Bruce Mason

1 week ago | tetonvalleynews.net | Bruce Mason

There was one feature of April that made it notable, and it wasn’t the temperature or the wind. The average temperature was within a degree of normal for the month, with the usual wide swings on either side of average. The wind gusted over 40 MPH at times last month, but that wasn’t unusual. The end of March through the beginning of April is historically the windiest time in the valley. Remember that it was on April 4, 2022, that the Spud Drive-in screen blew down.

2 weeks ago | tetonvalleynews.net | Bruce Mason

At the time of this writing, Sunday, April 27th, the last measurable snow we had at my measuring spot north of the airport in Driggs was on April 18th. Measurable snow means it was no less than one tenth of an inch deep on the white wooden measuring boards when I stuck my ruler in it. There is a good chance that more snow will fall between now and the time you read this, but how much and whether or not it is measurable remains to be seen.

3 weeks ago | tetonvalleynews.net | Bruce Mason

There was much to celebrate this week. Among them was Earth Day. It was my pleasure to meet many weather fans and future scientists at the Earth Day celebration on Saturday at the Fair Ground. As your genial Teton Valley weatherman, I may be slightly biased, but I think Earth Day might need to be renamed Earth and Atmosphere Day. After all, without the air surrounding it, what would Earth be? Nothing more than a dusty rock covered with craters, like the Moon.

1 month ago | tetonvalleynews.net | Bruce Mason

We spend a lot of time looking at precipitation amounts and temperatures, which are important things to be aware of. But let’s not forget about the wind. Strong, gusty wind is a given any time of year in Teton Valley, mostly, but not always from the southwest. Now we are in spring, the windiest part of the year on average. This is the month that, in 2022, the screen at the Spud Drive-in blew down.

1 month ago | tetonvalleynews.net | Bruce Mason

Sprrrring is here. Many of us have been looking forward to it with visions of sunny, warm days, melting snow, greening grass, sprouting flowers, and… what’s that other thing? Vole trails showing up. So far this spring, my yard looks about normal for vole trails, probably fewer than the last couple of years. They go in cycles; as the vole population increases, there is less food to go around, and their predators thrive, so the vole population decreases accordingly.