Warming temperatures through the work week
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Skies have grown cloudy this Sunday afternoon ahead of weak grazing cool front passing through the Steamboat Springs area. While town will likely remain dry today with comfortable temperatures in the seventies, the best chance of showers over the coming work week will be later today and this evening at the higher elevations to our north. Much warmer temperatures are forecast for most of the work week before chances of showers and cooler temperatures return as we head into next weekend.
Currently, two cold storms are sitting over the Gulf of Alaska and just northwest of the Great Lakes. Energy rotating around the Great Lakes storm will drag a couple of cool fronts through our area today and tomorrow, with today being the most likely period for precipitation near our area. High temperatures today will be near our average of of 76 F, while tomorrow will several degrees warmer and drier.
Another bump up in temperatures and decrease in moisture is expected for a pleasant Tuesday as the eastward movement of the Gulf of Alaska storm allow a transient ridge of high pressure to build over the West. Expect sunny skies for Wednesday and Thursday with much warmer temperatures ten degrees or so above average.
A fair bit of uncertainty exists for Friday as weather forecast models disagree on how close the Gulf of Alaska storm gets to our area and how strong it will be. While this storm once looked promising, current trends shear the storm apart as it crosses the Great Basin on Thursday. At this point, there appears to be a good chance of at least part of the storm, accompanied with some moisture, to pass over our area around Friday.
Drier and warmer weather is expected to return for the following weekend as another cold storm crosses the Gulf of Alaska. Weather forecast models are struggling with the evolution of that storm, and it is not clear if it stays mostly offshore or moves inland. More details about the possible cool front near the end of the work week as well as the next storm will be available by my next weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
