Nice Friday to be followed by an unsettled weekend
Thursday, September 18, 2025
Temperatures are in the comfortable mid-sixties with sunny skies this Thursday mid-afternoon in Steamboat Springs. Warmer temperatures on Friday will be accompanied by increasing clouds as moisture from the remnants of a tropical disturbance begins moving overhead, increasing shower chances during a mild weekend.
The storm system that brought as much as a tenth of an inch of rain over the last several days and our first early-morning frost of the season is now in the Dakotas, allowing a transient ridge of high pressure to build over the Rockies ahead of a low pressure area off the coast of California. Moisture from the remnants of former Tropical Cyclone Mario has been injected into some energy ejecting from the California low, bringing afternoon clouds on Friday as high temperatures rise toward seventy-five degrees, just above our average of seventy-two degrees.
The moisture and incoming Pacific energy will conspire to bring a chance for showers on both Saturday and Sunday, most likely later Saturday into Sunday morning. The mild air mass means high temperatures will be most affected by periods of afternoon cloudiness, falling to near average on Saturday and around seventy degrees on Sunday.
Meanwhile, cold air moving through the Bering Sea will strengthen a storm forecast to develop in the Gulf of Alaska on Saturday. This storm was originally forecast to graze our area on Monday, but weather forecast models are struggling to accurately predict the amount of cold air that will enter the storm, affecting the weather forecast for the start of the workweek.
That uncertainty will be better resolved in time for my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon. In the meantime, be sure to enjoy the nice start to the weekend and the rapidly developing fall colors.
