textproduct: Cheyenne

KEY MESSAGES

- A weak cold front this evening will bring a drop in temperatures and a chance for light snow.

- More widespread colder and wintry weather is possible towards the end of the week ahead, but uncertainty remains considerable.

SHORT TERM /THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT/

Issued at 300 PM MST Sun Jan 18 2026

Winds have been breezy today but nowhere near as strong as expected, and with gradients weakening and the upper jet moving on, look for conditions to continue to lessen through this afternoon. Another round of breezy conditions is possible tomorrow, but not even as strong as today under westerly to northwesterly flow. Otherwise a weak front will pass across this evening with a chance at some light snow, with the NBM indicating a 25-40% probability at 0.1 inch of snow or more from Cheyenne west across the high terrain and north through Chugwater. High resolution guidance can't make heads or tails of what will happen, so for now painted a broad slight chance to chance of precipitation across this area this evening with at least a trace expected, but localized amounts near a half inch to maybe even 1 inch under sustained banding can't be ruled out.

Tomorrow is another "cool" day for this time of year as highs drop a few degrees below normal, while morning lows will be in the teens to single digits. Otherwise we should finally see a quiet day after the active end of the week and weekend for the CWA, with the next passing system expected just beyond the short term into Tuesday.

LONG TERM /TUESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY/

Issued at 300 PM MST Sun Jan 18 2026

Long Term.... A possible pattern change looks to come mid to late week as the Ridge anchored over the west coast looks to break down allowing the Intermountain west to change from our Northwesterly flow to a westerly flow mid week and then a southwesterly flow by the end of the work week. Tuesday, a weak disturbance looks to pass through the Intermountain West as we transition from Northwest to Westerly as the ridge starts to break down. Some arctic air does filter down into our region dropping 700mb temperatures from -2C to - 8C over the Intermountain West and High Plains. This arctic airmass will bring more winter like temperatures to the region instead of our tropical-ish 60's we had in December and beginning of January. There could be some weak snow showers as the wave pushes through but its pretty much looking like it will be isolated to our mountain peaks for now. Meanwhile the upper low looks to keep spinning over the Great Lakes continuing our high winds intermittently throughout the week. Towards the end of the week a system looks to push through the Intermountain West giving us potential widespread snow chances across the forecast area. However, looking at cluster analysis the ensembles disagree to what magnitude the ridge breaks down which could ultimately alter the course of the system and could potentially increase or decrease our snow totals. So the potential system at the end of the week is something to keep an eye on for potential snow accumulations and storm track.

AVIATION /18Z TAFS THROUGH 18Z MONDAY/

Issued at 1026 AM MST Sun Jan 18 2026

There's a band of snow that is just to the Northeast of KCDR that may influence the development of snow over KCDR. Otherwise the models are still in disagreement of the potential snow band setting up across the southern half of Wyoming affecting KRWL, KLAR, and KCYS after 00z. The gusty winds look to die down over the Panhandle by 06z for a temporary break in the high winds over the region.

CYS WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

WY...High Wind Warning until 5 PM MST this afternoon for WYZ102-110- 116. NE...High Wind Warning until 5 PM MST this afternoon for NEZ002-003- 095-096.