Hot start to the weekend with a windy Saturday followed by a cooler Sunday
Thursday, June 18, 2026
Cloudless skies, temperatures near 80 degrees, and westerly breezes are over Steamboat Springs this Thursday mid-afternoon. Temperatures will warm into the mid-80s on Friday and Saturday, before cooling back to 80 degrees on Sunday, the first day of summer, as a Pacific weather disturbance passes. Winds will increase on Saturday, with any clouds on Saturday and Sunday likely producing far more wind than rain.
A small storm off the British Columbia coast will be ingested by a lobe of cool air in western Canada rotating around the persistent Hudson Bay gyre on Friday, moving across the Northern Rockies through the weekend before temporarily stalling. The southern end of the storm will elongate southwestward, bringing some elevated Pacific moisture overhead on Saturday and Sunday.
Ahead of that, temperatures will rise into the mid-80s on Friday, well above our 77-degree average. Winds will increase on Saturday, with afternoon high-elevation gusts around 50 mph, and continued hot temperatures. The lower levels of the atmosphere will remain dry, so any clouds that do form from the Pacific moisture will produce far more wind than rain.
Cooler air behind the Pacific disturbance will drop high temperatures back toward 80 degrees on Sunday, though there is still a threat of gusty winds from any dry thunderstorms that form. Sunday will be the official first day of summer and the longest day of the year, with the sun reaching its northernmost point at 2:24 am, at which point daylight begins its daily decrease from its maximum of 15 hours and 4 minutes.
Temperatures will warm again next week, reaching the upper 80s by midweek, with near-nil chances of wetting rains. The next chance of precipitation won’t be until next weekend from an advancing storm currently south of the Aleutian Islands, though its eastward progression is uncertain.
Enjoy our first summer weekend, and check back for my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
