Active weather decreases midweek followed by weekend warming
Monday, August 14, 2017
The Steamboat Springs area is under an active weather regime for August as the polar jet stream dips a bit further south than average for this time of year. A trough of low pressure that was over the West Coast this past weekend is splitting as it moves inland even as additional cool air from the North Pole moves southward across Alaska and takes its place over the next week.
There will be continued chances of storm for today and Tuesday, including the overnight hours, as several cool fronts from the northern part of the split interact with energy ejecting out of the trailing southern part of the split.
The active weather diminishes around Wednesday as the late summer western ridge rebuilds, though another trough from the Gulf of Alaska is forecast move across the northern states late in the work week and limit the strength of the ridge. Current forecasts drag another weak cool front through the area Friday morning, with the western ridge growing stronger over the weekend and bringing much warmer temperatures to our area.
There should be enough moisture, however, for a chance of afternoon storms through the rest of the work week and extending into the weekend before another Gulf of Alaska storm approaches the West Coast mid-weekend and splits like the past several storms. Numerical models currently advertise a similar evolution for that storm, with the main part traveling north of our area early next week and the southern part taking up residence off the coast of California.
