Historic Low Temperatures shatter records in Casper, Wyoming. Shocking cold temperatures hit our town. It was crazy with snow and COLD. Mainly COLD. Record breaking low temperatures. We have learned how to keep warm in the winter weather with lots of layers, boots and gloves. Frostbite can set in 10 minutes at the temperatures this cold. Many thought cranking up the heat would fix everything, but we still had broken pipes in homes and trailer houses. Davidson Mechanical in Casper Wyoming saved the day for a friend of mine. Pets had to be brought inside, even the outside dogs and cats. Ranchers fed extra hay to their livestock and gave extra grain and supplements. We all just hunkered down and got through it. Business and life did not stop during the weather! I showed houses when it was below zero!
December 21st marked the first day of winter and wowza was it cold? December 22nd was 70 degrees less than it is right now and it’s cold right now. I just don’t have a jacket on to film this video. Wyoming weather definitely sets us apart from other places. Hi, I’m Alisha Collins with the Alisha Collins real Estate team.
Let’s talk about records, shall we? Sometimes you can make records by doing something great, sports, sales or other amazing feats. Sometimes records are created by accomplishing the worst of something or maybe it’s even weather. I think deep down we might all want to make the record books. Am I right? Well, Wyoming made her way into the record books last week in a big, big way. Last week, we had an enormous cold front move through our state, all the surrounding states, really. Here in Casper, the low temperature was 42 degrees below zero. Yes, you heard me right, 42 degrees below zero. That could be the coldest the community has ever seen. It was for sure the coldest temperature recorded since 1939. And guess what? That is as far back as the meteorological reports go for the state. It was said that the temperature dropped by 29 degrees during 145 minute window that day. Yikes!
So how do we keep warm here during our Wyoming winters? The first step to staying warm during the harsh cold is layers. To go outside during the negative temperatures, you have to have had multiple layers of clothes starting with a base layer that fits tightly and helps create your first layer of defense against the temperature. Then you just kind of pile on the clothes and finish layering with good sock boots and a heavy coat. Of course, you need gloves and for sure something to cover your ears.
Last week, I was showing houses because we can’t let the cold slow us down and I did bundle up tight to make sure I didn’t freeze. It is said that at the temperatures we experienced last week, it would take just 10 minutes for frostbite to set in. Now, maybe you weren’t planning to go outside. You still have to prepare for the cold. You might think you’re safe as long as you stay in the house, but that is not always the case. Maybe you think you can just crank up the heat and you should, but that won’t prevent freezing. Even with the heat cranked, we did have some frozen pipes in houses and trailer houses. You know what?
I had a friend client who had a break on the outside wall. The water shot threw the drywall and sprayed all over the laundry room. What a mess! Thankfully, they were home. Davidson Mechanical came over and fixed that broken pipe for them. They will have a little cleanup but beyond that, all is well.
We had a trailer house experience a water break. It was the water line to the washer. It froze and sprayed all over under the trailer and it went around the trailer. It was a nice ice skating rink. My husband is going to put a new line of pecks to the washer instead of the PVC pipe. He is not a fan of this PVC pipe through the trailers and houses. We had another rental trailer that froze up. The heat tape went bad, so we replaced it and now it should be good to go. Speaking of heat tape, if you come from a warmer climate than Wyoming, you might not be familiar with what heat tape is. It is exactly what the name implies. A roll of tape that you wrap around your pipes often underneath trailer homes or modular homes, sometimes houses too. Then, you plug in the tape, it heats up and it’s supposed to prevent the pipes from freezing. Last week, even heat tape had trouble keeping up with its job. Plenty of homeowners that were prepared with tape had pipes that froze. It was just so, so cold.
Another way we can keep our pipes thawed out is by leaving a small drip running through our faucets through the house. You may even see citywide signs reminding residents to do this as winter approaches to help prevent freezing and bursting of pipes. Sometimes it becomes more than just a homeowner problem and can affect neighbors and the entire city. It’s a community worry when it comes to pipes.
Back to the cold of last week. If you had pets, a drop intense like last week, ensures that you have to think about keeping your animals warm as well as yourself. We had to bring the dogs inside for sure. Some residents talked about how even letting their pups out to use the bathroom quickly became a problem when their teeny paws froze. Of course, there are cold weather loving dog breeds but I think even they were loving the heat of the indoors last week.
At our house, we made sure that our horses had their blankets on and they were in their stalls in the barn. Of course, in Wyoming, we have many ranchers that have big herds of animals such as cattle, and you can’t bring them into your home like the dogs or obviously the barn is not big enough for the whole herd. So what do you do? Ranchers in all of the colder climates take several steps to ensure the best care possible for their animals. One thing they make sure to do in extreme cold is they will increase the amount of feed that cattle and horses receive in order to boost their metabolism and help produce body heat in their animals. They may do this by providing extra hay or they may increase supplements like corn or other feed mix depending on what’s available. Also, you will see many ranchers will put out straw for cattle, they lie in as bedding that will help keep them dry and warm. For cattle that are unable to be brought into the barn, which is mostly due to herd size, wind breaks are set up in pastures so that animals can escape from sharp biting winds which if you’ve been following me for long, you know that the wind is something we see plenty of here in Wyoming. A wind break could be made out of railroad ties, hay bales or sometimes they might build a structure out of tin. Anything to block the wind will do. Fresh water needs to be available for all of these animals as well and we have to obviously make sure that it doesn’t freeze. Freshwater is critical to livestock so ranchers will chop poles on the ice on ponds and streams so that animals have access to clean freshwater. This is especially important during winter storms. You’ll even see around here all of the 4-H kids breaking water for their own animals. Freshwater is so important.
We learned a couple lessons during the weather too. One of them is that we need to use number one diesel in my husband’s skid steer. He went to blow snow open on a drifted road and his skid steer diesel gelled up. A neighbor had diesel 911 to add to our number two diesel but it was too gelled up to fix it. Since it has never been this cold before, of course, my husband didn’t know that. Now we know.
You’ll notice if you visit Wyoming or make it your home, we don’t tend to slow down no matter what the weather is. This beautiful state is made up of hardworking people that keep going no matter what comes our way. With a little prep and a whole lot of body layers like I mentioned above, we can really do anything. And you know what? We all feel like we’re in a heat wave now. A dip in the record breaking lows can make you appreciate 27 degrees like it is right now pretty quick What’s the coldest temperatures you’ve ever experienced?
Comment below and let us know and be sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss a video. Wyoming is really one of the greatest places on earth. I really believe that and I wanna share all the great things about Wyoming and living in this wonderful state with you. And of course, I love where I live. I’d love for you to love where you live as well. If we can help you with real estate, I have a great network of people all over the United States. I’d love to help you. Remember, we want you to love where you live. See you soon.