Summery weather with shower chances to last through the weekend
Thursday, June 6, 2024
Temperatures in Steamboat Springs are just shy of the eighty-degree mark under cloudless skies this Thursday mid-afternoon. These summery temperatures will be accompanied by afternoon and evening shower chances starting on Friday and lasting through the beginning of next week, with the best chances of wetting rain on Saturday and Monday.
A ridge of high pressure centered over the Desert Southwest is responsible for our first day in the eighties this season. While today will be dry, moisture will return to our area by Friday as a shallow wave of moisture approaches our area from the Pacific Northwest. Mostly sunny skies through much of the day will allow temperatures to climb back to the low-eighties on Friday, almost ten degrees above our average of 73 F.
Clouds will appear in the afternoon with shower chances lingering through the evening, though any showers are likely to produce more wind than rain as the lower atmosphere remains quite dry. But that changes on Saturday as the Pacific Northwest wave moves overhead, possibly starting showers that produce wetting rains as early as noon and dropping high temperatures back into the mid-seventies. The earlier start time of the showers means they should end earlier in the day too, with dry skies expected by the evening.
Meanwhile, a lobe of energy and moisture slingshot around a storm over the Aleutian Islands is forecast to elongate along the West Coast late Saturday. The southern end is forecast to cut off from the main jet stream and form another eddy that dislodges the Baja eddy before taking its place while the northern end is forecast to cross the Pacific Northwest coast.
While Sunday will start sunny, moisture from the now northeastward-moving Baja eddy should bring some clouds and a modest chance for showers later in the day, even as the high temperature rebounds to the eighty-degree mark. However, good chances for showers exist for Monday as the northern part of the approaching wave combines with moisture from the Baja eddy.
But that is after the weekend, so enjoy the summery weather and I’ll be back Sunday afternoon with more details on how much moisture we can expect to start the workweek.
Showers to bookend the workweek with eighties by Thursday
Sunday, June 2, 2024
Temperatures are approaching seventy degrees under mostly sunny skies late this Sunday morning in Steamboat Springs. Two weather disturbances will bring a chance for showers today and later Monday that could extend through the night. After a cooldown on Tuesday, temperatures warm under sunny skies, breaching the eighty-degree mark for the first time this season on Thursday.
An active jet stream across the northern Pacific and northern North America will carry two weather disturbances across our area over the next two days, with the first bringing a chance of afternoon and evening storms today and the second stronger disturbance bringing a better chance of evening and overnight storms extending into early Tuesday morning.
Temperatures through Monday will be a degree or two warmer than our average of 72 F, but the second disturbance will be strong enough to shave about five degrees off Monday’s high temperature and make for a breezy Tuesday afternoon with winds from the west.
A ridge of high pressure is then forecast to build along the West Coast behind the second system bringing warming temperatures and dry weather to our area through Thursday. The high temperature will be back into the mid-seventies on Wednesday and reach the low eighties for the first time this season on Thursday.
Meanwhile, an area of low pressure left behind off the coast of Baja is forecast to strengthen through the workweek before being nudged onshore around next weekend. While the eighty-degree temperatures will persist into the beginning of the weekend, moisture moving northward ahead of the Baja storm will bring the chance for showers back to our area as soon as Friday.
So, relish the midweek summery weather, and be sure to check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon to see if wetter weather for the weekend is still in the forecast.
Gorgeous weekend ahead
Thursday, May 30, 2024
Temperatures are in the low sixties under brilliant blue skies early this Thursday afternoon in Steamboat Springs. High temperatures will warm several degrees daily through the weekend and reach the mid-seventies by Sunday. While the mornings will be sunny, some afternoon and evening clouds on Saturday and Sunday will lead to a chance for some light showers.
An area of low pressure is currently over the Canadian Plains and extends southward across Montana and Wyoming. Some energy rotating around that vortex grazed our area yesterday and brought some cool air that will keep our high temperature in the upper sixties today, a degree or two below our average of 70 F.
A shallow ridge of high pressure is forecast to move across the West this weekend and deflect any more energy rotating around the Canadian low pressure system to our north. However, a couple of low pressure areas are now over the Aleutian Islands, and pieces of the first and then the second will bring some moisture overhead later on Saturday and Sunday.
But even though there may be some clouds with a shower around on Saturday and Sunday, high temperatures should warm a degree or two each day and reach the mid-seventies by Sunday afternoon, which is very appropriate for the first day of meteorological summer on Saturday, June 1.
This pleasant weather will persist through at least Monday before there is uncertainty by Tuesday regarding a cool front approaching our area. But that won’t interfere with the gorgeous weekend ahead, and I’ll address that uncertainty in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
Summery weather to arrive this week
Sunday, May 26, 2024
The clouds are reluctantly departing this breezy Sunday mid-afternoon in Steamboat Springs as the temperature approaches sixty degrees. Mostly sunny skies with temperatures in the upper-sixties for Memorial Day will precede even warmer temperatures reaching well into the seventies as we head through the holiday-shortened work week.
After a gorgeous Friday, showers started early Saturday afternoon, with several rounds of storms lasting through the night. Between a third and half inch of rain fell in town and a couple of inches of snow accumulated at mid-mountain at the Steamboat Resort during the second day of summer weekend operations.
The cloudy and cool morning today was thanks to the moist and unstable northwest flow behind the last of the three cool fronts mentioned in my previous weather narrative on Thursday afternoon. But skies are clearing this afternoon as a ridge of high pressure begins to build over the Rocky Mountains ahead of yet another strong storm developing in the Gulf of Alaska.
Appropriately timed, we should see sunny skies, light winds and temperatures approaching seventy degrees on Memorial Day for the unofficial start of summer. Even warmer temperatures in the low-seventies on Tuesday and mid-seventies on Wednesday will certainly feel summery, and there will even be small chances for the usual summertime afternoon and evening thunderstorms.
Meanwhile, that Gulf of Alaska storm is forecast to cross the Pacific Northwest coast later on Tuesday and eventually drag a weak cool front through our area on Thursday. High temperatures will drop a few degrees along with an increasing chance of afternoon and evening storms.
Some more cooling is advertised for Friday, bringing high temperatures back to near the seventy-degree mark, along with the best chance of afternoon and evening storms of the week. There may be another cool front on Saturday depending upon whether additional energy rotates around the former Gulf of Alaska storm now forecast to be over the Canadian Plains, or not. So be sure to check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon for a look at the coming weekend weather.
Memorial Day weekend to start cool and unsettled but end nice
Thursday, May 23, 2024
After reaching the high temperature of the day of 53 F early this Thursday afternoon in Steamboat Springs, temperatures have fallen into the forties as a cool front sweeps through the area. Though there are showers around with snow at the higher elevations, they will be gone on Friday before returning wetter and stronger on Saturday afternoon and night. A cool and mostly dry Sunday is then followed by perfect barbeque weather on a warmer and dry Memorial Day.
Three cool fronts will affect our weather through the long Memorial Day weekend, with the first currently passing through our area. Skies should clear by late today behind the first front which left our high temperature for today fifteen degrees below our average of 68 F.
An elongated area of low pressure currently moving southward along the British Columbia coast is forecast to split into two waves by Friday. A ridge of high pressure ahead of the first approaching wave will briefly move overhead through Friday leading to a sunny morning and cloudy afternoon with high temperatures reaching only the low sixties.
Sun will be scarce on Saturday as the second cool front sweeps through the area during the afternoon. This front will be weaker but wetter, so wetting rains are likely in the afternoon and overnight with high temperatures struggling to reach sixty degrees.
The last front on Sunday afternoon will be quite dry and graze our area to the north, leading to another cool day with high temperatures in the low sixties, but decreasing clouds later in the day despite the chance of a stray shower.
The dry air associated with a building ridge of high pressure over the Intermountain West on Monday should bring beautiful Memorial Day weather to our area with sunny skies and high temperatures in the upper sixties. This will be an appropriate and well-timed prelude to what looks like summerlike temperatures in the mid-seventies through the last days of May.
So enjoy the long weekend, and I’ll be back Sunday afternoon with my next regularly scheduled weather narrative with more details about the weather heading into June.
