Updated Jun. 28, 2020 6:27 AM
Cooler air will plunge southward across the West, bringing welcome precipitation for drought-stricken areas, and even some wintry precipitation for others.
A refreshing change in the weather pattern will replace the heat that has settled across the West over the past week. Temperatures were able to soar past 100 degrees Fahrenheit in cities from Medford, Oregon to Roswell, New Mexico, with some locations like Palm Springs, California, and Phoenix, Arizona, topping 110 degrees for several days.
A storm pushing south from Canada into Idaho will allow the jet stream to dip south, opening the door for cooler air and wet weather to infiltrate the Northwest.
Rain will spread from the Pacific Coast of Washington and Oregon on eastward through Sunday and Sunday night. As the cooler air collides with the warmth across the Rockies and Plains, thunderstorms along with drenching downpours will develop across much of Idaho and Montana.
The rain will be beneficial for many communities that have been battling drought conditions since the beginning of spring. As of Thursday, there were pockets of severe or extreme drought conditions from the San Francisco Bay area in Northern California through much of Oregon and into the Columbia Basin of Washington.
The combination of the cooler, Canadian air and the precipitation may allow for wintry precipitation in some of the higher elevations.
"Snow levels Sunday night and early Monday could drop as low as 6,000 feet in the northern Rockies of Idaho and Montana," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Samuhel said.
There is a chance that just enough precipitation will extend southward into Utah on Monday, allowing snowflakes to fly in parts of the Wasatch Mountains as well.
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While the wet weather will remain near the center of the storm in the northwestern United States, the cooling effects the storm will extend much farther south.
"Temperatures will take a nose dive across Idaho and southern Oregon first on Sunday, and in northern Utah to Central California on Monday," Samuhel added.
Away from the coast, temperatures will drop as much as 30 degrees from their peak late this week into early this week, ending up near or below normal for late June across the region.
AccuWeather meteorologists forecast that Medford, Oregon, will struggle to reach the upper 60s on Sunday afternoon, a far cry from the high temperature of 98 degrees recorded on Friday.
After a high temperature of 107 degrees on Saturday, which is a staggering 10 degrees above normal, Fresno, California, can expect a high in the upper 80s on Monday, a more common temperature for late May.
Farther south, the cooler air will not be able to become fully entrenched. Instead of high temperatures over 100 degrees in Las Vegas, highs will only reach 90 degrees on Monday, a feat that has not occurred for the city since June 13.
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This pattern change will also create some difficult firefighting conditions for some of the ongoing blazes across the West.
"The jet stream diving southward will create a rush of strong winds through Monday from California and the Desert Southwest to the Rockies," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.
With wind gusts up to 55 mph in the higher elevations of California, to the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, this will allow existing fires or any new fires to spread rapidly.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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