Possible afternoon showers today and Friday ahead of gorgeous Labor Day weekend
Thursday, September 2, 2021
After the beneficial rains from former hurricane Nora yesterday, a small chance of afternoon and evening storms today will be followed by a better chance on Friday. But get out your barbecues as dry and sunny weather is forecast for the Steamboat Springs area for the coming long Labor Day weekend.
An elongated area of low pressure currently extending from central Saskatchewan southwestward through the Pacific Northwest and northern California helped steer the remnants of hurricane Nora over our area yesterday, with rains starting in the mid-afternoon. Rainfall around the region was relatively evenly distributed, with areas around town and to the north reporting just under a half inch of beneficial rainfall by mid-evening with a bit less to the south.
Some cooler air behind the storm will keep our temperatures around or just under our average of 77 F today, along with a small chance of showers. The southern end of that area of low pressure to our north and west is forecast to move eastward and drag a weak cool front through our area tomorrow afternoon, so we’ll see a better chance of afternoon and evening storms, possibly with brief periods of moderate to heavy rainfall, with similar temperatures to today. Also of note is that the NOAA smoke plume model is forecasting a modest increase in the smoke over our area from the raging California wildfires for the rest of today and tomorrow, which is the limit of its forecasting range.
As discussed in the last weather narrative on Sunday, there was some uncertainty for the weekend as it was not clear what would happen to the southernmost piece of energy that was left behind off the coast of California. Weather forecast models now agree it will be quite weak and easily deflected further off the coast by a building ridge of high pressure over the West. This will lead to gorgeous warm and sunny weather for the long Labor Day weekend, with high temperatures in the seventies reaching the low eighties by Labor Day, and refreshingly cool nights in the thirties, several degrees below our average of 40 F.
While this weather is currently forecast to extend through the following work week, stay tuned to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon to see if that forecasts sticks.
