Warming and drying weather through the weekend

Thursday, July 6, 2023

Comfortable temperatures in the low seventies with mostly sunny skies and breezy winds generally from the west are over the Steamboat Springs area this Thursday mid-afternoon. There will be a chance for some late day and evening showers thanks to a nearby cool front, with those chances decreasing for Friday along with slightly warmer temperatures. That trend continues on Saturday, and a dry Sunday should be the warmest day of the weekend.

Ridges of high pressure are currently over the Gulf of Alaska and the Desert Southwest extending to Texas while a deep vortex of cold air is centered over Hudson Bay. A cool front associated with cool air moving southward on the backside of the Hudson Bay vortex has been over or just north of our area the last few days, which has led to the thunder and lightning shows since Independence Day.

It looks like we will have a repeat performance later today and this evening, with the possibility of showers dropping off after midnight as the cool front is slowly pushed to our north thanks to the strengthening ridge of high pressure to our south.

We should see less of a chance for showers on Friday, with high temperatures reaching around eighty degrees, a couple degrees below our average of 82 F. That trend continues on Saturday as the cool front is nudged to the Wyoming border, though a stray shower producing more wind than rain cannot be ruled out.

Another bump in temperatures to right around average is forecast for Sunday under mostly sunny skies. The ridge of high pressure to our south looks to build over the central Rockies through much of next week, leading to above average temperatures with almost no chance of precipitation. We will likely see the warmest temperatures of the summer so far, and I’ll have more about that in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.