Weekend to see mostly sunny skies and eighty-degree temperatures
Thursday, September 5, 2024
It’s starting to feel fall-like in Steamboat Springs after storms associated with the cool front yesterday brought as much as a half-inch of precipitation to parts of town and temperatures reaching only about seventy degrees by this Thursday mid-afternoon. But mostly sunny skies with temperatures warming to around eighty degrees will be with us through the weekend with only the slightest chance of late-day showers after Friday.
We are starting to see the battle of the air masses play out over our area as cold air from the northern latitudes encroaches on the warm air over the mid-latitudes. The air behind yesterday’s cool front will quickly modify this weekend as a ridge of high pressure rebuilds over the West. High temperatures will warm to near our average of 77 F on Friday and around eighty degrees on Saturday under mostly sunny skies, with low temperatures near our average of 39 F.
Pacific energy rotating through a broad area of low pressure over the Gulf of Alaska will weaken as it crosses the West Coast on Saturday and interacts with the ridge of high pressure. There may be a trickle of Pacific moisture and perhaps monsoonal moisture as the high pressure gets nudged eastward, but dry air over our area will limit its effects to some afternoon clouds and only the slightest chance of a shower that would produce more wind than rain.
Another storm currently over the Bering Sea is forecast to split to some degree over the Gulf of Alaska during the weekend, and as it moves eastward it will also push the weakening West Coast storm eastward. There may be a slightly better chance of late-day showers to start the workweek as moisture modestly increases, but significant rain currently looks unlikely.
So enjoy the beautiful first weekend of meteorological fall, which runs from September through November, and check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon for more details on the moisture to start next week.
