Mostly sunny with seasonable temperatures this week
Sunday, May 23, 2021
Cloudy skies, brisk southerly winds and cool temperatures in the mid-fifties are over the Steamboat Springs area this Sunday afternoon. The cool temperatures and windy conditions will continue today, along with periods of sun this afternoon, but a very pleasant and mostly sunny work week starts on Monday that may persist into and possibly through the coming Memorial Day weekend.
As was the case in the last weather narrative on Thursday, the weather over the continental U.S. is still dominated by a strong winter-like storm in the West, now over Idaho, and a ridge of high pressure that is now over the eastern half of the country. We did receive some precipitation from the storm, with around a tenth of an inch reported in the 24 hours ending at 7 am this morning around town, though my unofficial weather station near the base of the mountain recorded almost twice that.
The cool temperatures around ten degrees below our average high of 66 F will continue today and overnight as we are grazed by the southern edge of the Idaho storm that is forecast to rotate into northern Montana by later Monday. We’ll likely see below-freezing temperatures tonight about five or ten degrees below our average low of 35 F as skies clear and winds calm.
Winds will decrease behind the departing storm on Monday, but still remain breezy from the west as the jet stream maintains its position across the northern Rockies through the work week. And temperatures will slowly warm though midweek under mostly sunny skies with high temperatures in the seventies by Wednesday afternoon.
A couple of storms are forecast to quickly move through the jet stream on Thursday and again around mid-weekend, but right now they are forecast to only graze our area and bring some increased winds, cooler air and cloudiness, with some showers possible at the higher elevations north of town closer to the Wyoming border.
There is some uncertainty for the weather forecast near the end of the long Memorial Day weekend as that mid-weekend storm may undergo some sort of split that may leave energy off the California coast. Some of this energy may move inland and towards our area, leading to the possibility of showers if it eventually moves nearby, but the track, timing and even existence of this feature is questionable at this time. Enjoy the beautiful spring week coming up, and stay tuned for my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon for more details on the weather for Memorial Day weekend.
