That Rocky Mountain Cold Wave Is Something!

Traffic makes its way along a Wyoming highway
amid snow and record cold Wednesday. Photo
by Alan Rogers, Casper Star-Tribune.  

The highly anticipated cold snap in the eastern two thirds of the nation has arrived, with the initial cold front clearing the East Coast yesterday.

Everybody from the Rocky Mountains eastward will "enjoy" winter conditions for the next one to two weeks at least.

The frigid weather has been especially impressive in the Rocky Mountain states, especially Wyoming and Colorado.

The big news came out of Casper, Wyoming, where the temperature fell to 26 below Wednesday morning. That makes it by far the coldest November temperature on record for that city, beating 21 below on November 21, 1985.

That record is impressive because usually, if the coldest temperature of any day in the month is broken, it's usually by one degree, not five. That's incredible.

In November, normal temperatures are, of course on a downward swing, so you'd expect the coldest temperatures to be at the end of the month, not sort of near the beginning.

Laramie, Wyoming was "warmer" yesterday with a low of 22 below.

In Denver, winter hit with a vengeance, too. The "high" temperature there Wednesday was just 6 degrees above zero, and the temperature had fallen to 5 below later in the evening, a record low for the date.

The cold will relax in Wyoming and Colorado a bit over the next few days, but it will still be plenty chilly.

Winter cold will also linger in most of the rest of the country for a week or two.

There are hints of a warm up for most places in the nation toward the end of the month, but that's something I can't firmly promise. Long range forecasts are notoriously iffy.

So stay tuned on that one.