Around the 307
News, commentary, and other items of interest from the greater Wyoming landscape.
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Hello Wyoming—it’s a beautiful spring day! Here are news items from around the Cowboy State for the week of May 5th, 2024:
On Wednesday, May 8th, Yellowstone National Park (YNP) posted a press release announcing the park’s South Gate was expected to open for the season on May 10th. As of the writing of this post the South Gate and all roads within YNP are indeed open! Giddy-up! It’s tourist season y’all! [Note that the East Gate from Cody opened on May 3rd.]
On Thursday, May 9th a news release was posted announcing the State of Wyoming has filed two lawsuits challenging new rules from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA rules at issue target coal and natural-gas fired power plants and the State of Wyoming believes these rules could cripple the state’s core energy industries. You can read Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon’s news release here.
Also on May 9th , Cowboy State Daily published an article announcing social media giant Meta Platforms Inc., (the conglomerate that owns Facebook and Instagram) plans to build a multibillion-dollar data center in south Cheyenne. The business friendly nature of Wyoming, not to mention the cooler year-round temperatures, are apparently pluses for Meta inking the Cowboy State for this project. Read the full story here.
Lastly—the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) issued a Geomagnetic Storm Watch for Friday May 10th and Saturday May 11th. What does this mean you might ask? Well, Wyomingites had a rare opportunity to observe an aurora in the night sky—aka the Northern Lights! Check out this video compilation of the show from the National Weather Service at Riverton. So bummed I missed it! Apparently four coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the sun that occurred this week are the reason why NOAA SWPC issued this Geomagnetic Storm Watch.
Okeedok—that’s all for today ladies and gents! Thanks for reading and have a great week!
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