Weekend travel could be dangerous

WORLAND – Whatever plans people have for this Thanksgiving weekend; be it staying home, visiting friends and relatives or taking advantage of after turkey day sales, being prepared for snowy weather will be a must.

According to National Weather Service Riverton intern meteorologist Brandy Bourque, the Big Horn Basin is looking at a good day Thanksgiving with snow showers and gusty winds arriving to the area late Friday evening/ early Saturday morning ending sometime in the early afternoon Saturday. But those who are planning on heading to the western part of the state need to be aware that the snow will be starting on Thanksgiving.

Bourque said that there are two systems coming in that are going to be back-to-back, with little time in-between. The first system will mainly affect the west with snow starting Thursday morning and picking up throughout the day. “It’s going to be around the Wyoming Salt [River] Range, a little bit of the Wind River Range and then of course the basins out there in Jackson Hole. So anyone going that way, they could see some snow, we are mainly worried about some of the passes, it really shouldn’t be too bad though, it’s only going to be a few inches of accumulation. It will be really good travel east of the [Continental] Divide but if you are heading that way [west] it will be a bit rough,” Bourque said. “Going into Friday morning it’s going to pick up again, since they [storm systems] are so back-to-back there will be a little bit of a lull, but really it’s going to be snowing in the west through Saturday evening,” she added.

Snow accumulation in the basin should be around two inches but with gusty winds of around 33 miles per hour travel will be greatly impacted. “Saturday will be a good day to stay home. Saturday will not be a fun day to travel, especially in the afternoon,” Bourque stated. She added that there will definitely be some blowing snow which will not make for fun road conditions.