A gorgeous weekend ahead to be followed by a stormy start to the workweek
Thursday, May 29, 2025
Mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-sixties are over Steamboat Springs early this Thursday afternoon. Shower chances will linger for the rest of today and Friday before temperatures warm toward our first eighty-degree day of the season this weekend under mostly sunny skies. Wetter and cooler weather will start the new workweek.
Our area is under the influence of cool northwest flow around a circulation center extending southwestward across the Northern Plains, ahead of a ridge of high pressure centered over western Canada. Additionally, a storm is moving eastward across the Gulf of Alaska, and an eddy of low pressure that vacationed north of Hawaii this week is over northern Baja. Finally, Alvin, the first named tropical storm of the eastern Pacific hurricane season, which starts mid-May and is two weeks ahead of the Atlantic hurricane season, is moving northward off the Mexican coast towards Baja.
The ridge of high pressure will be pushed eastward this weekend by the advancing Gulf of Alaska storm, with some ejected energy moving through the ridge and continuing this afternoon’s chance of thunderstorms tomorrow as it grazes our area to the northeast after a mostly sunny morning. High temperatures will approach seventy-five degrees, about five degrees above average.
Gorgeous, mostly sunny weather is advertised for the weekend, with our first eighty-degree day of the season possible on Saturday, if not Sunday. Winds will shift from northwestly today and Friday, becoming quite light and variable for most of the weekend, before becoming southwesterly by Sunday afternoon.
This shift in winds will precede a stormy start to the workweek, with some showers possible later Sunday. The Gulf of Alaska storm is forecast to split as it approaches the West Coast mid-weekend, with the southern end of the split forcing the meandering Baja eddy northwestward across the Desert Southwest and toward our area.
While the eddy has been relatively dry, moisture streaming northward around Alvin will be drawn into the eddy, bringing likely chances of moderate to heavy rain to our area starting later Monday. The active weather may continue for a few days as the northern part of the split Gulf of Alaska storm follows on Tuesday, with perhaps the southern part of the split following on Wednesday.
So enjoy what should be a spectacular summer-like weekend. Normally, I’d say to check back on Sunday afternoon for my next regularly scheduled weather narrative, but I will be traveling starting Saturday, and will post when I am able. If not already a subscriber, consider signing up for free to be emailed as soon as I publish.
