textproduct: Western and Central Wyoming

KEY MESSAGES

- Breezy winds, mostly clear skies, and afternoon high temperatures about 5 to 10 degrees warmer than Thursday.

- A weak cold front pushes through Friday night with shower activity limited to the northern and eastern areas (40-60%). Temperatures Saturday 10 to 15 degrees cooler than Friday and more seasonable for this time of year.

- Mainly dry and warming trend Sunday through Thursday with the next system to impact the area by week's end into the weekend.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 100 AM MDT Fri Jun 12 2026

IR currently shows mainly clear skies across the CWA with the cooler cloud tops well north into Montana and Canada. The main low that affected the area the past few days is now progressively shifted well east and north into Canada affecting the Great Lakes to the Ohio River Valley with the main finger of the PFJ north of the US Rockies pushing into the upper Great Plains. The deformation trough extending west from the upper low will push to the south clipping the CWA Friday night that will drop a weak cold front east of the Divide bringing some weak shower activity after midnight into Saturday morning. Much of the coverage will be across the Bighorns and eastern counties (~60%) but some still possible for the Bighorn Basin to the Owl Creeks (~40%) before weakening as it moves further south. Thunderstorm activity will be limited to the higher terrain of the Bighorns where the better instability will be (100-200 J/kg) in regards to fire weather issues due to lightning but will be pushed out by mid Saturday morning. Higher elevation snow likely for the northern Bighorns where CAMs are showing a couple inches of accumulation but no impacts to the lower mountain passes.

Otherwise, Friday afternoon will see mainly clear skies and warmer temperatures from Thursday around 10 degrees. Breezy winds east of the Divide but nothing of note being at or below 20 to 25 mph. Behind the weak front Friday night, Saturday will be 10 to 15 degrees cooler than Friday with weaker winds but more northeasterly heading into Sunday as well. Warming trend Sunday through Thursday back into the mid to upper 80s east of the Divide and 70s to near 80 to the west. Isolated storms Sunday afternoon but limited in coverage (10-20%) for the Bighorns but dry expected through Thursday. This will be when the next system will affect the area as the deepening northwest flow allows for increasing divergence aloft. Models are not as consistent on precipitation coverage but something to keep an eye on going forward. Fire weather looks to be limited to elevated Sunday through Thursday even with the warmer temperatures and lower RH values, but wind looks to generally be weak to a slight breeze throughout.

AVIATION /06Z TAFS THROUGH 06Z SATURDAY/

Issued at 1030 PM MDT Thu Jun 11 2026

VFR conditions expected for the next 24 hours, with most sites remaining nearly clear. Main aviation issue Friday will be gusty west winds. All sites will be increasing to 20 to 25kts around 19Z and remain gusty through the day. These winds will decrease early evening with as winds aloft decouple. After 00Z/13, a cold front will move into northern WY, gradually bringing in cloud cover to KCOD and KWRL. Most clouds currently expected to remain above 10000 feet through the end of TAF forecast at 06Z, but further lowering is expected beyond that time, along with increasing chances for precipitation.

Please see the Aviation Weather Center and/or CWSU ZDV and ZLC for the latest information on smoke, icing, and turbulence forecasts.

RIW WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

None.