Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Pocatello, ID
Issued by NWS Pocatello, ID
344 FXUS65 KPIH 072044 AFDPIH Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Pocatello ID 144 PM MST Fri Feb 7 2025 .SHORT TERM...Today through Saturday Night. The cold front is through Eastern Idaho now and the bulk of our moisture is, too, but we will continue to see some scattered snow showers through tonight, especially in the mountains. Since wind gusts will remain in the 40 to 55 mph range through the afternoon and evening, will keep the Wind Advisory and Winter Weather Advisory going as planned. Additional snowfall totals aren`t particularly impressive at generally 2 to 4 inches in the advisory areas, but gusty winds will continue to create travel impacts due to blowing and drifting snow. For most, Saturday will be a drier day, but light snow showers linger in parts of the South Hills and Eastern Highlands. Accumulation is expected to be minimal, around an inch or less. Cooler air will be here for Saturday highs highs in the low 30s in the eastern Magic Valley and lower Snake River Plain and only in the upper teens to mid 20s everywhere else. Winds will be a bit breezy for Saturday, but gusting to about 20 to 30 mph instead of today`s 55 mph. AMM .LONG TERM...Sunday through next Friday. A cold, but mostly dry, period will setup later this weekend and into the first half of the work week next week. Expect highs in the 20s and low 30s on Sunday with teens and 20s for highs becoming more likely Monday into Wednesday. Overnight lows in the valleys will plunge into the single digits most mornings with higher elevation zones dropping well below zero each morning. Tuesday into Wed AM appears to be our coldest period at the moment and will come close to Extreme Cold criteria for a few zones but it looks like we`ll stay just shy of it for the moment. That`ll be something to watch over the days ahead. A warming trend looks to begin Thu and Friday as a system moves into the region from the Pacific. This W/SW flow will bring warmer temperatures and more widespread precipitation chances to eastern Idaho. Still way too early to talk specifics though on this system and we`ll continue to watch model trends over the days ahead. McKaughan && .AVIATION...18Z Friday to 18Z Saturday. Windy conditions in place this afternoon across all eastern Idaho terminals with gusts in the 30-40 kt range everywhere except KSUN which is closer to 20-25 kt. Most of the precip has tapered off at this point but KDIJ and KIDA could see a very brief shower potential through about 00Z. It`s at this point when the winds will slowly begin to subside into the evening across the region but will likely remain in the 10-15 kt range for much of the overnight and into the afternoon Saturday. CIGs are generally VFR at the moment but KIDA and KDIJ have intermittent bouts of MVFR CIGs in the 2-3kft range. This has the potential to persist through much of the overnight and into the first part of the day Saturday at these two sites so this will be something to watch. KPIH, KBYI and KSUN should remain VFR but the lower CIGs COULD sneak into KPIH. McKaughan && .PIH WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Wind Advisory until 11 PM MST this evening for IDZ051>057. Winter Weather Advisory until 11 PM MST this evening for IDZ060- 063>066-071>075. && $$