Workweek to see mostly sunny skies and increasingly hot temperatures
Sunday, July 28, 2024
After receiving between a quarter and half an inch of rain yesterday, sunny skies are over the Steamboat Springs area early this Sunday afternoon. Other than some smoke that may be transported to our area from a large wildfire complex burning in California’s Sequoia National Forest to start the workweek, expect mostly sunny skies with cool overnight lows and increasingly hot afternoon temperatures approaching ninety degrees by Friday.
A broad area of low pressure over the West Coast has suppressed the ridge of high pressure that was over the West for much of July. Several waves have rotated through this trough and across the West and conspired with some monsoonal moisture to bring measurable rain to our area on Thursday and Saturday. Rainfall was spotty on Thursday, with the official weather station near the Steamboat Springs High School recording 0.21” even as areas around the mountain recorded only several hundredths. But coverage was more widespread and substantial yesterday, with between a quarter and a half an inch of rain recorded across town from several rounds of thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening.
Winds from the southwest ahead of the trough have replaced the monsoonal moisture with dry air, allowing our low temperature to drop a bit below our average of 46 F last night. Unfortunately, these southwest winds may allow smoke from a wildfire in California’s Sequoia National Forest to encroach on our area from later today through tomorrow according to the NOAA smoke plume model.
So expect mostly sunny skies with high temperatures around our average of 84 F today and a few degrees of warming to start the workweek. Meanwhile, the West Coast trough is forecast to move inland and cross Idaho on Tuesday, and Wyoming and Montana on Wednesday. While we may see a degree of cooling and some breezes as the trough grazes our area on Wednesday, the bigger impact will be in subsequent days as the suppressed ridge of high pressure rebounds over the West behind the departing trough and allows high temperatures to reach the upper-eighties on Thursday and close to ninety degrees on Friday.
There is very little hope of precipitation until the weekend when we may see some monsoonal moisture return as it rotates around the high pressure ridge over the West. Enjoy the classic summertime weather this week and hope for the smoke to stay away, and check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon for more details about the possible return of moisture.
