Pleasant weather for the workweek
Sunday, June 22, 2025
After a cool front passed through Steamboat Springs this Sunday morning, temperatures are in the comfortable low-seventies under mostly sunny skies this mid-afternoon. A chilly night will be followed by rising high temperatures that will reach the low-eighties on Tuesday, along with some increasing moisture that will persist on Wednesday for only a slight chance of a shower and several degrees of cooling. Mostly sunny skies return starting Thursday, with the low-eighty-degree temperatures increasing to the upper eighties and persisting through the weekend.
A stout ridge of high pressure over the Southeast is deflecting energy moving through a splitting trough of low pressure extending from the Canadian Plains southwestward through the Great Basin and California. The dry cool front this morning was associated with the southern end of the storm that brought snow to the higher elevations of Idaho, northern Wyoming and Montana. Clear skies will allow temperatures to fall into the thirties tonight, below our average of 41 F, before high temperatures reach our 79 F average on Monday.
Several degrees of warming are expected on Tuesday, along with some afternoon clouds, as limited moisture rotating around the Southeast high pressure is drawn northward ahead of what is left of the southern end of the eastward-moving low pressure system forecast to be over Nevada.
These remnants are forecast to move overhead on Wednesday, bringing more clouds and only a slight chance of an afternoon or evening thunderstorm that would bring more wind than rain due to most precipitation evaporating in the dry lower atmosphere.
The ridge of high pressure over the Southeast is then forecast to extend westward starting Thursday, eventually reaching the Desert Southwest by the weekend. High temperatures are forecast to rise back into the low-eighties on Thursday and upper-eighties for Friday and the weekend under mostly sunny skies.
Enjoy the cooler temperatures for the rest of today, and the pleasant weather for the workweek, and I’ll have more details on the weekend weather in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
Hot and dry weather to continue through the weekend
Thursday, June 19, 2025
Temperatures have already reached eighty-six degrees in Steamboat Springs at the Bob Adams airport earlier this Thursday afternoon, and there may be a couple of degrees of further warming if the partly cloudy skies turn less cloudy. The arrival of this heat is well-timed, as the first day of astronomical summer occurs tomorrow at 8:42 pm when the sun reaches its northernmost point from the equator, and coincides with the shortest night of the year. An approaching storm will bring a hot, dry and windy Friday, followed by a cooler and less windy, but still breezy, weekend.
A ridge of high pressure is over the Rocky Mountains while a strong and persistent storm in the Gulf of Alaska, discussed in my last weather narrative, is moving toward the Pacific Northwest coast. The storm will cross the coast on Friday while pushing the ridge eastward, substantially increasing our southwesterly winds and fire danger, with mountain-top winds as high as 60 mph possible. Temperatures will again reach the upper-eighties, well above our average of seventy-seven degrees, under mostly sunny skies.
A few degrees of cooling are forecast for a less windy, but still breezy, Saturday as the hot air mass pushes eastward. More cooling and temperatures around eighty degrees are forecast for Sunday as energy ejecting from the storm is deflected to the northwest and a weak cool front brushes our area.
The storm is forecast to move into Idaho early Sunday, but its southward progress is stalled by the stout ridge of high pressure now centered over the Southeast. Like the ejecting energy on Friday, it too is forecast to rotate to the northwest and drag another cool front through our area on Monday, keeping high temperatures in the low-eighties.
Meanwhile, energy rotating around low pressure over Hudson Bay will drag a mass of cold air from western Canada toward Idaho early in the workweek, reinvigorating the area of low pressure over the West. Combined with a building ridge of high pressure over the Southeast, we may begin to see the first hints of the North American Monsoon next week as moisture is drawn northward from the Mexican Plateau in the southerly winds between these two features.
So enjoy what will certainly be a very summery first weekend of summer, and I’ll have more details on what may be the beginnings of our monsoon season in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
Hot and dry weather to be interrupted by a cool front on Tuesday
Sunday, June 15, 2025
After an eighty-five-degree high temperature yesterday at the Bob Adams airport in Steamboat Springs, temperatures are just shy of that this Sunday mid-afternoon under mostly sunny skies. After another hot and dry day on Monday, a cool front on Tuesday will bring cooler temperatures that will last through Wednesday, before even hotter weather follows for Thursday.
A persistent storm in the Gulf of Alaska anchors an area of low pressure extending southwestward toward the tropics while a ridge of high pressure sits over the Continental United States. The dry air and hot temperatures have been carried overhead by southwesterly winds ahead of the Gulf of Alaska storm and that will continue on Monday.
A piece of energy ejecting from the Gulf of Alaska storm will cross the West Coast on Monday, bringing a cool front to our area on Tuesday after traveling across the Great Basin. High temperatures will fall to around our seventy-seven-degree average, and the limited moisture associated with the front may allow for some clouds and even an afternoon or evening thunderstorm that would produce more wind than rain, as most precipitation evaporates in the dry lower atmosphere before reaching the ground.
A ridge of high pressure is then forecast to build behind the front starting Wednesday, for a mostly sunny day with continued comfortable high temperatures reaching the low-eighties.
By Thursday, the Gulf of Alaska storm is forecast to finally move toward the Pacific Northwest coast, building the ridge of high pressure and allowing high temperatures to soar toward our first ninety-degree day of the season under mostly sunny skies in the southwesterly breezes ahead of the storm.
This pattern continues into the weekend when the storm is forecast to cross the Pacific Northwest coast. Winds will increase substantially on Friday and Saturday as the storm approaches, increasing fire weather concerns over the West. With that in mind, I have again started posting the NOAA Smoke Plume Forecast, which is run four times a day out to 48 hours. This model shows that the occasional hazy skies over the last few days were from the France Canyon wildfire burning in southwestern Utah.
Enjoy the respite from the hot weather on Tuesday and Wednesday, and check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon for an update to that ninety-degree weekend forecast.
Pattern shift to bring hot and dry weather for the weekend
Thursday, June 12, 2025
Temperatures reached eighty degrees this Thursday in Steamboat Springs under mostly sunny skies before a thunderstorm with pea-sized hail dropped temperatures into the low-sixties by early this afternoon, including a ten-degree drop in ten minutes. But the thunderstorms will disappear Friday and the weekend as temperatures soar into the upper-eighties by Sunday.
Ejecting energy from a persistent area of low pressure over the Gulf of Alaska has brought some Pacific moisture overhead these past few days. The low-pressure area is forecast to wobble around for the next week as pieces of Pacific energy and moisture crossing the Dateline are both absorbed, reinvigorating the storm, and slingshot around its southern end.
As one part of the storm briefly elongates along the West Coast through the weekend, winds turn southwesterly over the West, building a ridge of high pressure over the Rocky Mountains and bringing hot and dry air from the Desert Southwest overhead. Though we may see some more thunderstorms this afternoon and evening, dry weather is forecast for the weekend with temperatures reaching the mid-eighties on Friday and warming into the upper-eighties by Sunday, well above our average of 76 F.
The dry air and clear skies will allow nighttime temperatures to fall into the forties, a bit warmer than our average of almost forty degrees due to the hot air mass.
This weather pattern will continue into the coming workweek, with temperatures possibly reaching ninety degrees on Monday. Some of the Gulf of Alaska storm is forecast to move inland by Tuesday or Wednesday, eventually grazing our area with a cool front that will drop high temperatures into the low-eighties.
So enjoy the summery weekend - we are after all only a week away from the summer solstice next Friday, June 20th at 8:41 pm - and I’ll have more details on next week’s cool front in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
Nice weather for the workweek with eighty degree temperatures starting Tuesday
Sunday, June 8, 2025
Temperatures reached seventy-seven degrees late this Sunday afternoon at the Bob Adams airport in Steamboat Springs. Nice weather is forecast for the workweek with temperatures rising into the low-eighties starting Tuesday and lasting through Thursday with only slight chances for afternoon and evening showers. Dry days with even warmer temperatures, possibly reaching into the upper eighties, are forecast for Friday and the weekend.
A deep vortex of low pressure is moving across Minnesota while energy ejects from an area of low pressure in the Gulf of Alaska. A ridge of high pressure over the Pacific Northwest will be weakened by the ejecting energy and follow the Minnesota low eastward. Our winds will turn from the northwest to the west, allowing temperatures to warm a degree or two on Monday and into the low eighties by Tuesday, above our average of seventy-five degrees.
The westerly flow will introduce a modicum of Pacific moisture, perhaps as early as Tuesday afternoon and evening, but more likely on Wednesday and Thursday, for only slight chances of afternoon and evening storms. Meanwhile, the Gulf of Alaska storm will move eastward toward the Pacific Northwest. Southwest winds ahead of the storm will force a ridge of high pressure to build over the Rocky Mountains by Friday bringing dry air from the Desert Southwest overhead and allowing temperatures to warm into the mid to upper-eighties.
So enjoy the nice weather ahead, and check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon for more details on what is looking like a hot and dry weekend.
