Spectacular fall weather to last through the work week

Sunday, September 24, 2023

A cool morning with low temperatures in the upper twenties has already warmed into the fifties under brilliant bluebird skies late this Sunday morning in Steamboat Springs. More spectacular fall weather with cool mornings near freezing and warm sunny afternoons in the seventies is on tap for the rest of the work week, but major uncertainty looms for the following weekend weather.

A ridge of high pressure currently over the Rockies is forecast to build this work week ahead of a evolving area of low pressure over the Gulf of Alaska. Incoming waves of Pacific energy are expected to deform this low pressure area and move it eastward in pieces across the Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canada through midweek.

Meanwhile, a wave currently east of Japan is forecast to mix with some subtropical moisture near the Dateline by midweek before it moves into the Gulf of Alaska during the end of the work week. It is then forecast to intensify as it mixes with some cold air moving southward from Alaska before moving first southward along the West Coast and then eastward into the Great Basin by next weekend.

Our weather will remain unaffected by these upstream machinations through the work week as warm sunny days and cool clear nights prevail under and eventually behind the ridge of high pressure currently overhead. Our high temperatures should be right around our average of seventy degrees today with low temperatures around our average of freezing, with high temperatures rising into the mid seventies on Monday and even upper seventies from Tuesday through Thursday. Low temperatures will also rise several degrees keeping morning temperatures above freezing, except for those low lying areas around river drainages.

Enjoy the spectacular early fall weather this last week of September since there is a lot of uncertainty with what happens to that eventual storm entering the Great Basin next weekend, both between and within the weather forecast models. Forecast high temperatures for next Sunday, for example, range from the upper forties to the low seventies in town, and depend upon whether that storm moves overhead or stays to our west. So be sure to check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon where I hope to have more clarity on what weather we may see for next weekend.