Summery weather with shower chances to last through the weekend

Thursday, June 6, 2024

Temperatures in Steamboat Springs are just shy of the eighty-degree mark under cloudless skies this Thursday mid-afternoon. These summery temperatures will be accompanied by afternoon and evening shower chances starting on Friday and lasting through the beginning of next week, with the best chances of wetting rain on Saturday and Monday.

A ridge of high pressure centered over the Desert Southwest is responsible for our first day in the eighties this season. While today will be dry, moisture will return to our area by Friday as a shallow wave of moisture approaches our area from the Pacific Northwest. Mostly sunny skies through much of the day will allow temperatures to climb back to the low-eighties on Friday, almost ten degrees above our average of 73 F.

Clouds will appear in the afternoon with shower chances lingering through the evening, though any showers are likely to produce more wind than rain as the lower atmosphere remains quite dry. But that changes on Saturday as the Pacific Northwest wave moves overhead, possibly starting showers that produce wetting rains as early as noon and dropping high temperatures back into the mid-seventies. The earlier start time of the showers means they should end earlier in the day too, with dry skies expected by the evening.

Meanwhile, a lobe of energy and moisture slingshot around a storm over the Aleutian Islands is forecast to elongate along the West Coast late Saturday. The southern end is forecast to cut off from the main jet stream and form another eddy that dislodges the Baja eddy before taking its place while the northern end is forecast to cross the Pacific Northwest coast.

While Sunday will start sunny, moisture from the now northeastward-moving Baja eddy should bring some clouds and a modest chance for showers later in the day, even as the high temperature rebounds to the eighty-degree mark. However, good chances for showers exist for Monday as the northern part of the approaching wave combines with moisture from the Baja eddy.

But that is after the weekend, so enjoy the summery weather and I’ll be back Sunday afternoon with more details on how much moisture we can expect to start the workweek.

• Posted at 2:53:46 PM in Steamboat forecast discussion
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