with temperatures struggling to get above the 50s in the south eastern corner of the state. At least this time there was much less in terms of snowfall, although that didn’t last as showers came in during the late evening hours.
Today started off dull and dreary with lots of snow in the southeastern corner of the state. While this may not be the best way to start off our week, the system moved out by the afternoon hours.
Teton Simulation Software, an incubator business in IMPACT 307, a University of Wyoming program, was acquired by Markforged last month. Founded in Wyoming in 2016, Teton Simulation develops software products that enhance the productivity of producing 3D printed parts. Its SmartSlice software technology makes it easy to validate and optimize print settings to produce better parts more quickly and with less materials.
