Typical spring weather ahead of Wednesday cool front
Sunday, May 12, 2024
Temperatures are in the low sixties in Steamboat Springs under partly cloudy skies this Sunday mid-afternoon. Typical spring days with mostly sunny mornings and possible afternoon showers will start the work week before we see a more active day on Wednesday thanks to a passing cool front. An afternoon shower will be possible on Thursday before a dry Friday may bring our first seventy-degree day of the season. That beautiful weather looks to persist into the beginning of next weekend.
The pesky storm to our south that first affected our area with wintry weather a week ago is finally on its way out after leaving a departing gift of ten inches of fresh Mother’s Day powder at the Arapahoe Basin Ski Area overnight. That storm was coerced to move east thanks to a storm currently moving through the Gulf of Alaska which will cross the Pacific Northwest coast tonight.
We should see mostly sunny mornings on Monday and Tuesday, with a small chance of an afternoon shower on Monday and a high temperature in the mid-sixties, which is right at our average of 65 F. Better chances for showers are forecast for later Tuesday as energy ejected out ahead of the approaching storm from the northwest passes overhead.
Weather forecast models have struggled with the evolution of the storm the last several days, and are settling on a weakly splitting system that brings a cool front through our area on Tuesday night accompanied by showers. High temperatures will fall to near sixty degrees on Wednesday with good chances for showers during the day, especially in the afternoon.
Temperatures rebound back to the mid to upper sixties on Thursday behind the departing storm, and there may be a stray afternoon shower thanks to lingering moisture. But mostly dry and sunny weather returns to start the weekend thanks to a flat ridge of high pressure that may bring our first seventy-degree day to the Yampa Valley as soon as Friday.
Another storm is forecast to approach our area by the end of the weekend or the beginning of the next work week, and as is often the case in the spring, there is weather forecast model disagreement on the timing and strength of the incoming storm. So be sure to return to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon for the latest details.
