Some moisture possible midweek
Sunday, July 27, 2025
Temperatures are in the upper eighties with mostly sunny skies this Sunday mid-afternoon in Steamboat Springs. Even warmer temperatures, approaching ninety degrees, are forecast through the beginning of the workweek before monsoonal moisture appears on Wednesday and Thursday, reducing temperatures by a few degrees on Wednesday and more so on Thursday as a weakening Pacific storm grazes our area.
A ridge of high pressure is over the Southeast as a wave of low pressure traverses across the northern Canadian Plains. The ridge of high pressure will expand westward to start the workweek, bringing high temperatures approaching ninety degrees on Monday and Tuesday, around five degrees above our eighty-four-degree average.
Additionally, a weak area of low pressure associated with a storm in the Gulf of Alaska is approaching the California coast, making landfall by midweek. Southwesterly winds ahead of the low will conspire with southerly winds rotating clockwise around the high pressure to bring a weak, but hopefully moderate, surge of monsoonal moisture northward and over our area by midweek.
Unfortunately, the generally southwest wind over our area has transported smoke from the Dragon Bravo Fire in Grand Canyon National Park and now the Monroe Canyon fire in central Utah toward our area, leading to the hazy skies at times this weekend. That is expected to continue to start the workweek, according to the latest forecast from the NOAA Smoke model forecast, and may continue beyond the current two-day forecast window, which ends Tuesday morning. Check the model, which is run four times a day, for the latest smoke forecast for our area.
Wednesday and Thursday will be our best opportunity for showers from this surge of monsoonal moisture, though forecast rain amounts have steadily trended downward since I mentioned it in last Thursday’s weather narrative. Sadly, the duration of the event has also decreased, as the approaching Pacific storm turns our wind westerly and severs the monsoonal flow of moisture from the south by Friday. However, we will see cooler temperatures closer to average behind the passing Pacific disturbance on Thursday and Friday.
There is still time for the forecast to become wetter, despite the trends, if the Pacific disturbance arrives weaker than currently forecast. So let’s hope for a stronger monsoonal push more similar to the earlier forecasts, and check back Thursday afternoon for the latest details on the weekend weather.
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