My First Official Blog

Hello!!!! If your reading this I really don't know what to tell you except, "I'm sorry, you must be lost." Just kidding! I have a lot of friends who have begun blogging about various things, mostly about weather and storm chasing. Seeing all the great work they have done, I figured I'll give it a go.

A Little Bit About Me

My name is Chris Yates and I am a graduate from the University of Northern Colorado with a degree in Meteorology. I am currently the evening meteorologist at KGWN in Cheyenne, WY. I am married to my wonderful wife Krista who I met in college. I spent most of my life in southern California. Besides forecasting and storm chasing I love to sing so karaoke is a big hobby of mine! I also enjoy sports with football being my favorite. My favorite NFL team is the Denver Broncos.

The Blog

So in this blog i'll be discussing my thoughts on the up coming forecast for my viewing area and also the interesting weather going on around the country. I will also lay out my thoughts on a target for storm chasing when I plan on going out!

Forecast For Cheyenne and Surrounding Area 4/5/2010

The latest April climate outlook from the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) shows above average precipitation for the Tri-State Region (SE Wyoming, NE Colorado, Western Nebraska Panhandle). This makes sense considering that El Nino is in full swing. We started of the month with above average shower activity as a storm brought over 5" of snow to cheyenne and over 0.5" of rain to other areas around the area. Now another storm looks to bring rain/snow showers to the area.

Tonight, expect scattered rain/snow showers with a few isolated thunderstorms. Heaviest snow shower activity should be west of the Laramie Range. Rain showers/thunderstorms will be possible through midnight across the Panhandle. 18z GFS shows a pretty good shot of rain/snow after midnight tonight, but don't I don't buy it as the GFS tends to lay out to much QPF. I'm going to lean towards the NAM and WRF models with showers decreasing after midnight due to westerly downslope winds and subsidence behind the front.

Shower acitivity will redevelop on Tuesday afternoon as another surge of cooler air moves through the region. I expect showers to be in the form of snow along and west of I-25 with up to an inch of accumulation by 6:00 PM. Showers east of I-25 should fall as rain or a rain/snow mix. The fun will really begin after 6:00 PM with snow expected to intensify. Snow will continue across the area through about 4:00 AM Wednesday. Snow accumulations for Cheyenne should be between 2-5 inches with the higher amounts on the west side of town. Mountain locations should see 12 to 20 inches of snow. Locations across the Panhandle should see limited accumulations of up to 1.5 inches.

The rest of the week looks very pleasant with highs in the 50s and 60s as a nice, strong ridge of high pressure parks it's self over the area. An interesting scenario may be shaping up for Sunday and Monday of next week. We may be looking at our first shot of severe thunderstorms of the season!