While the East Swelters, the Rockies Could See Nearly 3 Feet of Snow

While we brace for summertime's most effective weapon, the high-pressure system, and search for every way possible to stay cool, there's a very different weather story unfolding elsewhere in America.

Heat Wave

It's hard to believe we can be sweating through our socks and hugging the air conditioner for dear life here in the Ohio Valley and the rest of the eastern U.S. while those in the western United States, particularly in the Rocky Mountains, awoke to what you might call the "polar opposite," pun intended. But that's what happens when your country is this big.

The Great Plains, Southeast, Ohio Valley, and Mid-Atlantic regions are dealing with excessive heat advisories and warnings into the weekend. During the period, actual high temperatures are expected to be in the upper 90s and, in some cases, the triple digits. Add to that the heat index, which could make the feels-like temps push 115 degrees. On this map, all the dark magenta and orange represent extreme heat warnings or heat advisories; the purple in Montana is for a winter weather advisory.

National Weather Service

Winter Storm Warning in the Rockies

So, what's your pleasure? Are you okay with a heat wave at a time of the year when they are hardly uncommon, or would you prefer to be preparing for a winter storm and multiple feet of snow like they're doing out West? Yes, I said "feet."

And you can look at the calendar all you want; it'll still say it's late June. Mother Nature couldn't care less. Folks in the Northern Rockies are bracing for the kind of storm we don't even get around here in January. In Montana, they're getting ready for the possibility of up to 32 inches of snow in some regions. And that's heavy, wet snow. The threat of 60 mph winds also exists in one mountain range.

I'd call it crazy, but I don't live out there, so I don't know how separate from the norm this is for those living in and around the Rockies.

So what do you think? In late June, would you rather have stifling, oppressive heat or nearly three feet of snow?

Or would you settle for somewhere in between? Right now, that seems to be in short supply.