Summer-like weather returns for the weekend

Thursday, September 12, 2019

After the first fall-like cold front of the season passed through Steamboat Springs yesterday, clouds are slowly dissipating in the cool and unstable northwest flow behind the storm. Though we’ll see low temperatures for the next several days around or below freezing, warm and mostly sunny days will last through the weekend. A stronger storm is forecast to cross the West Coast early in the work week, and we may see its effects beginning as early as Monday night.

Many areas around town received about 0.4” of precipitation from the storm that rolled through town yesterday. And though I did not see snow on the ground on the upper mountain, there was a dusting in the highest trees.

Temperatures will be slow to recover today thanks to the cold airmass, with highs ten degrees or so below our average of 73 F. Clearing skies will allow temperatures to fall five or even ten degrees below our average of 37 F, creating widespread frost and the necessity to shelter any plants wished to be kept longer into fall.

Otherwise, we should see several beautiful and dry days extending through Monday, with high temperatures approaching average on Friday and exceeding average for the rest of the weekend and Monday. Westerly winds may become a bit breezy on Saturday as a weak storm moving across the northern U.S. border grazes our area.

Meanwhile, a seasonably strong and cold storm currently located in the Bering Sea moves across the Gulf of Alaska during the weekend before sliding halfway down the West Coast by Monday. We should see increasing moisture by later Monday, along with increasing southwest winds by Tuesday and the possibility of showers . There are substantial differences in the evolution of the storm among the various weather forecast models as the storm undergoes some sort of split over the Great Basin early in the work week, so forecast uncertainty is high beyond Tuesday.