Steamboat Springs area weather forecast from Thursday

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Afternoon showers should decrease in intensity for Friday compared to the last few days as the airmass dries and significantly warms ahead of another large storm approaching the Pacific Northwest around Friday. This storm is forecast to move south along the West Coast through Saturday, keeping warm and relatively dry air over our area with breezy to windy southwest winds for the first part of the weekend.

By Sunday, the West Coast storm is forecast to be moving eastward through the Great Basin. Model trends have reverted towards the solution from a couple of days ago, with the bulk of the storm skirting to our northwest, but still close enough to still bring a cold front with gusty winds and showers through the area around Sunday afternoon.

Following quickly on Monday, another Pacific storm approaches the northwest coast, allowing cool air from western Canada to spread over the western third of the US. The storm is further off the coast than the previous storm and allows some dry air from the southwest to be transported over Colorado for Monday and Tuesday. There will still be a chance of afternoon storms for each day, though, as numerous waves of energy travel over our area.

After traveling south along the West Coast on Monday, this storm is forecast to turn eastward around midweek and travel across southern Arizona and New Mexico, bringing increasing chances of cool and mostly showery weather to end the work week.