Old Man Winter offers a preview

After a downright pleasant start to fall, Sundance saw its first snowfall last week when the white stuff made a gentle appearance early on Wednesday morning and then disappeared by lunchtime. So how long till the white carpet settles back over Crook County?

The Old Farmer's Almanac is predicting that the coming months will be "A Tale of Two Winters" for the United States, with some areas set to experience a relatively mild season, while others will be sore in need of a good snow plow.

Northeast Wyoming will fall into the latter category, according to the famous forecasting source. This area sits to the north of the High Plains region, which it says will be colder than normal – especially in late November to early December and the beginnings and ends of January and February, while snowfall and precipitation will be above normal.

The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center doesn't quite agree. Its own forecast suggests that the rest of the month will be up to 50% warmer than average, with equal chances of precipitation that's greater, less or the same as normal.

The three-month outlook meanwhile places the county at equal chances of warmer, colder or average temperatures until the end of the year. This area also has equal chances of more, less or the same amount of precipitation as it receives in an average year.

Meanwhile, the drought that is currently still impacting around half of the contiguous United States will improve in some parts of the Plains. Across the West, the drought has been at its most severe and 74% of the region continues to experience it to some degree.

The drought outlook for this area from the National Integrated Drought Information System places Crook County at "abnormally dry".