textproduct: Cheyenne

KEY MESSAGES

- Multiple arctic cold fronts are expected to impact the forecast area through the end of the week and into the weekend. - Much colder temperature Thursday through Sunday, with the strongest shot of cold air expected Friday.

- Some accumulating snowfall possible Friday and Friday night.

SHORT TERM /THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT/

Issued at 245 AM MST Wed Jan 21 2026

Quiet weather early this morning across most of the region as the first of a series of cold fronts has pushed south into Colorado and Kansas last night. With surface high pressure building over the intermountain west, a relatively strong surface pressure gradient has formed along the Laramie Range and near the Continental Divide. Gusty winds around 55 MPH to near High Wind criteria have been observed near the Arlington area over the past few hours. Issued a High Wind Warning this morning for the Arlington area as a few gusts have been close to 65 MPH. High res guidance and in-house wind models suggest these gradients will relax a bit prior to sunrise, so will keep the Warning going until late this morning. Winds have also come up across the southern Laramie Range including the I-80 Summit, but gusts have been mostly below 55 MPH so far. Will continue to monitor this morning.

For the rest of today, seasonably cold temperatures are expected with a cooling trend expected to start later tonight and into Thursday. Temperatures today will be around 5 to 10 degrees cooler compared to Tuesday. A northwest to northerly breeze will keep wind chill temperatures in the 20s to around 30 through the day. Bulk of the colder air begins to arrive late Wednesday night and Thursday with high temperatures struggling to reach 30 degrees in the afternoon for most areas, especially the high plains as the shallow arctic airmass arrives. Models and ensembles continue to trend a little colder, so adjusted max and min temperatures lower Wednesday night through Thursday night. Low temperatures late Thursday night and Friday morning will likely be around zero or single digits below zero for most of the forecast area as the bulk of the arctic airmass moves south into central Wyoming. All models show 850mb temperatures between -10c and -20c behind the front, which typically translates to single digits above and below zero depending on elevation. Would like to note that the Canadian and ECMWF models are trending even colder, with 850mb temperatures as low as -25c clipping east central Wyoming and most of the western Nebraska Panhandle. Will keep an eye on this trend and may need to adjust temperatures lower in the next 24 hours. For now, adjusted temperature forecast using a blend of the NBM 25th percentile and CONSRAW. Adjusted forecast further after considering known arctic airmass biases along the Front Range. Snowfall is expected to develop along the main arctic cold front, but most of the snow should wait until Friday morning (please see Long Term forecast for more info).

LONG TERM /FRIDAY THROUGH TUESDAY/

Issued at 337 PM MST Tue Jan 20 2026

Chilly days expected to start the long term behind a stout arctic airmass. Overnight temperatures into Friday morning will range between the single digits to negatives, with highs only peaking into the teens, and some low 20's for our western zones. Meanwhile the passing system should bring a shot of snow that currently doesn't look insignificant - probabilities for 0.1 inch or more over 24 hours are at 40-60%, and 1 inch or greater 15-30%. While these probabilities aren't a certainty or spectacularly high, they're higher than most of what we've seen this season, giving hope for at least a little bit of precipitation during our drier than normal winter. Saturday morning will bring another cold morning as lows descend into the low single digits and negatives, thankfully winds will not be breezy saving us from cold weather products for the day. Sub- freezing highs persist through Sunday, with ridging bringing a warming trend back by Monday and bringing us to near to above normal for highs. Some breezy winds are also expected with pressure gradients tightening, primarily on Sunday into Monday, but upper level winds aren't expected to be supportive of stronger gusts and in house guidance struggles to produce probabilities greater than 25% for high wind warnings (58+ mph). Overall while active, chilly, and getting a small chance at some snow, the long term shouldn't be too busy for this time of year.

AVIATION /18Z TAFS THROUGH 18Z THURSDAY/

Issued at 1024 AM MST Wed Jan 21 2026

A breezy to windy day is expected at all terminals with gusts between 25 and 35 kts. Winds will gradually ease through the afternoon hours with light winds expected overnight behind a cold front. Increasing clouds are also expected tonight behind the front, with VFR conditions likely to stay.

CYS WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

WY...High Wind Warning until 11 AM MST this morning for WYZ110. NE...None.