Wetting rains likely around midweek ahead of drier weekend
Monday, July 17, 2017
A storm off the coast of British Columbia has mixed with some cool air from western Canada, and a piece of the storm will travel across the northern U.S. border through today. Energy associated with this wave has flattened the dominant western ridge of high pressure that was over the Steamboat Springs area this past week and may provide a focus for a round of afternoon storms today.
Some drier air will follow for Tuesday as the western ridge tries to rebuild, though there will still be a slight chance of afternoon storms.
By Wednesday, the parent storm near British Columbia begins to move eastward, with energy ejecting out ahead of the storm nudging the flattened western ridge eastward and opening the door to a robust surge of monsoonal moisture from the south.
We should have a good chance of wetting rains on Wednesday and Thursday, including the overnight periods, with locally heavy precipitation possible, as embedded subtropical waves move through the moisture plume and phase with some passing energy from the eastward-moving British Columbia storm to our north.
Drier air is advertised to encroach on our area by the weekend in the westerly flow behind the passing storm to our north. Though we will still have a good chance of storms on Friday, the drying air should lead to a downturn in precipitation chances heading into the weekend.
