Hot start to the weekend with some showers possible
Thursday, July 21, 2022
Temperatures are in the mid-eighties under mostly sunny skies this Thursday mid-afternoon in Steamboat Springs. Temperatures will stay hot through Saturday when an approaching cool front will increase the chances for afternoon and evening showers on Saturday and Sunday and cool temperatures by several degrees starting Sunday.
A ridge of high pressure is currently sitting over the West and leading to warm afternoon temperatures reaching into the upper eighties, around five degrees above our average of 84 F. Energy ejecting out of a storm currently in the Bering Sea will help dislodge the Pacific Northwest eddy left behind from last week’s Vancouver storm eastward across the northern Rockies through this weekend.
While Friday will be similar to today, perhaps with an isolated shower, we will see effects from that eastward moving eddy starting on Saturday as shower chances increase in the afternoon and evening as a cool front grazes our area. While the front may not arrive early enough in the day to moderate the hot temperatures much, areas under any clouds will see some relief from the heat.
The storm moving across the northern Rockies is forecast to nudge the ridge of high pressure eastward, and moisture over our area will increase from the grazing storm as well as monsoonal moisture carried northward on the back side of the ridge of high pressure. So expect high temperatures to cool several degrees toward our average of 84 F on Sunday with another chance of afternoon and evening storms.
Drier air behind the front looks to overspread our part of Colorado to start the work week, and additional energy moving through that Bering Sea storm is forecast to keep the ridge of high pressure from rebuilding, so expect a very pleasant dry summer day on Monday with high temperatures around average. There may be another grazing cool front later Tuesday, or not, but I’ll have more clarity on that possibility in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
