Forecast of the Day • A National Weather Forecasting Contest

The answer to yesterday's question is that the sites with the lowest temperatures in the conterminous U.S. were due to either latitude, altitude or both. The situation is the same today -- the coldest sites are either in northern New England or at high elevation sites in Colorado. But although the minimums are similar, the maximum temperatures are not: the predicted high for Frenchville, Maine for Thursday is in the single digits, but it's in the 30's or a little above for Gunnison, Colorado. Why is that? Let's predict Thursday's Tmax for Gunnison, at an elevation of 7600 ft.