It is December in southeastern Wyoming. Some would assume with winter upon us, we would have snow. 

In fact...we don’t. 

Here in southeastern Wyoming, we have tumbleweeds. 

After growing up in eastern Idaho, moving to Wyoming was an adjustment. I had been living in the Snake River Valley for years and I moved to the prairies of Wyoming. The weather has been the most difficult thing to “get used to” here. 

It isn’t the boiling hot summers we have been causing me such an issue. Overtime, you learn to rise before the sun and put in an entire day’s worth of work before the heat comes along to zap you. You learn to work after dinner as the sun is beginning to hide. You can escape the heat. You learn to water your yard when the sun isn’t up, and you learn the route to the closest reservoir to cool off for the day. 

Growing up, they seeded the clouds in Idaho, hoping we would get more snow. We were out of school for nearly a month. Roads were completely missing under a heavy blanket of snow. Farmers and ranchers took tractors and other equipment to town to help clean up the massive drifts and piles throughout the town. Eastern Idaho had record snow fall, so I know it isn’t the snow that drive me crazy in Wyoming. 

It isn’t the rain. It isn’t the fact I can start my day with the windows down, sunny and 75 degree and drive 15 minutes where it is snowing and below 30 degrees. 

It’s the wind. 

It is hard enough living in a place where the air literally hurts my face but now, we have added “wind chill” in the winter. If the temperatures themselves don’t darn near kill ya, the wind will. Most of us Wyomingites stand sideways if you are really playing attention. We must brace ourselves for the incoming wind gusts.  We really can’t really stand up straight because when we do, we are blow sideways, one direction or another. 

And that’s another thing...the wind speeds in Wyoming match the same windspeeds as weak tornados. How is that even fair? 

Most of us in the agriculture world also know the joys and discomforts wind plays in our ever day lives. 

I can’t even begin to count the number of times a nice breeze has carried my flake of hay back to me. Of course, it is always right in the face. It doesn’t seem to matter what direction you’re tossing the hay; it comes right back to you in Wyoming. 

We permanently have dirt in our eyes around here. It’s just the way we see things. Sometimes I feel an appropriate solution to the problem would be wearing swimming goggles while outdoors in Wyoming. 

Let’s not forget about driving anywhere in the wind. I have had more “white knuckle” moments due to the insane windspeed than I have because of winter weather. Semi-trucks take naps in the Wyoming wind because, well, there’s not much else to do when the wind is blowing so hard your trailer lays over. 

Wyoming shuts down because of the wind to high profile vehicles. Even pickups with campers aren’t excluded from nap time around here. 

With the Wyoming winter wind also comes tumbleweeds. The fence lines are decorated for the season around here. Miles and miles of tumbleweeds adorn barbwire fences and the occasional prairie tree. 

It is a sight to see when the tumbleweeds find a location to gather. Piles of weeds towering well over six feet stretch alongside the highways. 

The tumbleweeds will chase you down the highway too if you’re not paying attention and sometimes, they also run lane interference dodging oncoming vehicles. 

I love Wyoming. Between the breathtaking sunsets to its prairie thunderstorms, I love Wyoming. 

But this wind. It blows.