Cold weather into the western U.S

The North American continent is divided right now into two parts with cold west and hot east.

A change of the weather pattern took place in the last few days across North America, extending through the mid-October period. It brought unseasonably cold weather into the western U.S., as well as the first significant snowstorm and blizzard for the Northern Rockies. Meanwhile, unseasonably warm weather continues across the south and to the east of the developing winter storm.

After a period of pretty warm weather just recently, much lower temperatures are particularly significant across the west and the northwest U.S. The coldest air mass of the fall season 2021 is spreading far south, reaching California and Arizona as well. The temperature are nearly 30°F below normal for mid-October, especially across the interior Rockies.Some areas in Nevada, northern Arizona, Utah, and western Colorado saw temperatures even more than 30°F below normal on Tuesday.

With the low deepening and advancing across Colorado towards the adjacent High Plains, precipitation increased yesterday along the warm front across the western Dakotas and further south along the cold front extending from Nebraska through Kansas to Oklahoma. Snow was very intense across the rest of the Rocky Mountains on Tuesday. The worst winter conditions were across Wyoming, with some of the largest snowfall accumulations from near Wyoming’s Interstate I-25 and U.S. Highways 16 and 26. Some areas saw up to 1-2 feet of snow.