Jackson Hole Daily Snow

Short Term Forecast

Forecast for Monday to Tuesday:

The best weather window for outdoor activities during the next 10 days (and possibly longer) will be during the first half of this week, so get out and enjoy. 

A ridge of high pressure is building over the Central Rockies, which will contribute to clear and stable conditions for Jackson Hole and Western Wyoming with warm days and chilly nights.

A deep trough of low pressure just off the West Coast is resulting in wet conditions across the Cascades and Pacific Northwest. This large area of low pressure will stay well to our west early this week, but will eventually move inland (slowly) over the weekend, resulting in more active weather.

On Monday and Tuesday, highs will reach the low 70s in the valleys with overnight lows near or just below freezing. Skies will be mostly sunny both days, and winds will pick up a bit on Tuesday as the jet stream nudges inland a little bit.

Forecast for Wednesday to Thursday:

Conditions will remain dry on both of these days, but we will see more clouds (above peak level) compared to prior days as well as breezy winds at times. This will be in response to a disturbance associated with the PNW system passing north of our area.

Highs will reach the low 70s again on Wednesday in the valleys, and there are no guarantees we will hit 70º again this year after Wednesday (maybe we will at some point in early/mid October, but hard to say).

On Wednesday night, a cold front will move through, with highs expected to be in the mid 60s in the valleys on Thursday. Conditions will remain dry with this frontal passage.

Extended Forecast

Outlook for Friday (Sep 29) to Monday (Oct 2):

A Pacific low pressure system will slowly work its way across the Intermountain West this weekend, resulting in a transition to cooler and wetter conditions for Western Wyoming – including snow for the higher elevations.

At the moment, there is a moderate to high chance of showers each day during this 4-day window, with Saturday and Sunday currently looking like the wettest days. But we'll get more dialed on this as we get closer.

Snow levels are expected to start out around 10,000 feet during the earlier stages of this event, before eventually falling to roughly 8,000 feet by the later stages of this event once a cold front moves through. Again, we'll still need some time to get more dialed on specific snow levels, timing, and rain/snow amounts.

Outlook for October 3rd and Beyond:

We will probably see a break of some sort after the September 30th-October 2nd system. However, the pattern still looks unsettled through the first week of October with temperatures expected to be on the cooler side of average, along with the potential for additional shots of rain/snow. 

Thanks so much for reading! My next post will be on Thursday (September 28) with more details on the weekend storm system.

Alan Smith