Summery weather for the upcoming week
Thursday, May 30, 2019
After another 17” of snow fell atop Mt. Werner in about 17 hours on Tuesday, along with a high temperature of 40 F in the town of Steamboat Springs (27 F below our average!), the weather will turn more seasonable for the upcoming week.
Over 1.5” of liquid water or liquid water equivalent fell from the Tuesday storm, which is the second such occurrence in consecutive weeks in our very stormy May. June is only two days away, and winter-weary residents can finally expect summery weather to appear over the upcoming week as the forecast calls for mostly sunny skies and warming temperatures with the chance of an afternoon storm.
Though another Pacific storm is currently sliding down the West Coast, a ridge of high pressure over the southern Rockies is forecast to build behind a cold series of storms developing over the eastern U.S. This ridge will temporarily keep the Pacific storm spinning in southern California during the weekend and early next week before it eventually moves over our area around midweek.
Until then, high temperatures will warm towards our average of 68 F tomorrow and settle in a range that is five to ten degrees above average for the weekend and early next week. There will be a chance of afternoon and early evening storms through the weekend as the strong late spring sun cooks moisture in the atmosphere, though there is disagreement among the weather forecast models as to whether energy ejecting out of the southern California storm will be close enough to force stronger and more numerous storms for Sunday.
In any event, much drier air is forecast to overrun our area in southwest flow on Monday and Tuesday that will decrease or eliminate the chance of afternoon showers and keep our warm temperatures around.
The California storm is forecast to move east when the series of cold eastern U.S. storms move east, and the current forecast has clouds increasing by midweek as the storm approaches our area. The storm will have lost most of its cold air by then, so unsettled weather along with temperatures near or a bit below average can be expected for Wednesday and Thursday.
After that, another cold Pacific storm is forecast to cross the West Coast near the end of the work week, though weather forecast models disagree on how fast the storm will move near our area and how cold it may be.