FORECAST: Wyoming Slowly Works Out Of Artic Cold

Was it cold enough for you this past weekend?

If you were complaining about temperatures in the 40s before that last cold snap you're going to feel weird telling everyone how nice this next weekend's weather is.

Wyoming will slowly say goodbye to subzero temps over the next week

We will start cold at the beginning of this week and slowly get a little warmer every day.

Friday's morning low will be bitter cold. But the high will be in the upper 20s for most of the state.

By the time we get to next weekend, you can expect sunny temperatures in the low 40s.

That warmup will not come fast. The cold will not leave easily.

We'll hang around in the 20s for a while, for daytime high temperatures.

But even that will feel nice compared to this past weekend.

CAUTION: Warming up means high winds.

The video below is the latest forecast from regional weatherman Don Day.

You know what blowing snow means for Wyoming roads.

Wyoming's I-80 and the southern part of I-25 will get the worst of those winds.

Expect the occasional snow flurry as the week progresses.

Temperatures may even drop back down, in some areas, as we move through the week.

The higher elevations, especially to the western side of the state, will get a lot more snow than the lower east side of Wyoming.

Slow, progressive improvement. That's what we're in for.

We can look at the forecast for next week, but it really isn't worth it.

Long-term weather forecasts are unreliable and subject to change.

A weather app on your phone is useful, but only for a day or so in advance.

There are many different weather apps to choose from and they all rely on whatever computer model the maker of the app decided to attach it to.

As our regional weatherman Don Day often says,

Models are tools, not reality.

Despite major advances in technology, we are still learning a lot about the weather.

It's okay to look at a forecast for the next 2 or 3 days.

Meteorologists have a hard time predicting 5 days out.

So, you can just forget that 10-day forecast.

If anyone tells you they know what the weather is going to be in 10, 30, or 50 years, just laugh in their face.

Also, most weather apps don't have a meteorologist who knows your area watching it and adding local data based on regional knowledge.

In other words, it's a program, not a person.

So far this winter we've had a couple of weather systems come our way that were complicated.

Those different computer models, along with meteorologists, were confused and in disagreement about how the storm would play out in our area.

Not a single computer model or human meteorologist was able to accurately say what was going to happen until the day before the storm.

If you want a real example of this, look at the forecast for 10 days from now and keep an eye on it.

You'll see that the forecast for that date will continue to change as we get closer to it, meaning nobody knew what was going to happen until we got closer.