Pocatello, Idaho to Little Rock, Arkansas
Today's trip takes us 1,555 miles from the lovely Rocky Mountains to the Land of the Ozarks. Off we go!
DAY ONE
We begin out trip traveling east out of southern Idaho, watching a beautiful sunrise over the mountains. Well, if we're lucky. A cold front is making its way through the Northern Rockies, streaming some high clouds out ahead of it with showers pushing their way through the Pacific Northwest. While we should stay dry during the morning as we make our way into southern Wyoming, the skies should remain mostly cloudy out ahead of the front. With the flow increasing ahead of the system, our main issue throughout the day will be gusty south-southwesterly winds of 25-35mph at times, especially in western Wyoming through some of the mountain passes. While we won't get the worst of it, it'll still be breezy as we travel through Cheyenne southward into Fort Collins, CO, the stop for our first night.
DAY TWO
A fairly quiet start to the day as we travel southbound towards Denver, some partly cloudy skies greeting us. Our area of low pressure over the Northern Rockies is continuing to shift east and intensify some, increasing the southerly flow over the Plains. By midday, some showers and thunderstorms are expected to develop over KS as a remnant boundary kicks up activity. Most of this activity is expected to be off to our north, however, making for some picturesque scenery as we travel eastbound through Hays towards Salina. Some southerly wind gusts might catch us off guard as the low shifts towards the Northern Plains, and maybe a stray thunderstorm or two, but otherwise the evening shall end on a quite note as we roll into Wichita, KS.
DAY THREE
Our friendly low pressure system is now shifting fully into the Northern Plains and deepening. The old frontal boundary that was lingering over the Central Plains yesterday has disintegrated as strong southerly flow continues to stream up through the Plains to the low. Also, broad high pressure is found from the Great Lakes down to the Lower MS River Valley, quelling much of the activity through the morning hours. With the low level jet feeding northward, our trip out of Wichita through Tulsa will be rather windy, but dry and sunny. Winds should die down as we cruise across the Arkansas state line at Fort Smith. While we may see some thunderstorms off in the distance, east of Little Rock, we should remain dry as we pull into the state capital.
