Temperatures to moderate this week along with a chance of showers
Sunday, July 14, 2024
A third straight ninety-degree day is only hours away as temperatures are already in the mid-eighties under mostly sunny skies early this Sunday afternoon in Steamboat Springs. Unlike the previous two days, building clouds to our south herald the arrival of some modest moisture that will bring a chance of showers today through Tuesday along with cooling temperatures. Those chances are reduced on Wednesday and Thursday before reappearing on Friday.
A storm on the Canadian Plains has squashed the ridge of high pressure over the West, but not enough to temper another ninety-degree day today. The flattened ridge has allowed light winds from the west to carry monsoonal moisture from Utah over our area, increasing the chance of afternoon and evening showers starting this afternoon and lasting through Tuesday.
While the rain from any showers today will likely evaporate in the dry lower atmosphere before reaching the ground, causing gusty winds, there is a better chance of raindrops hitting the ground on Monday and especially Tuesday as the lower atmosphere moistens. However, amounts will likely be fairly meager as the monsoonal moisture is recycled under the ridge of high pressure over the West.
Additionally, cool air rotating around the storm in Canada will graze our area through Tuesday, first dropping our high temperatures into the upper-eighties on Monday and then near our average of 84 F on Tuesday as the grazing cool front encourages stronger storms. Incidentally, that 84 F average represents our highest average summer temperature, and will be with us for the last two weeks of July and the first week of August.
By midweek, the Canadian storm is forecast to move over the Great Lakes and nudge the rebounding western ridge back to the west. This places our area in a drier northwest flow for Wednesday and Thursday, though afternoon and evening storms will still be possible. Better storm chances reappear for Friday as some energy ejecting out of a Gulf of Alaska storm passes through the ridge, with weather forecast models disagreeing on whether that moisture sticks around through the weekend.
So let’s hope for some rains this week, and I’ll have more details on the weekend forecast in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
