Laramie, Albany County Recorded One of State's Warmest, Driest Winters

For Laramie, winter felt markedly different: County 5 reported that the long-standing December–February average of 23 degrees rose to an observed 31 degrees in 2025–26, an 8-degree difference calculated from those figures. County 5’s local summary added that Laramie is “below average on rain and snow in winter, but don’t have accurate data on those numbers from the Laramie airport however the weather service did say we are below average for rain and well below average for snow,” highlighting both the dry conditions and a gap in airport precipitation records.

The statewide picture was equally striking. County 5 summarized statewide climate data on March 3, 2026, saying that “nearly every city and town in Wyoming recorded one of the warmest (often the warmest) winters on record for the December–February 2025–26 period.” A companion Recent Posts entry went further, saying “Just about every city and town across the state recorded the warmest winter ever since record keeping began in the 19th century,” and noting “there are new records for average low, over and high temps.”

Local departures in other communities underscore the breadth of the anomaly. Recent Posts reported that “Casper saw temps about 9 degrees warmer than average for the December to February period,” and that Big Piney was “one of the warmer spots… with over 14 degrees warmer on average day to day.” Newcastle was cited as an exception, where the 2025–26 winter ranked as the second-warmest rather than the warmest.

Officials and analysts flagged data quality as a priority. County 5 explicitly noted the Laramie airport precipitation numbers are not accurate or unavailable, and repeated the weather service’s assessment that rainfall was below average and snowfall was well below average in the city. Those gaps matter because station-level totals feed statewide products used by water managers and the Wyoming State Climate Office for spring runoff and reservoir planning.

A current-conditions snapshot for Laramie at 8:25 am, March 8, 2026, illustrated late-winter warmth and blustery air: 33°F, few clouds, humidity 61 percent, pressure 1016 mb, wind 18 mph with gusts to 35 mph, clouds 23 percent and visibility 10 km; sunrise was 7:25 am and sunset 7:00 pm. That widget-level reading is a momentary observation and not part of the December–February climatological averages reported above.

County 5’s March 3 summary and the Recent Posts reporting together establish a clear near-record statewide warmth for December–February 2025–26 and a locally dry winter in Laramie. The combination of unusually high temperatures and reportedly well-below-average snow in Laramie will require verification of station data with the National Centers for Environmental Information and the National Weather Service office serving southeast Wyoming to finalize rankings and to inform water-supply and wildfire preparedness ahead of spring.