Gorgeous weather to follow the last round of showers tonight
Sunday, August 25, 2024
Temperatures are in the mid-sixties early this Sunday evening in Steamboat Springs under cloudy skies after touching seventy degrees this afternoon. We were close to that by mid-morning before thunderstorms dropped our temperatures by over ten degrees in fifteen minutes. Tonight will be our last active period with likely showers before dry air behind a grazing cool front brings mostly sunny skies and warming temperatures through the work week.
An elongated and weakening storm across the West has conspired with monsoonal moisture carried northward around the backside of a ridge of high pressure over the East to bring five straight days of rain to our area, with just over a half-inch falling so far, not including today. The storm is moving to the northeast and weakening, but not before bringing some more showers through sunrise Monday.
Dry air behind the storm will move overhead on Monday for a very pleasant and mostly sunny day with high temperatures in the low seventies, more than five degrees below our average of eighty degrees. An eastward-moving storm currently in the Gulf of Alaska will keep our current storm moving, allowing the ridge of high pressure to squirt back westward. So, more gorgeous weather is expected with mostly sunny skies and temperatures reaching the upper seventies on Tuesday and around eighty degrees on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, that Gulf of Alaska storm is forecast to cross Vancouver on Tuesday and Montana on Wednesday, dragging a weak and dry cool front near our area on Thursday. Temperatures might drop by a few degrees, but the mostly sunny skies will remain.
The ridge of high pressure is forecast to build over the West behind the storm for a gorgeous start to the long Labor Day weekend. There is uncertainty regarding the placement and orientation of the ridge, with some weather forecast models bringing monsoonal moisture back to our area during the long weekend while others keep us dry.
Enjoy what promises to be a spectacular stretch of weather heading into the holiday weekend, and check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon to see if the moisture stays away for the weekend festivities.
