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We’re already looking ahead and wondering when this summer winter storm is going to pass.

Wyoming’s weatherman Don Day says the weekend is going to be great. But until then, we have a big storm to work around.

“When you look out your window in many areas here in the Rockies and the High Plains, the storm is going to impact the region through Friday. This is a doozy of a storm system folks for this early in the season,” Day said in his morning forecast.

Day said the storm doesn’t mean winter has arrived. This is just an “interruption,” he said.

“We’ve got nice fall weather coming but certainly it is fall now. This storm system is basically readjusting the jet stream and we’re still going to have some warm dry days coming up in September and October.”

Travel conditions will improve after early Wednesday, Day said. 

And, although it may not seem that way, there is some good news that’s coming out of this moisture. It’s killing the fire season and will help with the drought.

“This is a godsend for the fires across the area,” Day said. “This is going to just do wonders with the fire situation. Especially the bad fire in the Front Range, the mountains west of Fort Collins. Look at all of that good moisture there.”

Wyoming will bounce back from this storm system but it’s going to take some time, Day said.

“Basically it’s going to stay very cool through Friday and we’ll see rain on the plains and snow showers in the high country. But by Saturday afternoon, we’ve got a nice high pressure Ridge returning to the region. It’s not a hot one.”

The following is a computer-generated transcript of the Don Day daily forecast. For best results, watch the video embedded above.

It’s Tuesday, September 8 2020, although you’d swear it’s November or December 8 2020. When you look at your window in many areas here in the Rockies and the High Plains, the storm is going to impact the region through Friday. 

Folks, a lot of the biggest impacts are certainly coming through the next 24 hours. This is a doozy of a storm system folks for this early in the season. We’ll have travel impacts into early Wednesday, after early Wednesday. I think travel conditions will improve although it’s going to be slow going still over the higher elevations of it and this the mountain passes of the region. 

Now this is a godsend for the fires that fire situation in Colorado, the Cameron Peak fire area blowing up over the weekend, causing widespread smoke across the Front Range, a huge increase in acreage that burned up but this is going to be a godsend the storm will for that fire and other fires burning in the West. And also the area’s most impacted by the real severe drought conditions this summer. 

We’ll get good moisture out of the storm system. Now by the weekend, we’re right back to nice September weather again. This doesn’t mean we’re into winter folks, it’s an interruption. We’ve got nice fall weather coming but certainly it is fall now, after the storm system is basically readjusting the jetstream and we’re likely … still gonna have some real warm dry days coming up in September, October, we’ll have other fronts as well. But good weather will return by the weekend. 

This is where we are today the big ridge in the Gulf of Alaska then the deep trough cutting into the United States. The upper level low over Utah is now bringing moisture into the region on top of the Arctic boundary that came into the region and is all away is even pushed west of the Continental Divide. So this is where we get overriding southwest winds over the cold air moisture getting lifted over the cold air. Great way to make it snow. The trajectory of the air follow the wind barbs …

Look how far … you wonder why it’s so cold because of the trajectory The air is coming all the way up basically from near the Arctic Circle folks. You wonder how things could change so quickly? Well over the weekend we had record heat come up from the deserts. And now we’ve actually completely done a 180 and bring it in from the Arctic. 

This is our temperature relative to normal as of this morning. Look at the extent of this cold plunge You know, this cold plunge is going to go east and will affect other areas of the Corn Belt Midwest just not the Rockies and high plains but that is one impressive cold blast. This is the precipitation that will fall through the next three or four days. 

Most of the heavier precipitation now is falling up in northern Wyoming and southern Montana but now it’s central and southern Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, the Western and high planes that are going to get a goodly amount of moisture, widespread moisture, the best we’ve seen in months in some areas, and you can see the yellow here the heavier precipitation in the mountains of Colorado, up into Wyoming. 

This is going to just do wonders with the fire situation. Especially the bad fire in the Front Range, the mountains west of Fort Collins. 

Look at all of that good moisture there. This is what temperatures are going to be like relative to average by tomorrow afternoon Denver 48 degrees below normal for temperatures by noon on Wednesday. That is one heck of a cold wave for this time of year. Look at this minus 30 degrees relative to normal going all the way through Amarillo and headed towards El Paso. Now let’s see what happens with the pattern. 

This is for tomorrow morning. The upper level low barely moves. It just parks itself right along the Colorado-Utah line. High pressure stays in the Gulf of Alaska and the storm is gonna basically linger keeping us cold and wet well into the day on Wednesday. By Friday, look at that, it barely moves. 

This is today. Two days later. It’s in East Central Wyoming. Now notice it’s not as strong. So what it will do is keep a cool moist, unstable airmass overhead. So basically it’s going to stay very cool through Friday and Wednesday through Friday will bring occasional showers of rain on the plains and snow showers to the high country, the region. 

But by Saturday afternoon, we’ve got a nice high pressure ridge returning to the region. It’s not a hot one. But what it will do is bring a return of nice looking, in fact, great looking September weather by the weekend that will probably stretch into all the next week and this is by next Thursday and Friday. 

A more zonal west to east flow goes across the country, so it’ll warm up. Now it won’t be terribly hot except here in California. The rest of the nation. This is really looking like a fall pattern with the jetstream, looking stronger, be more south towards the U.S. border. 

Tropical activity showing up again, in a long, long range charts. Maybe from mid to late next week something to keep an eye on. Thanks for listening and watching to the Day weather podcast. Hopefully you can get through the storm. Okay, talk to you Wednesday.

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We were holding out hope that a change in the weather pattern would mean the talk of snow early next week would dissipate. 

Fuggedaboutit. It’s happening.

Wyoming weatherman Don Day gave us absolutely no hope on Friday afternoon as he killed the thought of a reprieve from the wintry grim reaper.  

“Our confidence in snowfall on Monday and Tuesday keeps growing,” Day said.  “We have a pattern setting up that’s going to cut a lot of Canadian air loose out of the Northwest Territories straight south into Wyoming on Monday night and Tuesday.”

Day said the storm was a “good news, bad news” situation as the fire season will likely end as a result of the storm but so will the growing season.

“This will be a very impactful storm. Because it’s so early in the season, we have a lot of leaves on the trees. The storm could bring some branches down.”

Day said the entire state will be affected by the storm but mountainous areas, locations around the I-25 corridor, and the higher elevations on I-80 (of course, Laramie) will be the hardest hit.

“The crazy thing is all of this is gonna be preceded by some very hot temperatures through the weekend,” he said. “I mean, we’re going to have temperatures in the 80s and 90s. And 36 hours later, we’ll be in the teens and 20s.”

Not all areas of the state will receive measurable snow. Day said locations under 5,000 feet should expect rain and, at worst, a rain/snow mix.

Although rare, wintry patterns at this time year have happened before in Wyoming. 

Day points back to 1985 when only six weeks after a devastating flood hit Cheyenne on August 1, the capital city received 10 inches of snow.

Although we can all feel sorry for ourselves, perhaps we should save some empathy for Laramie. After all, their summer was really short.

Day recalled that Laramie got hit by a fluke snowstorm this year on June 8. That storm dumped 10 inches on the community.

“Laramie will only go 90 days between snowstorms this year,” he said. “Talk about a short growing season. This is truly 2020.”

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It’s going to be a roller coaster of extremes for Wyoming weather over the next few days.

Wyoming’s weatherman Don Day, in his daily podcast, said the state is going to be blasted by desert-heat over the next few days but then the jet stream “buckles,” bringing in cold air from Canada.

“Look at all this purple,” he said of the computer model showing the cold air.  In some areas of Wyoming and Colorado the temperatures are 40 degrees below normal.”

Day said the computer model is likely overdoing things but there is a possibility for freezing temperatures and snow — even on the plains — happening next week.

“Look at that, over an inch of snow in Casper and maybe a lot of snow in the Wind Rivers, the Big Horns, the Beartooths, the Front Range mountains of Colorado and the southern Wyoming, and the Laramie Range,” he said while looking at the computer model.

The full rough transcript of his podcast is below. Or just watch the embedded video for more.

———

It’s Thursday, September 3, 2020. And here’s your Day Weather podcast.

Well, folks, it’s gonna be interesting here over the next week in terms of what we’re going to see. 

First of all in the short-term, it’s going to get hot again, high pressure builds over and takes over strongly again across the Great Basin and Rockies. 

However, it’s temporary because after a big warm up, basically through Sunday over the next four days it’s going to get hot again, then we’re gonna have a big cool-down coming next week. Much colder with rain and yes, folks, we could very well see a chance of snow even on the plains early in the week next week starting late Monday, Labor Day Monday into Tuesday and Wednesday and next week. 

Temperatures are going to fall sharply by late Monday into next Tuesday and Wednesday, and we’ll show you why. 

Here we are for the forecast for Saturday. Look at this big high on Saturday over the four corners region in the Great Basin. So basically for today, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we’re going to have the heat from this desert high rebuild and expand across the Intermountain West in the western plains, with the … main jet stream riding far to our north. 

But way back up here in the northern and Western Atlantic, there’s actually some tropical activity, some typhoon activity that’s going to get its energy into the jetstream and cause the jetstream to basically buckle and cause a big area of high pressure to build back up into the Gulf of Alaska. 

And here we see it forming by Sunday afternoon into Monday. See the high building in the Gulf of Alaska connected to the Great Basin high right here. And notice the jetstream buckles and when that happens, you get that release of colder air from Canada. 

So this is late Sunday into Monday morning. By the timeframe of Tuesday, we have a big high up in the Gulf of Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and it drives another wedge of colder air into the High Plains and Rockies. Now this is very similar to what happened early this week. However, this plunge of colder air is deeper. 

There’s going to be more moisture with it. And a lot of the computer models are green on a trough and a strong cold front Monday night Tuesday and Wednesday across the High Plains and Rockies. Now this is both good news and bad news. 

The good news is this could be the best chance of widespread precipitation in a long time in the drought-stricken areas of Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, parts of Montana and the Dakotas and into the plains states. 

Yes, we are going to see a real big cooldown but it could be wet. Here’s the cool down. Look at all this purple. This is by Tuesday. In some areas of Wyoming and Colorado, temperatures are 40 degrees below normal.

Now that is likely overdone. However, the possibility of freezing temperatures and the first flakes of snow even on the plains could happen next week. If we don’t get cold enough for snow we’ll certainly see some good chances of rain and certainly the high country of Wyoming and Colorado is going to have a good chance of snow. 

So for archery hunters headed to the field, next week, you probably are going to see a cold wet pattern up in the mountains for a few days. As we see here, zooming in, look at the close-up of these temperatures. Right here, this is by noon on Tuesday, Denver 46 degrees below average with our temperatures, that basically means temperatures in the upper 30s and lower 40s by noon on Tuesday. 

We’ll see if it’s that cold. Models, a lot of timesm overdo things as we well know. But this extensive area purple shows you how impressive that cold air is. But when you get cold air like that this time of year, you’re going to get some upslope conditions that are going to form and hence there you have the good chances of precipitation. 

Look at that, over an inch in Casper maybe. A lot of snow in the Wind Rivers, the Big Horns, the Beartooths, the Front Range mountains of Colorado and the southern Wyoming, the Laramie range, even up into the Pine Ridge of Nebraska, the Panhandle, Nebraska, that’s likely going to be rained. 

And it’s a pattern folks to pay close attention to because we’re going to go back to hot summer weather here for the next four days. Then we’re going into reverse. And here we are with the forecasts of potential snowfall with this front. Now again, take this with a grain of salt but you can see even down into New Mexico. 

We have got this large area by next Tuesday and Wednesday, we’re gonna be cold enough for snow reaching certainly the highest elevations and maybe those lower elevations above 6,000 feet. So it’s something to watch. We’ll update you tomorrow. So be ready for the heat. Then be ready for a 180 again next week. See you on Friday, have a good day.

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