ORLANDO, Fla. – Talk about weather whiplash.
Big changes are coming to the nation’s midsection behind an unseasonably strong cold front early next week.
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Cities near the Rockies could set record high temperatures close to 100 degrees over Labor Day weekend just to crash into record territory on the cold side by Tuesday morning.
Temperatures that start out in the 20s Tuesday morning may not make it out of the 30s for highs Tuesday afternoon.
In addition to the massive temperature drop coming to the West, snow is possible along the front range of the Rockies. If measurable snow falls in Denver next week, it could be the third earliest occurrence of measurable snow on record. The earliest occurrence is Sept. 3.
Pattern influenced by Pacific typhoons
Two typhoons, hurricanes in the the Western Pacific, have been churning in in that basin since late August.
Typhoon Maysak made landfall in South Korea Sept. 3. Typhoon Haishen is expected to make landfall close to where Maysak came ashore Sunday into Monday.
Maysak is in the process of being picked up by the jet stream, the river of strong winds that circles the globe up where jet aircraft fly, and Haishen will follow in the coming days.
The two tropical systems will help to amplify the jet stream creating larger-than-normal troughs and ridges across the globe. A wavy jet stream is more common in the fall and especially winter, which helps to create huge winter storms in the Plains or East Coast.
The jet stream ridge will be enhanced over the West Coast, helping to expand the ongoing heat and drought. Downstream over the over Rockies, the jet stream will buckle, allowing for cold air that has been bottled up in Canada for most of the summer to flood parts of the country.
The ripple effect of those two storms could also impact steering currents in the tropical Atlantic, if storms were to develop.