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By Joe Edwards
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Six weather records were broken in Wyoming this week, local forecasters have reported.
In a Monday post on social media platform X, the National Weather Service forecast office in Riverton—which serves central and western parts of the state—said that a high temperature of 46 degrees was recorded at Big Piney Airport that day, which broke the previous record for January 12 of 41 degrees set in 1999.
It also noted that several other climate sites tied record high temperatures on Monday, with Riverton Airport, Buffalo Airport and Lander Airport recording values of 54, 63, and 60 degrees, respectively.
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In a subsequent social media post on Tuesday, the agency said that multiple climate sites posted new records—four for temperature and one for rainfall.
According to the NWS, Casper Airport recorded a high of 55 on January 13, surpassing the previous record of 52 set in 1953. Lander Airport saw the mercury hit 61 degrees, breaking the 1953 record of 58.
Riverton Airport reached 60 degrees, five degrees above the 2021 record of 55 degrees. Big Piney Airport recorded a high of 47 degrees on Tuesday, surpassing the 42 degree record set in 1994, the NWS said.
The agency also reported that Buffalo airport saw 0.03 inches of rain on Tuesday, which broke the previous rainfall record for January 13 of 0.02 set in 2005.
“There was really high pressure across the entire western U.S. [which] deflected the more active colder weather to our east," NWS Riverton meteorologist Noah Myers told Newsweek. This also allowed warmer air to rotate in, Myers said.
“Another reason we’ve seen some of these records is there’s not much snow on the ground at lower elevations. Snow on the ground helps it stay cold and we just don’t have that, so even when we do get some colder air intruding, it’s not persisting for very long because of the lack of snow.”
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Temperatures will be closer to seasonal averages this weekend, Myers said. “A little bit above, but I don’t think we’ll break any records.”
“Early next week, it does look like we’ll see that higher pressure system set up again where we could get closer to those record temperatures."
Meanwhile, forecasters have warned that the polar vortex could send waves of arctic air shooting across parts of the U.S. this month.
Meteorologists at AccuWeather have predicted that temperatures may run 10 to 20 degrees below typical averages across major cities in the Midwest and Northeast.
A forecast map from the outlet provided to Newsweek on Thursday showed that states that could be impacted by this frigid air include the majority of the eastern U.S.—from Minnesota, the Dakotas and New England in the north, right down to northern Florida.
The National Weather Service (NWS) explains that the Polar Vortex is a broad region of low pressure and frigid air surrounding each of Earth’s poles. It is a year-round feature, though it weakens in summer and becomes more intense in winter. The word “vortex” refers to the counterclockwise circulation that helps confine this cold air near the poles.
In many northern hemisphere winters, the polar vortex can stretch southward, allowing cold air to spill down with the jet stream. This is a fairly common winter pattern and is often linked to major Arctic cold outbreaks in the U.S., it says.
Update 01/16/26, 12:46 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Noah Myers.
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