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Climate and Locality
Medicine
Bow is located at the
junction
of highways 30 and
487. These were the
main thoroughfares in Wyoming prior to the
development of I-80, which bypasses Medicine
Bow.
We are located at an
elevation of
6563
ft. More than a mile
above sea level. Here is what that
means:
- Baked goods need a little less liquid, or
a little more flour. Yeast REALLY
rises!
- Boiled foods take a tad longer to
cook.
- Produce ripens differently.
- You get out of breath a little sooner
when under exhertion.
- You exhale twice as much moisture as at
sea level, which means you need to drink more
water, or you may suffer heat
exhaustion.
- You sunburn a little more easily, the
atmosphere is thinner, and more sun rays come
through.
- This is higher than the "mile high city". Just in case
you didn't do the math!
- Higher and more persistent winds linger
here almost year 'round.
- Temperatures are generally lower, but
when it does heat up it seems to do it very
suddenly.
- Shorter growing season. Gardening can be
done, but requires some adaptation and
persistence.
- Plentiful wildlife. Not just for hunting.
Some small critter seems to live behind every
rock or under every bush!
This area is
classed as Alpine
Desert. It is by no means barren. It
is chiefly covered in grass and sagebrush, with
occasional tumbleweeds. Some areas have pine
forests, or bushes in little
mini-forests.
The land here is shaped by the wind, and the
rolling hills have the shapes of sand dunes. It is
not pretty, but can be very striking, and awesome
at times. When the wind scours the dirt off and
leaves rocks sticking out, it can create some
wonderfully fanciful structures, looking like
castles and battlements rising from the
hills.
In the spring and early summer many
wildflowers grow across the hills. They are only
there for a short time, then gone.
Winds blow
daily from mid-September to mid-May,
sometimes longer. The wind can be very hard in the
winter. People adapt to the climate very quickly,
and those who think the wind will drive them crazy
are often surprised to find that they begin to take
pride in the fact that we get much more of it than
most places. And it does provide the power for the
local wind farms.
Our average
annual temperature is 42.4 degrees.
It is not that cold all the time, in fact, we run
around in shirt sleeves from March to October. Of
course, if you live here a while you do acclimatize
somewhat! The average
temperature for the month of January is 19
degrees. This means it is generally
right around freezing or a little below during the
daytime, and between 5 and 15 degrees at night.
There is not as much variation between day and
night in the winter as in the summer. The
average temperature
for July is 64.6 degrees. Nights
often drop down to the mid 40s, and days sometimes
climb to the high 80s, or low 90s, but usually stay
comfortably in the high 70s to low 80s.
Average Rainfall is
10.36 inches.
Average Snowfall is
about 23.2 inches. Really, only about
2 ft of snow per year! Usually it blows off the
streets and roads (we joke about it causing snow
drifts in Nebraska!). The late spring snows are
wet, and they don't blow around much, but the rest
of the winter, the snow is dry, and the primary
danger on the roads is not sliding, it is poor
visability from fog-like blowing snow. We take the
weather very seriously, and don't get foolish about
it. But we don't live in fear of it either.
Commuters to Rawlins and Laramie only lose about
1-2 days of work per year to weather. And while it
CAN snow any month of the year, it generally does
not! We usually have three solid months in the
middle of the summer, and half a month on either
end that are free of the threat of snow. And if it
does snow in late spring, it melts off
fast.
An aver
9 days per year are sunny. That
means that 3/5 of our days are sunny. The winters
often surprise people, because they expect with low
temperatures there would be a lot of cloudy
weather, but there really is not. Winters are
bright and clear for the most part, and sunglasses
are as necessary on cold days as on warm ones. We
get some clouds and storms in spring and fall.
Thunder and snow storms sometimes! Hail in the late
spring some years. But overall, if you like the
light, there is plenty of it here.
In spite of all the sun,
our growing season
averages 100 days. That means you
plant around the first of June, and plan for short
season varieties of the things you like. Melons,
Eggplant, Okra, and other sun lovers won't have
time to mature here, nor will pumpkins. Cole crops
and salad greens, root crops, and short season
tomatoes all do well. In fact, root crops grow
better here than in many places with longer growing
seasons as long as they get sufficient water. Many
people have greenhouses to extend the season and
sneak in a few pampered fruit trees. Some fruits do
well here out of doors...Strawberries if mulched in
winter, raspberries grow wild, along with
Chokecherries. Native Plum, Manchurian Apricot,
Crab Apples, and Bush Cherries will also produce a
respectable crop, as will gooseberries and
currants. The soil tends to be alkaline, but most
garden crops either do not respond badly to it, or
compensating for it is simple.
This is not the easiest place to live, but
when things are easy, you miss a lot of the fun.
We are an hour from
the nearest real mall, and some take
issue with that! No McDonalds on the corner here
either. Basic services are available in town, but
most people travel to Laramie or even Casper or
Cheyenne to shop. We are 4 hours from Denver, and
almost everybody here gets to Denver once in a
while.
Our crime rates are
very low, and generally if something
is stolen, someone tells you fairly soon who it was
who did it. Not a lot goes unobserved here. A
population of just under 300 means that within a
year of living here most people will know your name
or your face, or your kids! Everybody at school
will know your kids, and if they do something, you
will probably hear about it.
The low population also means that
there are not a lot of
specialized jobs. People who make a
good living here do it off tourism, by commuting,
or by doing an assortment of things. Many women do
a number of jobs...subbing at school, driving bus,
working at the hotel, and doing odd jobs. Because
we have limited services here there is a demand for
people to do those odd jobs. Flexibility is
required for getting a job, or for self-employment.
There are a lot of small niches left here, and if
you can fill more than one, you have a chance of
building a stable business. Businesses can also
thrive by marketing to non-local markets.
Our town covers an area about
8 blocks long, by
about 6-7 blocks wide. If you run up
one street, and down the other, the long way, you
can put in just about a mile, round trip.
Weather Trivia Game
Which month, on the average, is the WETTEST
in Medicine Bow?
May
Which month, on the average, is the HOTTEST IN
Medicine Bow?
July
Which month, on the average, is the COLDEST in
Medicine Bow?
Jan
How much precipitation does Medicine Bow receive in
an average year?
10.36"
The driest year on record for Medicine Bow was
1988, when 5.26"
was recorded.
The wettest year on record for Medicine Bow was
1975, when 10.9"
was recorded.
The maximum 24-hour precipitation recorded in
Medicine Bow was on July 24, 1958, when
2.9"
fell.
Medicine Bow's record low temperature was
-46, set
on Jan. 19, 1963.
Medicine Bow's record high temperature is
97, set
on July 12, 1954.
Medicine Bow's snowiest winter was 1961-1962, when
74.1"
fell.
Medicine Bow's snowiest month was November, 1960,
when
24.3"
fell.
Wyoming Trivia
The average number of Tornadoes reported per
year in Wyoming is
10.
Arrange the following cities in order from least
windy to windiest, on average.
1. Lander, 2. Sheridan,
3. Casper, 4. Cheyenne
Arrange the following counties in order from
driest to wettest.
1. Sweetwater, 2.
Platte, 3. Campbell, 4. Goshen, 5. Hot
Springs
What county did Wyoming's all time record
high of 115 degrees occur?
Big Horn
What county did Wyoming's all time
record low of -66 degrees occur?
Park
For up to the
minute weather, log onto
http://www.dayweather.com
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