By Gilles MATRICON, meteorologist
Posted on 06/09/20, updated on 06/09/20 at 1:53 p.m.-
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The western United States is currently experiencing record heat, especially the Los Angeles area (the temperature reached 47.2 ° C in Woodland Hills on Saturday afternoon). And yet, between Monday and Wednesday, a radical change in the weather will occur, mainly affecting the Rocky Mountains where a blizzard will follow the current heat wave: the Denver region in Colorado will be the most impacted by this extreme weather!
The Denver region in the State of Colorado will therefore experience a radical and extremely brutal change in the weather in the space of 24 hours, from scorching heat… to a real blizzard!
35 ° C Monday afternoon
Thus, Monday afternoon, the temperature will reach 35 ° C in the Denver area. But at the end of the day, a very dynamic cold front will tumble from Canada to the Rocky Mountains.
Severe thunderstorms overnight from Monday to Tuesday
This disturbance will be accompanied by violent thunderstorms that will sweep Colorado from north to south, causing temperatures to drop. When thunderstorms pass, wind gusts can reach 100 km / h.
Snowstorm Tuesday
Then Tuesday, with the arrival of this cold polar air, the temperature will drop sharply over Colorado. The first flakes will appear in the middle of the morning. Then a real blizzard is expected over the Denver region, always accompanied by thunderstorms. At the end of Tuesday evening when the snowfall stopped, the layer could reach 15cm on the ground in the city.
Severe frosts Wednesday morning
During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, the sky will clear. The cold air at altitude and the presence of snow on the ground will accentuate the nocturnal radiation. Result, Wednesday morning, the temperature will plunge to a record level for the beginning of September with -5 ° C envisaged.
A remarkable situation
These abrupt changes in the weather are not unusual in the Rocky Mountains from mid-September, where the first cold snap can occur after a day of midsummer. On the other hand, what is remarkable is the radicality of the change: Monday, with nearly 35 ° C in Denver, the temperature will show a value 10 ° C higher than normal while on Tuesday, the maximum temperature will not exceed +3 ° C, being 22 ° C below normal.
Finally, it should be noted that if 15 cm of snow were recorded on Tuesday evening, it would be one of the most significant snowfalls that Denver would experience for the first ten days of September. And with -5 ° C forecast Wednesday morning, it was one of the lowest temperatures ever observed at this time of year in this city.
Return of heat at the end of the week
From Thursday, the polar air will be driven out by again very warm air coming up from Arizona, and the 30 ° C will be reached again, or even exceeded next weekend in Denver.
Read also
Weekly weather forecast: return to calm and heat from the south
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Summary of summer 2020: between drought and heat peaks
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