Parts of Colorado could be buried under as much as 20 inches of snow. Areas in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are expected to experience between six to 12 inches of snow. And Cheyenne, Wyo., is anticipated to see about a foot of snow.
“November is one of our snowiest months,” said Kyle Fredin, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Denver. “People around here are certainly used to snowfall, driving in snow and dealing with it.”
Still, he added, “We’re sending that message pretty firmly that travel will be difficult, if not impossible across some routes.”
There was one silver lining: The storm system was moving quickly, and was expected to leave Colorado by Tuesday afternoon. It is forecast to travel to the Plains later Tuesday, bringing high wind and more snow to Minnesota, Wisconsin and upper Michigan.
The Northwest’s ‘Bomb Cyclone’
A very strong jet stream was forecast to bring stronger than hurricane force winds along the Oregon and Northern California coasts, with winds expected to reach 100 miles per hour in places. As the storm pushes inland, it could produce heavy snow across the mountains from the Cascades of Oregon into the Sierra of California.
“The ingredients are coming together to spin up a very large storm offshore,” said Marc Spilde, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service station in Medford, Ore. “We really haven’t seen a storm system like this originating from where it is.”
The last time a storm like this hit the region, he said, was Columbus Day in 1962.
The storm is expected to meet the definition of a bomb cyclone, in which pressure drops by 24 millibars in 24 hours. In this case, a drop from 1,020 millibars down to 970 millibars is predicted.
