ROANOKE, Va. – If it’s still not cool enough for your liking, consider a last-minute flight to parts of Wyoming or Colorado. A late summer snowstorm is just a day or so away, while these same places saw record-breaking heat over the weekend.
Record heat
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Denver hit 101° Saturday, which is an all-time high for the month of September in the Mile High City. This is part of the same heat wave that’s triggering more fires in California.
Parts of California also broke all-time records Sunday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service in Los Angeles.
Here are the two sites that broke their all-time high temperature records today. 121° was the highest ever recorded at an official site in L.A. County. Ditto for Paso Robles 117° in San Luis Obispo County. Burbank tied all-time high of 114° from yesterday. #cawx #LAheat #Socal pic.twitter.com/5c4FH3GMme
— NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) September 7, 2020
The National Weather Service in San Diego posted some all-time highs that were broken too.
It was a record-breaking day for many SoCal sites today! Here is a summary of the record highs achieved. Stay cool out there (but please conserve a/c, especially between 3-9 pm).
Posted by US National Weather Service San Diego California on Saturday, September 5, 2020
Late summer snowstorm
While California goes untouched by the snowstorm, several inches of snow is forecast to fall over parts of the Wyoming and Colorado Rockies Tuesday and Wednesday.
You may be thinking, “The ground will be too warm. It won’t stick.” That’s true to an extent. If it falls hard enough, it will stick. That’s especially the case for trees and/or power lines.
Why the drastic change in weather?
A pair of typhoons in the Pacific altered the jet stream to cause such a strong dip toward the Rockies. Now, a bowling ball of a storm system will dive south. This brings near-record cold air that then rises up the mountain range and produces snow.
Any local effect?
As that’s happening, a completely separate system near the East Coast will give us the chance for showers and storms each day this week.
The snowstorm will weaken and ride the jet stream north of the area into the weekend. Depending on how much energy is left over, this could give us more showers and storms by Sunday.
Thankfully, it will not produce the same drastic change in temperatures or snow here.