 Welcome to the weather forecast for the week beginning Wednesday October 14th. I'm Chief Meteorologist John Innsworth for Longmont Public Media We have a new moon this Saturday October 16th So nothing out there to see but we do have some great planets Mars just went through what's called opposition So it's straight opposite the Sun in the sky directly out in the solar system and as close to us as It would get in this trip around the Sun for us So it's a big right red right Big bright red beacon. I just can't talk today. Sorry All right, let's take a look at drought Going back to June 25th. We are drought free in the northern Counties of the state and we had some pretty extreme drought settling in the south last week we had Extreme drought on the western half with a few spots of exceptional drought showing up and this week the exceptional drought has grown Working Nate nationally the long-term drought region extends from central Arizona up through Most of Colorado and the expanding area of the west last seven days didn't help rainfall is completely non-existent except for a couple spots that Really don't matter out in the west So our setup now is the big ridge in the west is drifted further off to the west There's a bit of an extension of the ridge Across the Rockies and Western Rockies. It's just not as strong as it has been and The airflow is much more zonal straight west to east. We have let me back up. Sorry a slightly Northwest flow here. It's not just due west and that's going to have implication for our smoke in just a moment Look at smoke Wednesday morning. Have the Cameron Peak fires the big player at with the Go back up again with these jet stream winds picking up here in an approaching trough. We see winds increasing Across the state and especially in the high country. So winds on Wednesday morning have been in the 40 50 mile an hour region about the timber line and that is really fanning the flame Because by Wednesday night you can see smoke is back We have just this complex out here in central california and northern Colorado All that smoke is pretty much ours that you're breathing out there So taking a look at the next 10 days our Average high drops from 66 all the way down to 62 because we're getting close to the end of october I mean we are definitely changing seasons. It may not feel like it yet out there But it's trying to does in the morning at least 37 for a normal low down to 33 So our this is probably a good time to get your sprinklers blown out because we we see some 20s Coming up at the end of the weekend We have two cold fronts one coming through on wednesdays So it's kicking all the winds up temperatures will drop very significantly into thursday We recover just uh to normal and then another strong cold front takes us to below normal We haven't seen temperatures below normal in quite a while so Again the seasons are Being to change we do see a chance of rain on the ensemble here For saturday night into sunday morning Doesn't look outstanding doesn't look like I see a significant amount of rain, but it is Going to be moisture Over the next 10 days where you see our first trough on wednesday coming in That's bringing the first cold front in we have stronger northwest flow a loft going into friday And it's saturday here comes another trough digging down in the pacific northwest Giving us our sunday Cold front going into next week. We have almost north winds So we will definitely be chillier going forward Taking a look at precipitation for wednesday rain and snow rain far north of the state Going into now friday We can see the next system entering into the west coming down snow and montana wyoming then for sunday Snow may be raining down the front range very briefly and then it fades out big cold high pressure system pressing down to the center part of the nation Because you'd have to watch for some santa ana winds out in california with that setup And looking at the temperatures within the next 10 days Going into wednesday you can see the first cold front pushing down Making all the way down to mexico and big bend area of texas We get the recovery going into saturday with warm abnormally warm temperatures and then a stronger cold front Coming down sunday that is significantly below normal. So this is going to be cold Probably not enough to freeze pipes, but it's just probably a good idea to get it done now Over the next 10 days precipitation is very light a little more up in wyoming, but just a little bit down the front range Not enough to really make plants happy So for this upcoming week, we are abnormally warm on wednesday dropping down to Below normal thursday back to normal friday and saturday with another cool down in the 20s going into the beginning of next week with our Chance of precipitation starting sunday. Maybe some night times now. We'll see For more frequent local news and weather updates take a look at longmontleader.com I've been chief mural just john insworth Keep looking up