Deep freeze; Record low temperature set Wednesday morning

Posted 11/13/14

Sunday’s high was 63 degrees, with a low that morning in the mid 40s. But that all changed when a low pressure in the Hudson Bay area sagged south and dragged a cold front and some snow into Wyoming on Sunday night and Monday, according to Chris …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Deep freeze; Record low temperature set Wednesday morning

Posted

After being out in shirtsleeves over a pleasant autumn weekend, Powell residents woke up to completely different weather Monday following a rapid temperature drop Sunday night.

Sunday’s high was 63 degrees, with a low that morning in the mid 40s. But that all changed when a low pressure in the Hudson Bay area sagged south and dragged a cold front and some snow into Wyoming on Sunday night and Monday, according to Chris Jones of the National Weather Service office in Riverton.

“Then we had a separate little disturbance push with Monday night to Tuesday morning, and that brought more arctic air for Tuesday and today,” he said Wednesday.

If you think this one was colder than usual, you’re right. Wednesday morning’s low of 10 degrees below zero set a record for Powell, Jones said.

But that was practically balmy compared to Casper’s low of 26 degrees below zero. That was so unusually cold that “you could have picked any day in the next four and a half weeks and they still would have set a record,” Jones said.

But even that pales in comparison to the statewide low temperature of 35 degrees below zero recorded Wednesday morning in Daniel, located west of Pinedale in Sublette County.

Jones said it’s not unusual to have warm air ahead of a cold front. While the cold air is amassing in the north, it often pulls warm air up from the south or southwest, he said.

“It has to do with the pressure differences,” he said. “Then, when (the front) pushes through, we obviously see colder temperatures.”

The last year in which Powell experienced similarly cold temperatures in early November was 1986, which set records for Nov. 10 (17 degrees below zero) and Nov. 11 (11 degrees below zero). Those records were not threatened by Monday morning’s low of 11 degrees above zero or Tuesday’s low of 2 degrees, Jones said.

However, Wednesday morning’s low temperature did set a new record. “The previous record was 3 below, set back in 2000,” he said.

After the warm weekend, this week’s cold front “certainly was a shock to the system,” Jones said. “But then, you can go back and say we enjoyed some really mild weather until then.”

Jones noted that, with the exception of the cold front and snow that moved through Powell on Sept. 11 and 12, “we had nearly two more months with almost no precipitation.”

Despite this week’s cold weather, “the expectation for the winter is still for it to trend toward a slightly warmer winter than usual, and maybe slightly less precipitation,” he said.

Comments