February is still deep winter across Wyoming, but the light is returning and the first stirrings show — Great Horned Owls hooting at dusk, Golden Eagles refurbishing cliff nests, and the elk and Trumpeter Swans still holding on the National Elk Refuge. The high country stays locked in snow while the basins endure their long cold.
Week by week in February
January 29 – February 4
- Great Horned Owls, Wyoming's earliest nesters, begin hooting and courting on mild evenings, claiming old eagle and hawk nests in the cottonwoods.
- Start onions and leeks under lights now — the slowest crops need this head start to mature in a short, frost-bracketed mountain season.
- Clark's nutcrackers still recover cached limber-pine seed on the high windswept ridges, the cone crop that carries them through winter.
February 5–11
- Trumpeter Swans and Barrow's goldeneye hold on the National Elk Refuge spring creeks as the deep-winter elk gathering continues at Jackson.
- The Orion Nebula glows in Orion's sword, an easy target in any telescope under the dark, transparent skies of a Wyoming February night.
- Prune dormant apple, plum, and cherry trees while fully leafless, and wrap young trunks against the sunscald of bright winter days.
February 12–18
- Listen at dusk in the foothill forests for the soft toots of Northern Pygmy-Owls and the whinny of Northern Saw-whet Owls beginning to call.
- Willows in the milder river bottoms begin to swell and color their buds, the earliest faint sign of the turn toward spring.
- The winter hexagon of Capella, Aldebaran, Rigel, Sirius, Procyon, and Pollux dominates the south over the Red Desert's famously dark skies.
February 19–25
- Bald Eagles begin refurbishing huge stick nests along the open rivers, and the first horned larks sing over the windswept basin flats.
- Late February is the window to start onions, leeks, and early brassicas under lights for the high valleys' brief growing season.
- Western tiger swallowtails wait out the cold as chrysalides fastened to streamside willow and cottonwood twigs along the Snake and Green.
Birds This Month
February is the quiet heart of Wyoming winter birding, with the same hardy cast as January but the first hints of the turn. The National Elk Refuge still holds its Trumpeter Swans, Barrow's goldeneye, and wintering ducks on the open spring creeks, and town feeders stay busy with mountain and black-capped chickadees, pygmy nuthatches, Cassin's finches, pine siskins, and gray-crowned rosy-finches dropping from the peaks in storms. Bohemian Waxwings in irruption years strip mountain-ash and juniper in the towns.
The open basins still belong to raptors — wintering Golden Eagles, Rough-legged Hawks, prairie falcons, and northern shrikes — and along the open Snake, Green, and North Platte the Bald Eagles begin refurbishing their huge stick nests. Great Horned Owls, the state's earliest nesters, hoot and court on mild evenings and may already be incubating in old eagle and hawk nests in the cottonwoods. Flocks of gray partridge and sharp-tailed grouse feed in stubble and roost in snow, and the first horned larks sing over the windswept flats.
This month's tip: listen at dusk for owls — Great Horned, and in the foothill forests the soft toots of Northern Pygmy and the whinny of Northern Saw-whet Owls — and keep feeders stocked through the late-winter cold snaps when natural food runs lowest.
What's Blooming
February remains a blooming-free month outdoors in Wyoming — the sagebrush steppe and mountain meadows stay frozen and snow-covered, and even the earliest sagebrush buttercup, the state's first wild bloom, will not open on the warmest south-facing foothills until late March at the soonest. The dormant landscape still offers its winter structure: the silver sweep of big sagebrush, the orange hips of wild rose, the red stems of red-osier dogwood in the draws, and the dark berry-like cones of Rocky Mountain juniper. As the light strengthens, watch the willows along the river bottoms for the first faint swelling of pussy willow catkins late in the month in the milder valleys. Indoors, high-country gardeners force bulbs and branches and start the season's earliest onions and leeks under lights, the only growing the long winter allows.
Garden This Month
February gardening in Wyoming is still indoor and planning work, but the slowest crops can now begin. Start onions, leeks, and celery under grow lights late in the month — in a short, cold-bracketed season these need a head start of eight to ten weeks to size up before the brief summer. Finish ordering seed, test germination on any leftover packets, and clean, sharpen, and oil tools for the season ahead. It is also the right time to prune dormant apple, plum, and cherry trees while they are fully leafless and the structure is easy to read.
Outdoors, keep protecting the garden through the late-winter swings. Snow remains the high country's best insulation, so leave it banked over perennial crowns, strawberries, and fall garlic; the danger now is the freeze-thaw whiplash of February Chinooks on the eastern foothills, which can heave crowns and split bark. Wrap or shade young fruit-tree trunks on their southwest side to prevent sunscald, and keep heavy wet snow knocked off arborvitae and young conifers.
Zone 3b (Jackson Hole, high valleys): still fully dormant under snow, but it is time to start the slowest crops indoors — onions, leeks, and celery need a long head start to mature in a valley where frost is possible any month. Keep snow banked over perennials and cold frames.
Zone 4b (warmer basin towns, Torrington area): the ground stays frozen, but late February is the window to start onions, leeks, and early brassicas under lights, and to prune dormant apples and other fruit while fully leafless.
What's at the Farmers Market
Wyoming's market scene in February is still the indoor winter markets and on-ranch sales in Cheyenne, Laramie, Sheridan, Cody, and the valleys. The durable harvest holds: storage potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, turnips, and winter squash from the irrigated valleys, keeping well into late winter. The state's grass-fed beef, along with lamb and bison, sells year-round from local ranchers as freezer shares and at indoor markets.
Look for Wyoming honey from alfalfa and clover, jarred preserves and chokecherry jelly, and eggs and the first cold-hardy greens — spinach, kale, and mache — from growers who overwinter them in heated hoop houses and low tunnels. Keep roots cool, dark, and humid and squash cool and dry, and refrigerate the precious winter greens to use quickly while they last.
Night Sky This Month
February gives Wyoming long, cold, exceptionally clear nights under some of the darkest skies in the country. The Red Desert and the southwest basins remain a premier dark-sky destination, the backcountry of Yellowstone and Grand Teton darker still, and even towns like Pinedale, Lander, and Saratoga sit under skies where the Milky Way is plain. The dry winter air gives the steadiest, most transparent viewing of the year for anyone willing to brave the cold.
The brilliant winter hexagon — Capella, Aldebaran, Rigel, Sirius, Procyon, and Pollux — dominates the south, with Orion at its heart and the Orion Nebula a fine target in his sword in any telescope. Gemini and Auriga ride high overhead, and by late evening Leo climbs in the east, the herald of spring. The faint winter Milky Way arches overhead on the clearest nights.
Exact planet positions shift year to year — the printable Wyoming night-sky guide lists this season's planet visibility and the darkest viewing sites near you.
Butterflies & Pollinators
No butterflies fly in a Wyoming February — the state stays frozen and snow-covered, and even the river bottoms are weeks from the first flight. The summer's species wait out the cold in dormant forms across every habitat. Mourning cloaks and the related Milbert's tortoiseshells overwinter as adults in cottonwood bark, woodpiles, and rock crevices along the Green, Snake, and North Platte, riding out the cold on built-in antifreeze until the first warm March or April day calls them out over snowmelt. The western tiger swallowtail overwinters as a chrysalis fastened to a willow or cottonwood twig in the riparian corridors, and Weidemeyer's admiral as a half-grown caterpillar in a rolled aspen-leaf shelter. High in the Tetons and Wind Rivers the Rocky Mountain parnassian sleeps as an egg or young larva among the snow-buried stonecrop and talus. February is the month to finalize a pollinator plan — local milkweed, native balsamroot, lupine, penstemon, and a long aster succession — so the beds are ready when the short alpine summer arrives.
What to plant for them is in the Wyoming native plants guide
Trees This Month
Wyoming's trees are still dormant in February, but the lengthening light begins to register. Along the river bottoms the bare plains cottonwoods hold their massive gray-barked frames over the frozen Green, Snake, North Platte, and Bighorn, and the willows in the draws begin to show the first faint color and swelling buds in the milder valleys, the earliest sign of the turn. On the mountain slopes the quaking aspen stands stay leafless and chalk-white, buds set.
The conifers carry the season as they have all winter. Lodgepole pine blankets the Yellowstone and Medicine Bow plateaus, Douglas-fir and Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir hold the higher slopes, and wind-twisted limber pines grip the exposed ridges. On the dry foothills the Rocky Mountain junipers keep their gray-green needles and frosted cones, and around the towns the planted Colorado blue spruce and ponderosa pine stand dark against the snow. Watch for Clark's nutcrackers still caching and recovering limber-pine seeds on the high ridges.
Weather & Daylight
Across Wyoming, a typical February day averages a high near 35°F and a low near 13°F, with about 1.0 inches of precipitation — statewide averages from the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals.
Still locked in winter's grip, afternoons hover around freezing while nights stay bitterly cold under crisp, mostly dry skies.
| Average high | 35°F |
|---|---|
| Average low | 13°F |
| Precipitation | 1.0 in |
| Sunrise (mid-month) | 7:08 MT |
| Sunset (mid-month) | 17:40 MT |
Figures are statewide averages over the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals; local conditions vary with elevation and distance from the coast. Sunrise and sunset are computed for a midstate point on the 15th (MT).
Next month's version of this page, by email
One short note when Wyoming's next month turns — what's arriving, blooming, and worth a night outside.
Go deeper with the Wyoming guides
The complete Wyoming birding, native-plant, and night-sky references — or the whole year, week by week, in one book.
Same month elsewhere: February in Alabama · February in Arizona · February in Arkansas