Modest chances for showers this week

Thursday, July 16, 2020

Partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the low eighties are observed in Steamboat Springs early this Thursday afternoon. Shower chances will come and go during the upcoming week as monsoonal moisture from the south is intermittently interrupted by passing storms to our north.

Some moisture is now over our area as a result of southerly flow on the west side of a flat ridge of high pressure over the southern half of the U.S. Though areas to our south will be favored for rains, there may be enough moisture for some afternoon and evening showers both today and Friday. Since the lower levels of the atmosphere are quite dry, these showers will likely produce more wind than rain.

This moist flow from the south will be interrupted several times this upcoming week as storms to our north shift our winds to be more from the drier west. Right now, it looks like the atmosphere will dry out on Saturday as a storm moves to our north before shower chances return for Sunday.

Another storm to our north might dry things out for Monday and Tuesday before flow from the south briefly resumes around midweek for another day or two of increased shower chances.

Meanwhile, a storm is forecast to move across the Pacific Northwest late in the work week, and there may be enough southerly flow ahead of the storm to force a healthy plume of monsoonal moisture northward across Arizona. We should see some drying for the end of the work week before that monsoonal moisture plume is forecast to be bent eastward as the storm moves eastward, increasing the chance of showers again over our area around the following weekend.

So generally normal summer weather for the upcoming week, with the specifics dependent upon the outcome of the battle between the southern ridge of high pressure and the northern storms. Hopefully we can get some rain before my next weather narrative scheduled for Sunday afternoon.