Torrington, WY 82240 Weather

Key Messages

- Above average temperatures will continue through the end of the week, but a weekend system will drop temperatures towards near- to below-average temperatures.

- Precipitation possible Friday through Sunday, with the potential for frozen precipitation outside of the mountain on Sunday.

- Another system will try to take shape for mid-week, with the potential for additional precipitation and, possibly, high winds.

Short Term

Issued at 303 AM MDT Wed Oct 21 2026

Mostly clear skies ongoing tonight across southeast Wyoming and western Nebraska. A few mid-level clouds are visible on satellite drifting across Niobrara County with some lower clouds over Carbon, Sioux, and Dawes counties. Winds are mostly light tonight outside of Bordeaux with temperatures in the mid-40s and low-50s area-wide. High-level clouds are starting to surge up from the southeast and are moving into Wyoming from Utah and Colorado. These high clouds will continue to push into western portions of the CWA before spreading eastward throughout the morning and afternoon hours.

Upper-level flow today will remain benign as an upper-level ridge continues to develop across the central CONUS. Southwesterly flow will continue across the CWA in the upper-level with the building ridge. An upper-level low will start to move inland into southern California during the day, with a stout jet developing. A 500mb shortwave look to develop and push across western portions of the CWA this evening, leading to a brief 3 to 6 hour period of enhanced, dynamic lift. Strong 500mb CVA will help eject this shortwave through quickly, leading to minimal precipitation chances for most areas. 700mb flow remains fairly weak from the southwest, though a 700mb shortwave develops with the 500mb shortwave moving through. With southwesterly upper-level flow, moisture from the Pacific Ocean will advect into the Intermountain West, leading to increased moisture mostly west of the Laramie Range in southeast Wyoming. As a result, with the 500mb and 700mb shortwave pushing through this evening, a few showers may develop along the Sierra Madre Range this evening, especially as surface flow turns southwesterly. 700mb temperatures will remain quite warm this evening, in the 4 to 5C range across Carbon County, which will prevent any frozen precipitation from developing along the Sierra Madre Range. Significant precipitation is not expected today, with total accumulations remaining around a trace for a small portion of Carbon County. Temperatures will be well above average once again today, with highs in the mid-60s to mid-70s, with normal values for this time of year around the mid-50s to mid-60s.

Thursday will start to become more active as the upper-level low over western California moves east-northeastward inland towards the Intermountain West, ending around northern Nevada by Friday morning. The upper-level will be pushed off to the east as the low moves east- northeastward, with upper-level flow remaining southwesterly and increasing across southeast Wyoming and western Nebraska. Several lobes of 500mb vorticity will eject northeastward from the base of the upper-level trough, leading to increased synoptic ascent. The best forcing looks to, once again, remain confined to Carbon County and areas west of the Laramie Range for Thursday, but this will change for Friday and the weekend. 700mb flow starts to become more active as the shortwave ejects northeastward towards South Dakota and the winds begin to increase with the approaching system. Strong, southerly flow develops ahead of the approaching system by the afternoon hours, with flow increasing through the overnight hours. 700mb temperatures will remain quite warm, in the 7 to 9C range, for much of the area, therefore, any precipitation that falls will continue to be rain. Precipitation chances across Carbon and Albany counties will start to increase early Thursday morning and continuing through the evening hours. Precipitation looks to remain confined to west of the Laramie Range, where the best ascent and moisture will be located due to the southwesterly flow advecting in Pacific moisture and getting trapped along the Laramie Range. There will be meager CAPE across this region, so a rumble or two or thunder cannot be completely ruled out, though widespread storms are not expected. Temperatures will be above average again Thursday with highs in the low-60s to mid-70s, though overnight lows in the Sierra Madres may favor some flurries developing with the increased ascent and moisture in this region. Significant snowfall is not anticipated at this time for Thursday and Friday morning.

Long Term

Issued at 303 AM MDT Wed Oct 21 2026

Active weather continues for Friday as the upper-level low across northern Nevada continues to push eastwards towards western Wyoming. A fairly strong, southerly, upper-level jet starts to move overhead Friday morning as the upper-level low pushes into Utah. With much of the region downstream of the upper-level trough axis and portions of the CWA within the left exit region of the jet, synoptic forcing will increase significantly from previous days. The trough starts to elongate overnight Friday, per the GFS and ECMWF, with the upper- level jet strengthening to around 100kts by Saturday morning. Unfortunately, very strong 500mb cyclonic vorticity advection (CVA) will develop across Montana, favoring the deepening of the northern portion of the system. This will lead to split flow developing across the Intermountain west, with the northern branch remaining much stronger than the southern branch. The southern branch looks to be the primary forcing mechanism for precipitation, so as this start to weaken, precipitation will decrease across the region. Similarly, the 700mb low will develop Friday morning before pushing northeastward and starting to elongate with the upper-level system. This will, once again, push the best forcing off the north with more modest forcing expected across the CWA and very weak 700mb flow developing for Saturday morning. Despite the less favorable evolution of this system, precipitation chances are expected to increase from southwest to northeast across the CWA Friday morning through Friday evening. Precipitation will remain mostly rain as 700mb temperatures stay fairly warm in the 5 to 8C range Friday evening. A strong cold front will accompany this system and will drop 700mb temperatures into the 0 to 4C range by early Saturday morning. With cooling temperatures at 700mb, rain across the Sierra Madre and Snowy ranges should change over to mostly snow overnight Friday into Saturday morning. Significant snow accumulation is not anticipated at this time, due to the weakening southern branch of the system. Temperatures will max out in the upper-50s to low-80s Friday afternoon, with the warmest temperatures across the western Nebraska Panhandle due to very strong southerly flow. Overnight lows will be much cooler, thanks to the incoming cold front, dropping into the mid-30s to low-50s everywhere.

Saturday turns much cooler as the cold front associated with the upper-level system moves through the region by mid-day Saturday, though daytime high temperatures will remain in the mid-40s to mid- 50s everywhere. Upper-level flow remains southerly across the CWA Saturday as the upper-level low slowly pushes eastward. Some synoptic ascent will be present Saturday as a few 500mb vorticity lobes eject northeastward and the region remains downstream of the trough axis, though this ascent will be weaker as the elongates southward. Weak, southerly to southeasterly 700mb flow is expected throughout the day Saturday as the 700mb flow get absorbed. 700mb temperatures will hover in the 0 to 2C range, with a few areas expected to see 700mb temperatures drop below 0C. Precipitation chances will decrease throughout the day Saturday as the best forcing weakens and moves away. Despite this, long range models are starting to suggest that a surface low will develop over southeastern Colorado Saturday evening into the early morning hours Sunday. Precipitation associated with this potential system would eject northeastward towards the CWA and collide with the backdoor cold front expected to swing into the region Saturday evening into the overnight hours. This collision could result in a favorable area for precipitation to develop across much of the CWA, especially western Nebraska.

On Sunday, the upper-level low is progged to get absorbed into the upper-level flow and finally push the upper-level trough through the Intermountain West by Monday morning. The backdoor, 700mb cold front looks to push through the Sunday morning hours, dropping 700mb temperatures to between -2 and 0C throughout the day Sunday. With the cold front potentially still colliding with the moisture push from the surface low across southeastern Colorado, precipitation chances may remain in place across the region. However, with 700mb temperatures currently progged to be between -2 and 0C, precipitation could change over to snow for much of the area, but especially southeast Wyoming along and east of the Laramie Range. There is still some uncertainty in this, though long range models remain in fairly good agreement on the propagation of this system. If this hold together, snow flurries could be flying across much of the CWA Sunday, though ground temperatures will likely remain too warm for accumulating snowfall.

Long range models start to disagree at the beginning of the work week, with the GFS suggesting a strong upper-level low diving southward out of Canada into the northwestern CONUS. The GFS suggest this low strengthening and moving west to east across Montana, leading to a 250mb, westerly jet around 100kts across the CWA by midweek. The ECMWF suggests a similar evolution though slower and a touch weaker than the GFS solution, with a broader upper-level trough compared to the amplified upper-level low in the GFS. The 700mb flow follows a similar pattern in the long range models, suggesting a westerly, low-level jet across the CWA by mid-week. This could result in a high wind event for some of the wind prone regions by Wednesday, but confidence is low at this time.

Aviation

Issued at 1127 AM MDT Wed Oct 21 2026

Generally weak winds and VFR conditions expected at terminals through the forecast period. Winds stay light this afternoon between 5 to 10 knots, except at KRWL where slightly stronger winds to 15 knots are possible. High to mid level cloud coverage increases beginning this evening as an upper level system moves closer to our area from the SW. A few showers are possible at KRWL during the evening hours. CIGS lower slightly at Nebraska Panhandle terminals overnight, but staying above about 6 kft.