textproduct: Cheyenne

KEY MESSAGES

- An increasing chance for showers and a few thunderstorms will occur on Saturday, with drier and windier weather expected for Sunday, when Fire Weather concerns will increase.

- There will be a chance of afternoon and evening showers and a few thunderstorms Monday through Friday, with the best chances on Tuesday.

SHORT TERM /THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT/

Issued at 208 PM MDT Fri Apr 10 2026

Tonight...West southwest flow aloft develops by this evening, and based on visible satellite imagery, WSR-88D reflectivity and model data, it looks like we should see isolated to scattered showers through early evening over and near the Laramie and Snowy Ranges. Showers expected to dissipate with the loss of daytime heating. Minimum temperatures not as cool as this morning as the airmass moderates.

Saturday...As a negatively tilted and progressive shortwave trough aloft moves over western Wyoming and western Colorado, and with daytime heating along and near a surface trough, scattered showers and a few thunderstorms expected to develop with adequate low and mid level moisture, mainly south of a Casper to Alliance line. With 700 mb temperatures near 6 Celsius, high temperatures will be warmer than today, in the 60s west of I-25, with mid 60s to mid 70s east of I-25.

Saturday night...As the shortwave trough aloft tracks over our counties, we will see isolated to scattered showers into the evening hours, with the greatest areal coverage over the Nebraska Panhandle. Not as cool as Friday night as the airmass moderates and with expected cloud cover.

Sunday-Sunday night...Brisk southwest flow aloft will help the surface trough to move to western Nebraska in the afternoon, with significant low and mid level drying noted over our forecast area. Fire weather concerns will increase in the afternoon and evening, with enough low and mid level mixing and low level gradients to produce sustained west to southwest winds of 15 to 30 mph with gusts of 20 to 35 mph. Therefore, we have issued a Fire Weather Watch for the afternoon and early evening for zones along and east of the Laramie Range. Maximum temperatures will be near or slightly warmer than Saturday, with a drier airmass and downslope winds. Isolated evening showers will be possible across the Nebraska Panhandle near the surface trough axis.

LONG TERM /MONDAY THROUGH THURSDAY/

Issued at 208 PM MDT Fri Apr 10 2026

Monday starts an active weather pattern where the Intermountain West could see a meager tenth of an inch over the course of 5 days with some isolated areas getting a couple tenths. A weak shortwave will push through Monday ahead of the stronger low pressure system Tuesday into Wednesday. This weak shortwave may give some snow chances to the peaks of the mountains but lower than 9,000ft may see more of a chance for a cold rain. Outside the the Snowies and Sierra Madre range the chance for precip is practically none and present more fire weather concerns east of I-25. The progged westerly downsloping winds look to continue to dry out the area east of I-25 for another day of Fire weather. Stronger unsettled weather will return Tuesday into Wednesday as the broad trough over the West Coast progresses inland. While we should still see some rain and snow showers across the area, the LREF probabilities of greater than 0.10 inches doesn't climb past 20 percent for areas east of I-25 or greater than 30 percent between Laramie and Rawlins signaling another weak/ dry system for our region. Another, potentially stronger system looks to arrive Thursday into Friday. The current storm track depicted by the global models shows the system roughly transiting through the middle of Colorado which is a favorable location for us to receive some heavier rainfall from the wraparound region to the North of the system. Due to the cyclonic flow around the Low, this would put us in an easterly upslope pattern and better chances for rain to make it to the surface. Some cold air looks to follow the system dropping the weekly 60/70 degree temps to highs in the 30's and 40's for Friday and Saturday. So this system will be worth monitoring as we could have a wetter end to the week.

AVIATION /18Z TAFS THROUGH 18Z SATURDAY/

Issued at 1200 PM MDT Fri Apr 10 2026

There is a mixture of lower clouds around 3,000ft transiting and slightly higher clouds around 5,000ft moving through the panhandle right now. Those clouds should be slowly pushing out this afternoon. Between 20z and 03z some light pop up showers look to form around the mountains and push North-Northeast. Looking at the vertical profiles there is still a dry layer near the surface that may prevent any precip from hitting the ground but also gives way to microburst activity. After 03z the shower activity should be complete and then we look to just have high clouds transiting through the region.

CYS WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

WY...Fire Weather Watch from Sunday afternoon through Sunday evening for WYZ417>419-430>433. NE...Fire Weather Watch from Sunday afternoon through Sunday evening for NEZ434>437.