Astronomical autumn kicks off this weekend, and the final days of summer could bring some snow to part of the West.
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00:00 It's time to talk about the S word.
00:04 I mean snow.
00:05 Seriously, folks, we've got a lot to talk about in the West this week.
00:09 It's all about the Cascades and the Northern Rockies, and we'll start with this.
00:14 The historical average date for the first snowfall of the year.
00:18 And in our Western mountain ranges, looking at the Cascade Mountains, the Sierra, the
00:21 Northern Rockies, we're really looking at a mid-October first snowfall.
00:26 Now I know it's mid-late September right now, but Mother Nature doesn't really care about
00:30 the calendar.
00:31 That's kind of the funny thing about the weather.
00:33 Now you'll notice into the Rockies of Colorado, we do have little traces of snow on the ground.
00:39 You can see that very light blue shading just north of cities like Durango and as you're
00:43 getting out toward Aspen as well.
00:45 But we're looking back to the PNW for the front that could bring a few extra snowflakes
00:49 to this part of the country.
00:51 And let me just get this out of the way.
00:52 I'm not talking about snow, let's say at 4,000, 3,000, 2,000 feet.
00:58 I'm talking way up, 7,000, 8,000 feet and higher.
01:01 That said, this front in the PNW is going to bring some rain across cities like Seattle
01:05 and even out toward, let's say, the Yakima Valley.
01:08 Not too much in the way of moisture here.
01:10 It's not a blockbuster of a storm or anything, but it is going to help usher in some colder
01:14 air as we move to the middle of this week.
01:17 And that's the biggest change here, is that burst of colder air out of the north and west
01:22 that's going to bring in that potential for a couple of snowflakes.
01:26 Again, looking at those higher elevations, 7,000, 8,000 feet and on higher.
01:30 Temperatures falling in a hurry.
01:31 And as you get the air coming up the mountain ranges, you can squeeze out the last of the
01:35 moisture as it gets quite cold.
01:37 And that could lead to a little bit of that fluffy white stuff.
01:40 Yeah, it's September, but here we are.
01:43 And even for the places that don't have any snow on the way, let's say like Helena, Montana,
01:48 we do have temperatures falling into the 50s on Thursday and Friday.
01:51 So again, you can see that colder air working its way across the west, even in the interior
01:55 west throughout the week.
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