Wyoming’s July 4 Weekend Will Run Hot And Cold — Highs In the 90s, Lows In The 30s

Wyoming's Fourth of July weekend will run hot and cold, with a forecast that includes highs in the 90s and overnight lows in the 30s. Afternoon thunderstorms are also a safe bet.

AR
Andrew Rossi

July 03, 20256 min read

Wyoming's Fourth of July weekend will run hot and cold, with a forecast that includes highs in the 90s and overnight lows in the 30s. Afternoon thunderstorms are also a safe bet.
Wyoming's Fourth of July weekend will run hot and cold, with a forecast that includes highs in the 90s and overnight lows in the 30s. Afternoon thunderstorms are also a safe bet. (Harland Schmidt via Alamy)

The Fourth of July weekend forecast includes 90-degree highs, afternoon thunderstorms, and overnight temperatures in the 30s. But, seeing as Wyoming is a big state, your results may vary.

Where a tourist might see extremes, meteorologists see averages. And, as always, people have short memories when it comes to the weather.

“When the air gets drier, temperatures at night fall quicker and lower,” said Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day. “That does mean some cooler nights in some of those higher mountain valleys, but nothing out of whack.”

Wetting The Fuse?

The forecast for July 4 is a summer smorgasbord. Highs will be in the 80s and 90s, with a chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms throughout the day.

“The highest chance for thunderstorms everywhere will be on the Fourth of July,” Day said. “It'll be different depending on where you are, but that’s the thing folks have to remember in this part of the country.”

Day cautioned that July thunderstorms are often short but intense. It might rain on a few parades in the Cowboy State, and some of those storms could be severe.

“I like to highlight three things: wind, lightning, and downpours,” he said. “You can get brief wind gusts between 40 and 60 mph, frequent lightning strikes, and heavy downpours during these storms. They won’t last long, but they’ll be out there, and people need to be prepared.”

Lance VandenBoogart, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Riverton, said there will be widespread shower activity across Wyoming on Friday afternoon. By Friday evening, the chances will decrease but won’t disappear.

“It looks like precipitation chances are between 20 to 30% for many areas on Friday evening,” he said. “That’s a typical summer evening in Wyoming. We're not completely dry without a cloud in the sky, but the chances for any individual location to get rain are fairly low.”

A few cumulonimbus clouds can make an incredible backdrop for a fireworks display. However, those same clouds can bring enough moisture to delay or cancel the fireworks altogether.

Day thinks there could be “lingering thunderstorms” across Wyoming on Friday evening. That could make for a day of perfect parade weather, followed by less-than-optimal conditions for a night of fireworks.

“I can't tell you where, but there may be some thunderstorms hanging on into the evening,” he said. “That may affect fireworks, but it’s too early to say.”

Beat The Heat

If thunderstorms don’t enter themselves into parades at the last minute, Independence Day should be a reasonably pleasant summer day. VandenBoogart said Wyomingites should expect partly sunny skies and slightly above-average temperatures.

“It will be fairly typical weather this time of year, or maybe just a little warmer than usual,” he said. “Highs for a lot of Central Wyoming are going to be around 90, but that's not atypical for the first week of July.”

The morning should be partly sunny with highs from the low 80s to the low 90s. Cloudy skies and the thunderstorms they bring won’t become widespread until the afternoon.

Day said Wyoming will be “July warm” on July 4.

“We're not going to have any record heat,” he said. “Temperatures in the 80s or near 90 for the plains and 70s and 80s in the higher elevations are pretty close to what you'd expect in early July. We’ll just need to look out for those afternoon thunderstorms.”

A Not-So-Drastic Drop

The forecast for July 4 should carry over into the weekend. However, there will be a noticeable but normal drop in temperatures overnight.

Overnight lows in the mountains of Western Wyoming could dip into the low 30s on Saturday and Sunday nights. Visitors at Old Faithful might wake up to a 30-degree morning on Monday.

A 40 to 50-degree drop in temperature might sound drastic, but Day and VandenBoogart said that’s what Wyomingites should expect during the summer. It’s a natural consequence of living in a dry climate.

 “Drier air makes temperatures drop faster,” Day said. “I could see it dropping into the 30s in the higher mountain valleys, but that’s not unusual. I was in the Snowy Range last weekend, and it dropped to 34 degrees overnight, so I don't see anything extraordinary with those cold temperatures.”

Over the weekend, most of Wyoming will experience overnight temperatures in the high 40s and 50s. The coldest temperatures will be felt at elevations above 9,000 feet, which is where they’d be expected.

VandenBoogart noted that Riverton’s average overnight low for the first weekend in July is 52 degrees. The average low for Saturday and Sunday nights will be 54 degrees, slightly above the average.

“The overnight temperature drop is going to be fairly normal for this time of year,” he said. “It's not like a big, colder-than-normal system is moving through. We do have a little weather system prompting those afternoon showers and thunderstorms, but it won’t be a widespread cold, wet event.”

Day addressed the concerns over colder temperatures by firmly stating what isn’t going to happen this weekend.

“We won’t have snow on the Beartooth Highway,” he said. “The system coming through is nothing like what we had a couple of weeks ago. We’re not going to have snow this weekend.”

By The Minute-Men

The meteorological takeaway from the Fourth of July forecast is that Wyomingites should be prepared for anything. Bring sunscreen and an umbrella to the parade, and a waterproof jacket to the fireworks.

The three-day weekend will be dominated by hot, sunny mornings followed by cloudy, stormy afternoons and chilly nights. Tourists might spend a small fortune on hoodies and sweatpants in the souvenir shops when they’re caught off guard, but Wyomingites should know what to expect.

“We just have to be smart about everything that could happen,” Day said. “Play the fair weather you tend to have in the mornings to your advantage. Don't start your summit ascent on the top of a mountain ridge in the afternoon. Don't camp next to or at the bottom of a creek. Not that people do that kind of thing, but you'd be surprised.”

 

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.

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Andrew Rossi

Features Reporter

Andrew Rossi is a features reporter for Cowboy State Daily based in northwest Wyoming. He covers everything from horrible weather and giant pumpkins to dinosaurs, astronomy, and the eccentricities of Yellowstone National Park.