Storm alerts target northern Albany County, not Laramie proper

Storm alerts did not blanket Laramie, but they did target the parts of Albany County most likely to turn dangerous first: northern Albany County, the higher terrain east and west of town, and the mountain routes toward places like Vedauwoo and the Snowy Range.

The National Weather Service in Cheyenne said severe weather was possible Sunday afternoon, with a Marginal Risk of strong to severe thunderstorms along the Interstate 80 corridor. It also said another round of accumulating late-season snow was increasingly likely Monday, mainly above 5,000 feet, followed by near-record cold Monday and Monday night that could damage sensitive vegetation and outdoor irrigation systems.

That split mattered in Albany County, where conditions can change fast between downtown Laramie and the surrounding hills, canyons and ranch country. Albany County Emergency Management said it works closely with the weather service and urged residents to use multiple alert sources, including Albany County Alerts, NOAA Weather Radio and mobile apps. It also drew a clear line between a watch and a warning: a watch means severe weather is possible, while a warning means it is happening or about to happen and immediate action is needed.

For drivers and anyone headed outside the city, the bigger concern was not a citywide emergency but a travel problem in the county’s higher elevations. Wyoming climate data notes that snow falls frequently from November through May, that lower-elevation stations can still see snowfall events exceeding five inches about five times a year on average, and that wind often follows snowstorms and can stack snow into drifts several feet deep.

The broader storm made that warning real. Cowboy State Daily reported more than 24 inches of snow in Centennial on May 18, while meteorologist Don Day said the Snowy Range saw reports of 30 inches and more than two inches of water over 48 hours. The same report said Interstate 80 was closed in parts of southern Wyoming, leaving motorists stranded for hours, and Rocky Mountain Power had 24 outages affecting 5,674 customers statewide.

The Cheyenne weather service’s event-summaries page also keeps a historical entry for a May 17-19 late-spring snowstorm, a reminder that late May can still deliver a winter-like hit across southeast Wyoming. For Albany County, the storm’s first impact was not in Laramie proper but in the outlying elevations, where a routine drive or outing could quickly become a hazardous one.