Wyoming sees wettest May in years

We don't really want to say anything out loud, but it looks like the constant rain is finally over, at least as far as the National Weather Service can determine today.

It's not hard to believe, but parts of Wyoming had the wettest May since 1960.

Here in Hot Springs County we had an inch-and-a-half more rain in May than we normally do and we were five degrees cooler than normal, making 2019 the third coolest May on record.

We were having winter storm warnings well into the middle of May, and even though the storms came through and dumped large amounts of snow, we were fortunate it all melted rather quickly, most within 24 hours or less.

Of course, with spring comes calving season and the births of other farm and ranch animals. Farmers and ranchers will tell you a cow, a horse, a sheep, any animal, will wait until the weather is absolutely miserable before giving birth.

Farming and ranching practices have gotten so sophisticated now that the weather doesn't have the devastating impact it once had. In fact, very few animals were lost locally because of the cold weather.

That doesn't mean things weren't tough, though.

The rain and snow brought mud which made it difficult in some areas to get around, even making travel on private roads hazardous at times due to the slick, muddy mess.

It also made it hard on the farmers trying to get their crops in the ground. Some were able to get things in in between storms, but a window of just a couple of days to plant can be nearly impossible for those with large acreage.

One local grower said their second planting of corn only has a few plants up at this point, so they will be have to replant. Pumpkins and cucumbers will have to be replanted as well since they said none of the seeds germinated.

They do have a few watermelon and other plants that came up, but not many and its too late to replant. At this point, they're hoping the crops make it and praying there aren't any hailstorms this year that could completely devastate the entire crop.

That holds true for the simple back yard gardener, too.

Those with perennials already in the ground when the rains came are now seeing tremendous growth with the sunny days. Iris, in particular, are a lot taller this season than they've been for a while.

Those who planted seeds outside are finding they didn't germinate due to the high amount of water, either.