textproduct: Cheyenne

KEY MESSAGES

- A cold front will move through bringing light snowfall, today into Friday morning.

- Colder temperatures return to the region through Friday night.

- Warmer temperatures move back in over the weekend and into next week.

SHORT TERM /THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT/

Issued at 121 AM MST Thu Jan 8 2026

With a nice reprieve from the high winds that seemed like they may never end, lets shift our focus in the meantime back to winter and talk about precipitation chances and temperatures. An upper level trough at 500mb comes together and slides across the region through Friday. Embedded vorticity maxima moves into our CWA and will be one of a few features that will be the catalyst for the snowfall to come, the other will be a cold front that plunges southward. So, light snow will continue to overspread the region this morning and continue through Thursday night. As the upper level trough exits east and the cold front pushes further south, snowfall will be tapering off Friday morning before coming to an end during the afternoon hours. So, a lot of you may be wondering, how much snow can we expect? If you were to draw a line from Glenrock to Scottsbluff, points south can expect generally 1-3 inches, higher elevations 2-4 inches, and a half inch across the Nebraska Panhandle. What about here in Cheyenne, well, when it is all said and done, Cheyenne will receive 1-2 inches by Friday afternoon. Now lets take a look at temperatures, with the aforementioned cold front, upper level and surface winds will become northerly, ushering in an arctic air mass. Highs will top out in the 30s to near 40 today with lows Thursday night dipping into the teens to low 20s. With continued northerly flow, Friday's highs will be a tad cooler, in the mid 20s west of I-25 and mid 30s east of the corridor. Friday night will continue that cooler trend as lows tank into the low teens, with some areas seeing single digits.

And you thought there would be no mention of winds in the short term, you'd be wrong. Well, with not much support aloft, winds will start off light, peaking this afternoon into the 10 to 20 mph range, stronger winds across our western forecast zones, including Rawlins. Then decrease Thursday night before picking right back up by Friday afternoon as the pressure gradient tightens. So, winds will continue to strengthen through Friday night, becoming sustained up to 40 mph mainly for our wind prones across southeast Wyoming, gusts as high as 55 mph are not out of the question by Saturday morning.

LONG TERM /SATURDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY/

Issued at 303 PM MST Wed Jan 7 2026

The axis of a split trough will move across the area on Friday. Expect snow showers to linger over the area, especially in the mountains, into Friday, but our area is positioned somewhat unfavorably (for significant precipitation) between two upper level lows both to our north and to our south. An elongated band of elevated vorticity aloft will move through Friday, and since we will continue to have steep low-level lapse rates in place, we should see some limited convective-type snow shower activity continue into Friday. A strong reinforcing surface cold front will ride along the upper level trough axis, pushing through the area by daybreak Friday. Expect fairly rapid pressure rises through the day as a surface high pressure settles in over the northern Rockies. This will keep a potent pressure gradient over much of the area, and return gusty winds into the forecast for Friday. The probability for high winds is fairly low (20%) but fairly widespread gusts of 30 to 45 mph are anticipated. Temperatures will be considerably colder too, as 700-mb temperatures bottom out around -15C behind the cold front. This will support highs mainly in the 20s to low 30s, with the winds keeping apparent temperatures in the single digits west of the Laramie range and in the teens to lower 20s to the east. Depending on how much snow falls tonight and Thursday, blowing snow may be a concern on Friday, even outside of the typical wind prone areas.

This storm will help complete a pattern shift into a dry northwest flow pattern that will dominate much of next week. The synoptic pattern looks to be dominated by a strong west coast ridge, and broad central/eastern CONUS trough. The main weather makers for our area during this period will be a series of clipper systems diving down the western flank of the trough. The first of these is expected around the Saturday time period as a subtle vort-max dives down from the north and gets wrapped into the strengthening upper level low over the northern Plains. At the same time, the western ridge will try to advance eastward, likely producing some overrunning on top of the retreating arctic frontal boundary. As a result, we have a chance for snow showers mainly over our northern and eastern zones (and in the mountains) Saturday as this disturbance moves through. In addition, this system will tighten the pressure gradient across our gap areas once again, increasing wind speeds. This event looks fairly marginal at this time, with overall wind parameters near typical thresholds for High Wind Warning issuance. At this time, the probability for winds reaching high wind criteria is about 60% in the I-80 wind prone areas, and 20 to 40% for the I-25 corridor.

The ridge will eventually win by Sunday, pushing the arctic air off to the east. 700-mb temperatures will recover to around -2C by the end of the day Sunday, which will put highs back around 10F above average for this time of year. Expect mild temperatures with little to no chance for precipitation Sunday through Monday night and possibly longer. We should get a break from the wind on Sunday, and ensemble members differ in how quickly they return. Look for at least elevated winds to return by around Tuesday. The next chance for precipitation will be with a weak clipper system Tuesday night. Ensemble members are fairly evenly split, with about half of LREF members (mainly from the ECMWF ensemble) showing the clipper taking a more westward track that brings colder temperatures and a chance for snow Tuesday into Wednesday, while the other half (mainly from the GEFS) keep the system just to our east, which would mean continued mild and dry conditions.

AVIATION /18Z TAFS THROUGH 18Z FRIDAY/

Issued at 1003 AM MST Thu Jan 8 2026

VFR conditions will persist through the forecast period with the exception of LAR. The incoming shortwave has brought low CIGs and VSBY to LAR with CIGs around 2.5kft and VIS of 1 1/2SM. These conditions will lift after 20Z, however, MVFR conditions may linger through tomorrow (30% confidence). -SN and VCSH are expected at sites CYS and AIA respectively, but will pose no category issues with CIGs or VSBY. Winds through the period will be below 12 kts.

CYS WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

WY...None. NE...None.