Moving to area south of Gillette so I a couple of questions (Cheyenne: buying a home, established neighborhood)

[swcolorado]

I am excited to be moving to Wyoming. We already have jobs lined out and, when our house sells, we are looking at buying a home. So, whenever I tell people where I am moving, they start in with the horror stories about the wind and the winter weather. I have lived in the mountains my whole life so I know how to handle lots and lots of snow. My question is for people that actually live in Northeastern WY; what is a "typical" winter like (temperature, snow etc) and I know the wind blows in Wyoming a lot but what is the real scoop?
thanks for taking the time to answer!

[Froggie Legs]

Just curious, you have visited the area, right? I visited in April a couple years back.. and it was pleasant weather. Are you moving to Wright? If so I have a ton of pictures from that area I would be willing to share. Just message me if you are interested.

[WyoNewk]

I'm in Gillette and would be happy to help if you have any specific needs with your move.

I live in town in an established neighborhood (mature trees) on the east side of a ridge, and our home faces the southeast, so we're pretty protected from the (typical) northwest winds. If you get out in the open country, winds can get nasty. I talked to a guy last week who lived just south of town (but was moving into town). He said he'd never live in that spot again because the winds were so bad. He pointed where he had sodded the lawn, but it had filled in with sand from a distant acreage where a road contractor had been harvesting sand for road work. I would consider prevalent winds carefully before buying any rural property, both for the likelihood of high winds and for snow drifting around the property.

That said, winds in NE Wyoming aren't bad compared to those in southern Wyoming. You can google the average winds for any location and I urge you to do so, but I consider winds here no worse than those found across much of the midwest. I think they're worse where I lived before moving here, in northcentral Iowa.

We don't get a lot of snow as this is a semi-arid region, and typically snow from any storm will be melted/evaporated before the next big storm (if there is another one) dumps on us. Obviously that's not always the case, but snow doesn't accumulate like it does in the mountains - never.

Much is said about cold weather. Personally, I think it's more a bragging right than anything. Winter's in this part of Wyoming are relatively mild for a northern state. It's a dry cold for one thing, and we get lots of sunshine for another. If you can stay out of the wind, it's not that horrible. Summers will be much shorter than those in SW Colorado, however. In fact, they're probably a month shorter than Denver's. We get snow any time from late September through April.

I didn't care for Gillette when I moved here in '71. I'd planned to stay 4-5 years to save some money and move elsewhere, but I did grow to like the area. I had plans to buy a business in Pagosa Springs several years ago, and then at the last minute my (ex) wife suddenly decided she liked Gillette and didn't want to move.

[ElkHunter]

You can take a look at the weather data "HERE" and get climate info and the norms.

If you noticed, at the top of the forum in a sticky it says "Winter Weather Alerts". You can look through that and get an idea of storms that have hit this winter. If you do a search of the forum for Winter Weather Alerts, you will see the thread for last year, the year before, etc...

[Froggie Legs]

I sent you the link to my photos of that area. Let me know if you have any more questions. There's a great community center in Gillette.

[Ltdumbear]

If you're an 'Urbanite' or if you enjoy living the 'lifestyle', then Gillette is definately the place to be. Snow and/or Wind ? can't say I've experienced all that much in this part of the state, but you'll probably wanna learn to look both ways (and then twice again) before you cross the street, or pull into an intersection after your light turns green; there's people from ALL over the states who've moved here to Gillette; the pace is 'hectic' (especially with all the oilies and methane-drivers out on the road who don't know how to drive without 'gettin after it', so 'driver-etiquette' leaves MUCH to be desired...

...strangely enough, the town has a funny way of 'going to bed' @ 9-9:30pm and traffic is almost non-existant...

...it's almost as if there's a 'curfew' (of sorts) in Gillette (compared to Casper, Laramie and Cheyenne, where it's almost 24/7 activity on the streets)...though I've never heard anything mentioned about it...

[georgiainwyo]

When we first moved to Gillette we lived out at Sleepy Hollow, a subdivision just southeast of town. That winter was pretty windy and snowy. We had trouble getting to town (only a couple miles) because of the drifts. Those couple of days the town pretty much shut down because of the wind & drifting snow. When we bought our home right in town things were much better. I was so glad to not have to worry about the drifts as the city road crew kept the main arteries well plowed. If it were me I would not live outside of Gillette unless I didn't have to travel to work. I did have to got to Rozet (16 miles east) a couple of times a week for work, and although it wasn't real bad, there were a few winter days that I sure would have loved to be in town. One day it was so icy that my little SUV spun around & stopped, going in the opposite direction! I think the severity of the winters depends on the year, some worse than others.

[Ltdumbear]

Wow...what a difference a few days makes; the (supposedly) 'non-existant' wind in Gillette I commented about earlier ?

Yup...I'm eatin' my words right about now; it's purty fierce outside right now...almost about the same as I experienced while visiting with my folks (back east) the night of Hurricane-Sandy...but we were a few miles inland, and did'nt suffer any property-damage...

...still...it's bad outside right now; good thing we were'nt out moving cow/calf pairs today...

[WyoNewk]

LOL Today was garbage collection day in my neighborhood, but the wind was howling so badly I decided to leave the garbage can tucked away next to the house where it sits protected from the wind. Earlier this evening my wife talked me into making a run to the grocery store. There was the garbage can, out in the lawn halfway between our house and our neighbors, nearly empty, with garbage scattered as far as the eye could see! I finally got most of it picked up, the majority being in our back yard. Found some of the neighbor's mail a block away -- her mailbox had come open. This is crazy!

[ElkHunter]