061 FXUS65 KPIH 110116 AFDPIHArea Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Pocatello ID 716 PM MDT Wed Sep 10 2025
.KEY MESSAGES...
- Gradual cooling trend starts Thursday, warming returns Monday.
- Isolated to scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms Thursday through Sunday afternoon.
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.SHORT TERM /THROUGH FRIDAY/... Issued at 127 PM MDT Wed Sep 10 2025
Whatever showers and thunderstorms develop this afternoon should be limited to mountain areas and will have an early dissipation. The unstable air and available moisture will be the trigger for more showers and thunderstorms Thu and Fri afternoons and evenings. Stability indices and moisture content is not extremely high so do not expect any severe weather/flash flooding from this scenario.
Wind gusting to nearly 35 mph in Pocatello, into the 25 to 30 mph range in others. This should decrease quickly this evening and is not expected to return. Thunderstorm outflow would be the strongest wind to expect.
Will today be the last day where the Snake River plain experiences 80 deg F or more? Temperatures should drop and stay in the 70s for the lower elevations, 50s and 60s for higher, and stay that way. Overnight lows will be mild with the cloud cover.
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.LONG TERM /FRIDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY/... Issued at 139 PM MDT Tue Sep 9 2025
As we head into the weekend, troughing looks to still be in place over much of Eastern Idaho. This will keep our unsettled weather pattern going with rain and thunderstorm chances continuing for Saturday and Sunday. However, we may be a bit drier on Sunday as a weak ridge passes through our area ahead of a low pressure system moving into the Pacific Northwest early next week. Temperatures will be quite mild on Saturday (dare I say even "cool"?) with highs in the 60s and low 70s for most. The slightly drier conditions as the ridge moves through on Sunday will help us all warm up a few degrees for Sunday afternoon after starting the day in the 40s. Highs for the first half of next week are forecast to remain in the low to mid 70s. Also in the first half of next week, we see some varying model solutions to handling a trough moving onto the West Coast. The ECMWF swings a trough through Washington and northern Oregon on Sunday before moving and lifting northward and developing a low in northwestern Montana late Monday. This solution keeps some high elevation precipitation chances in the forecast for the Central Mountains and Eastern Highlands early next week. The GFS on the other hand is the wetter solution as develops a deeper low over Oregon on Monday that moves eastward through Idaho on Tuesday. Both models agree on drying out a bit by the middle of next week. We will have to watch and see how models evolve over the next few days.
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.AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 24Z THURSDAY/... Issued at 716 PM MDT Wed Sep 10 2025
We will be watching for some spotty showers overnight moving north out of Utah and passing through DIJ this evening into the overnight so have added some VCSH to the TAF there. As the low moves farther east tomorrow, showers and thunderstorm probabilities increase for the area aviation interests and at each of our 5 TAF sites. It will mainly be an afternoon into evening event. VFR will be the main feature for most of the day tomorrow, but as the thunderstorms increase in coverage anticipate ceilings could near MVFR values with wind gusts near thunderstorms to 40 kts.
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.FIRE WEATHER... Issued at 127 PM MDT Wed Sep 10 2025
Not much thunderstorm activity expected this evening, mainly limited to mountain areas in isolated coverage. The risk of showers and thunderstorms increases over the next couple of days, but won`t be getting much higher than isolated coverage for thunderstorms and scattered for showers. With temperature at Snake River plain elevations cooling into the 70s through the weekend, and perhaps even upper 50s, it will be hard to get humidity to dry to below 15 percent. Gusty wind this afternoon in some locations should end early in the evening and is not expected to return Thu or Fri.
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.PIH WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None.
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SHORT TERM...Messick LONG TERM...AMM AVIATION...Preston FIRE WEATHER...Messick
NWS PIH Office Area Forecast Discussion