Cool and wet weather for Memorial Day clears by midweek
Sunday, May 29, 2022
Cold and rainy weather is over the Steamboat Springs area this Sunday mid-afternoon, with even six inches of snow observed near the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort! More moderate to sometimes heavy precipitation is in store through the rest of today and the overnight hours before we see a still cold but less showery Memorial Day with temperatures struggling to reach fifty degrees. Temperatures will warm a bit on Tuesday even as afternoon showers remain before pleasant weather returns midweek and lasts into the weekend.
The compex storm currently over the West and discussed in my last weather narrative Thursday afternoon has largely evolved as forecast, with a weak cool front yesterday followed by overnight showers that brought around four tenths of an inch of rain to the valley and 4.5” of snow near the top of Mt. Werner. While we did see some sun early in the day, a strong cold front that passed through at 10 am this morning has dropped temperatures into the mid-forties, around twenty five degrees below our average of 68 F, along with additional rounds of precipitation.
More of the same is expected for the rest of today and evening as a large part of the storm continues to move overhead. Precipitation decreases and becomes more showery after midnight as snow levels continue to fall, so we may see some snowflakes in town on Memorial Day morning.
Temperatures will struggle again to reach fifty degrees on Monday, and while the precipitation will moderate, it will not end as showers persist through the day, especially in the afternoon. More accumulating snow at the higher elevations will fortunately continue to add to our snowpack even at this late date.
The last part of the storm lingering in the Great Basin will move overhead by Tuesday night, with weather forecast models trending further north and weaker. It now looks like we will see a relatively nice day as compared to the preceding two, with periods of sun during the first half of the day, temperatures reaching the mid-fifties and the chance of afternoon and overnight showers as the last of the storm moves past.
The precipitation from this storm cycle looks to end by Wednesday morning as a ridge of high pressure builds over the West behind the departing storm, with temperatures warming toward sixty degrees as the sun returns. The warming trend continues for the rest of the work week, with dry weather and temperatures reaching the upper-sixties on Thursday and returning to the low-seventies on Friday.
While the current forecast has the nice weather persisting into next weekend, that may change in succeeding weather forecasts as several Pacific weather disturbances move just to our north. So stay tuned to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon where we’ll see if we can eke out a second dry weekend in the last two months to start the month of June. And for those tired of the wet weekends, remember the high country adage that May showers bring June wildflowers!
