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.
Cool front for Friday may bring some showers
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Sunny skies and delightfully cool temperatures near the mid-sixties are observed early this Thursday afternoon in Steamboat Springs. A cool front early Friday will bring our best chance for showers this week before temperatures warm a bit for the weekend and more for the following work week.
A storm complex that was over over the northwestern quarter of the country this past work week is forecast to grudgingly move east over the weekend. Our current cool temperatures are courtesy of ejecting waves of energy from a large and cold storm in the Gulf of Alaska that are mixing with a pool of cold air centered over the southern Canadian Plains.
The wettest and strongest of the upcoming waves will drag a cool front through our area early Friday during which we will see our best chance of showers for the upcoming week. But the chances are not that great, with at best only light showers expected along with another cool day of temperatures ten degrees or so below our average high of 75 F.
By Saturday, we should see warming temperatures in the mid-seventies under mostly sunny skies and light winds from the northwest. As is often the case with northwest flow, we will be susceptible to some afternoon showers from Sunday through Tuesday afternoons as hard-to-time waves of moisture and energy periodically eject from the Gulf of Alaska storm and mix with cool air from the southern Canadian Plains as they graze our area.
The last mostly dry cool front ejected from the Gulf of Alaska storm is expected on Monday before the parent storm is forecast to move toward our area by the end of work week. Ahead of that storm, soaring temperatures around ten or so degrees above average and sunny skies are expected for Tuesday, Wednesday and possibly Thursday as a transient ridge of high pressure builds over the West.
There is a fair bit of weather forecast uncertainty as to how close the eastward moving Gulf of Alaska storm gets to our area by the end of the work week. The usually weaker European ECMWF, which incidentally has trended toward the stronger American GFS these past few months, is now stronger than its American counterpart.
There is quite a difference in the resultant weather outcomes, with the European ECMWF introducing cool and showery weather starting around Friday and lasting through the weekend. The American GFS, on the other hand, is much weaker, drier and further north with the storm, only bringing a dry and grazing cool front through our area on Friday before warming temperatures and sunny skies return for the weekend.
There is plenty of time for these models to change their tune, and I’ll have more information on how the Gulf of Alaska storm evolves for my next weather narrative scheduled on Sunday afternoon.
Mostly dry and breezy work week ahead
Sunday, June 14, 2020
The Steamboat Springs area is currently seeing sunny skies, early afternoon temperatures in the low-seventies, and breezy westerly winds on this Sunday. Winds will persist as temperatures rise early in the work week before a cool front knocks them down by midweek. While we may see a modicum of moisture starting Wednesday and lasting through the first half of the weekend, significant precipitation, or even wetting rain, looks unlikely as additional dry cool fronts graze our area.
A complex of storms currently in the northwestern quarter of the country has pushed the ridge of high pressure that was over our area last week eastward. The lead storm in this complex brought a dry cool front through our area last night and is responsible for the winds and our pleasant temperature near our average of 73 F today.
Another storm from the Gulf of Alaska is forecast to make landfall along the Pacific Northwest coast on Tuesday, and the breezy southwesterly flow ahead of the storm will allow temperatures to rise to ten degrees or so above average on Monday and Tuesday.
The storm is forecast to rotate to our north through the storm complex, allowing additional cool western Canadian air to move into the northwestern quarter of the U.S. We should see several cool fronts in generally west to northwest flow through the the rest of the work week and the weekend that will keep our temperatures in the seventies.
While pleasant temperatures are likely, significant precipitation is not, with the weather forecast models disagreeing on the days with the best chances of showers. There may be a chance of some meager showers on Wednesday afternoon according to the more optimistic European ECMWF, while the American GFS is more optimistic for still-meager afternoon and evening showers on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
We may have to wait for the dry northwesterly to westerly flow to cease for any real chance of precipitation. This is forecast to occur during the following work week as the complex of storms in the northwestern quarter of the country grudgingly moves to our east. This will then allow some sort of ridge of high pressure to build over the west, forcing subtropical moisture northward in the southerly or southwesterly flow on the west side of the ridge. It is too early to know how much moisture may return to our area, but I hope to have a better idea by my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
Summery weather is back
Thursday, June 11, 2020
The Steamboat Springs area is seeing a beautiful June day with sunny skies and a noontime temperature of 67 F on this Thursday. Tomorrow looks to be the warmest day of the week before a strong storm from the Gulf of Alaska grazes our area mid-weekend, with Saturday afternoon and evening showers that may produce more wind than rain. Temperature will return to average behind the grazing storm for the rest of the upcoming week, along with windy to breezy flow from the southwest.
The southern part of a large and cold storm currently extending from the Gulf of Alaska to off the coast of California is forecast to make landfall on Friday. A ridge of high pressure over the West is forecast to amplify ahead of the storm on Friday, bringing our warmest temperatures of the upcoming week that will be ten degrees or so above our average high of 72 F.
While most of the precipitation and cold air will be confined to the Pacific Northwest over the weekend, there will be a chance of showers over our area Saturday afternoon and evening as the southerly winds ahead of the storm carries moisture originally from the Gulf of Mexico northward. However, the lower levels of the atmosphere are forecast to remain dry, so look for these showers to possibly produce more wind than rain as the precipitation evaporates before reaching the ground (virga).
While clouds will moderate the high temperatures on Saturday to be in the seventies, a weak cool front grazing our area Saturday night will keep them there on a dry, sunny and breezy Sunday.
The breezy winds from the southwest are expected to persist through the work week in the dry air behind the storm and ahead of another Pacific Northwest storm later in the week.
There is weather forecast model uncertainty with respect to the strength of this next Pacific Northwest storm, with the American GFS being stronger and the European ECMWF trending weaker. While we may see another round of breezy southwesterly winds if the storm ends up being on the stronger side, both models agree currently agree on the following weekend staying dry.
June snow likely in town by Tuesday morning
Sunday, June 7, 2020
Sunny skies and strong winds from the south have returned to Steamboat Springs this Sunday afternoon behind Saturday’s storm. A large and cold storm to our northwest will first bring a dry cold front through our area tonight, followed by a stronger cold front later on Monday that now looks moist enough to bring accumulating snows at higher elevations and even snowfall downtown overnight. Temperatures will start the work week in the fifties and end in the seventies, with dry weather expected after the snow.
Along with very strong winds, rainfall amounts ranged from one to three tenths in the Yampa Valley from the storm on Saturday. Winds have picked up again today ahead of the next storm currently located around southern Idaho. Showers look to be confined to the northwest corner of Colorado today ahead of the initial cold front that should pass through our area early this evening.
Monday morning will be cold, though the coldest mornings look to be Tuesday and Wednesday, and I would suggest protecting sensitive vegetation for all three mornings, and possibly Thursday morning as well. High temperatures on Monday will be in the fifties, fifteen to twenty degrees below our average of 71 and thirty to thirty five degrees below our unseasonably warm day last Friday!
While Monday should be mostly dry with temperatures in the fifties as cold air filters in, a reinforcing cold front is forecast to pass through our area around Monday evening as the southern end of the parent storm moves through. And there is now enough moisture forecast to make snow, with accumulations of several inches at the higher elevations, including Rabbit Ears Pass, and some snow likely on the grassy surfaces in town by Tuesday morning.
Showers may hang on Tuesday morning in the classic cold, moist, unstable and favorable northwest flow before ending by noon. Even though the sun is strong as we are only two weeks away from the summer solstice, temperatures will once again be relegated to the fifties behind the departing storm.
Another cold morning is in store for Wednesday, though temperatures should warm into the sixties under mostly to partly sunny skies as a ridge of high pressure begins building over the West.
Keep an eye on your plants for Thursday morning, since temperatures that are forecast to be in the thirties may allow low-lying areas to be near freezing. But the warming continues, with temperatures back near average on Thursday under sunny skies.
Another cold storm is forecast to form in the Gulf of Alaska over the week, with the southerly flow ahead of the storm forcing the ridge of high pressure over the West to amplify. As the storm makes landfall along the West Coast late in the work week, the ridge of high pressure is forced eastward over the Rocky Mountains, and we may see a chance of showers return on Friday and Saturday along with warmer than average temperatures as moisture to our south is brought northward.
The storm gets close enough to our area around the weekend for windy southerly or southwesterly conditions, but it looks like summer is going to win this battle as the storm is deflected mostly to our northwest. If it is deflected as currently advertised, we may see a grazing cool front for late in the weekend or early the following work week, though after our likely snow Monday night and the summer solstice present last year, I’ll reserve judgement on that until my next weather narrative, scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
