Friday afternoon to see a break in the showery weather lasting into Saturday
Thursday, October 22, 2026
A gray day is over Steamboat Springs this Thursday mid-afternoon, with temperatures in the upper 50s and light rain showers. A storm to our west, in cahoots with the remnants of Hurricane Trudy, will split tomorrow, bringing a break in the showery weather lasting from Friday until at least Saturday afternoon. The southern part of the split may bring more showery weather later on Saturday and again Sunday before a nice start to the workweek.
The California eddy discussed in my last weather narrative is moving into Nevada after directing the tropical moisture from former Hurricane Trudy over the Intermountain West. A wave traveling across the Pacific Northwest will split, with the northern part forcing some of the eddy northeastward toward Idaho and Montana on Friday and the southern part helping to reform the eddy over Arizona by Saturday.
After continuing showers through tonight, drier air between these features should bring mostly sunny skies from Friday afternoon through Saturday morning. Uncertainty remains about how quickly the Arizona eddy moves northeastward, which affects our afternoon and evening shower chances through the weekend, as monsoonal moisture from the south is directed northward by the southerly winds ahead of the eddy.
Increasing clouds Saturday afternoon may bring slight shower chances after high temperatures reach around 60 degrees on Friday and low 60s on Saturday, above our 55-degree average. Good shower chances appear by Sunday afternoon or evening as the Arizona eddy approaches, with clouds keeping the high temperature in the upper 50s.
It should be cold enough for an inch or two of snow at mountaintop by Monday morning. If the eddy moves as fast as forecast, sunny skies should return by Monday afternoon, with high temperatures falling to the low-to-mid-50s behind the storm. The nice weather should last through Tuesday, before longer-range weather forecast models disagree on the speed and southern extent of another storm moving through the Gulf of Alaska and possibly grazing our area around midweek.
So enjoy the sunny periods on Friday and Saturday, and I’ll have more details on the possible midweek storm in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
