JACKSON, Wyo. — After rain drenched the valley this week, Buckrail reached out to the National Weather Service (NWS) in Riverton to gain a deeper understanding of February’s warmer temperatures.
NWS Meteorologist Lance VandenBoogart told Buckrail on Wednesday, Feb. 5, that it is not unheard of for temperatures to reach the high 40s in Jackson during February. While the NWS has temperature and precipitation records for the Jackson area over the past 120 years, it would take more detailed research to determine exactly when warm air coincided with rainfall, since precipitation data includes both rain and melted snow.
According to VandenBoogart, Jackson’s weather station has been in operation since 1905. The town’s weather station data reveals that on average the coldest month is January.
“January is the dead heart of winter,” VandenBoogart said. “Once you get to February, things start warming up a little bit.”
Since 1905, VandenBoogart said that the warmest day in January, on average, was approximately 43 degrees in Jackson. The maximum warmest January day ever recorded was 55 degrees in 1974. Over the last 120 years, the average high temperature in February has been 46 degrees. The warmest recorded day in February was 58 degrees in 1986, according to Jackson’s weather data.
VandenBoogart added that on Tuesday, Feb. 4, the temperature reached a high of 49 degrees. According to the NWS, this temperature high between mid-January to mid-February is the 31st warmest day on record for that time period since 1905.
“That is fairly significant,” VandenBoogart said. “It shows that the warmth that you’ve had for the last couple of days is fairly warm. It’s not the warmest day ever, but it’s in the top 31 out of hundreds of days going back.”
Conversely, in that same January to February time period, the coldest day on record is -49 degrees in 1962. More recently, on Jan. 16, 2024, temperatures dipped down to -28 degrees, and on Jan. 20, 2025, temperatures dropped to -26.
VandenBoogart said that although snow is the much more common precipitation type for Jackson winters, a weather feature called an “atmospheric river” can cause rain during this time of year. He explained that this weather pattern, which occurred a few days ago, caused a warm air mass to be pushed into the interior mountains of the west.
“It’s been a mild, almost tropical feeling period compared to recent mid-winter cold,” VandenBoogart said. “Most Californians have heard of atmospheric rivers — where you get moisture over the tropical Pacific that gets pulled to the northeast. If it’s going to the northeast then it will run into the mountains of California. Sometimes that moisture makes its way into the interior west, through Nevada, Idaho and even into Wyoming. This warmer air has a lot of moisture with it and that’s what has been forcing all this precipitation.”
According to VandenBoogart, a notable atmospheric river pushes into different areas of the west approximately one to three times a winter.
