Air quality to improve heading into the Independence Day weekend
Thursday, July 2, 2026
After a bout of smoky haze this morning, air quality is temporarily improving this Thursday mid-afternoon in Steamboat Springs under mostly sunny skies and 80-degree temperatures. Smoke will revisit the area overnight before westerly winds behind a grazing storm to our north improve air quality through at least Independence Day, with increasing temperatures to end the holiday weekend.
The low-pressure area over the Pacific Northwest this past week will finally be dislodged by Pacific energy moving through the Gulf of Alaska. Winds will shift from southwesterly to westerly by Friday morning, clearing the smoky skies forecast to return tonight, according to the latest run of the NOAA smoke model. While we will not see the cool air expected from the grazing storm in all but the summer months, the shifting winds should keep the skies smoke-free through at least Independence Day.
Friday should be a quintessential Colorado high-country summer day, with high temperatures right around our comfortable 82-degree average. A high-pressure cell is forecast to build over New Mexico behind the grazing wave on Saturday, building into Colorado through Sunday, and eventually into the Northern Rockies next week. Not only will we see temperatures warming into the mid-80s on Independence Day, but winds will shift back to southwesterly on an upper-80-degree Sunday, possibly carrying smoke back toward our area from the wildfires to our southwest and south.
However, these southwesterly winds may also carry some moisture from a decaying extra-tropical disturbance well west of Baja toward Colorado, in a brief monsoonal-like pattern lasting into the beginning of the workweek. Southern Colorado will see the moisture first, but the lack of low-level moisture limits the good news. While the forecast can change, chances for wetting rains are low, with better chances for dry thunderstorms that may make the wildfires worse.
So enjoy America’s 250th birthday weekend, and I’ll have more details about the incoming moisture in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
Temperatures to rise behind a cooler Monday
Sunday, June 28, 2026
Sunny skies with temperatures near 75 degrees are over Steamboat Springs this Sunday mid-afternoon. A cool front tonight will briefly drop temperatures on Monday before they slowly rise through the dry week, reaching the mid-80s heading into the long Independence Day weekend. The smoke that arrived Saturday afternoon will be with us again starting this afternoon, though a brief respite is likely on Monday.
Several waves of energy and moisture are rotating around a complex storm over the Pacific Northwest, with the first bringing high winds to the West and snow to the Northern Rockies yesterday. Cold air ahead of the second wave will move through our area tonight, bringing some overnight snow to the Uintas and a cooler, still breezy Monday with high temperatures only in the low 70s, over 5 degrees below our 80-degree average.
Sadly, wildfire smoke now needs to be considered in the weather forecast, with the shocking arrival of thick smoke Saturday afternoon, likely from the newly started Snyder fire southwest of Grand Junction. The Ferris fire, north of Cortez, may also be a source of smoke over the coming days, depending on wind direction. While the longer-burning Utah wildfires may also contribute to haze depending on wind direction, the closer fires may more adversely affect air quality. I have placed the two new widgets shown in the accompanying screenshot on the SnowAlarm home page, with easy access to the updated four-time-a-day NOAA smoke model.
Winds will decrease but remain breezy on Tuesday as temperatures increase to average, with another wave rotating around the Pacific Northwest low-pressure area approaching our area. Temperatures will fall a degree or two on Wednesday before increasing to the low 80s on Thursday and mid-80s on Friday as afternoon breezes continue.
The breezy conditions will be with us through Independence Day before finally relaxing as the last piece of upstream energy moves the Pacific Northwest low-pressure system across the Northern Rockies. A building ridge of high pressure over the West behind the storm promises hot and dry summer weather for the weekend.
Enjoy a cooler and hopefully smoke-free Monday, and I’ll have more details for the weather around America’s birthday in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
Dry and windy weekend to follow shower chances through Friday
Thursday, June 25, 2026
Comfortable temperatures around 70 degrees and sunny skies are over Steamboat Springs this Thursday mid-afternoon, following rainfall last night that left between a quarter and a third of an inch of rain in town. After additional shower chances later today and tomorrow, a storm approaching the Great Basin will bring dry and windy conditions for the weekend, with comfortable temperatures in the low 80s.
A strong storm moving through the Gulf of Alaska is forecast to rotate through the Great Basin through the weekend, even as additional upstream energy follows. Moisture moving clockwise around a high pressure cell over New Mexico, combined with some ejected energy from the Gulf of Alaska storm, brought the showers last night, with the next batch now crossing northwest Colorado. Expect another round of showers starting late this afternoon, possibly containing small hail, gusty winds, and locally heavy rainfall, lasting through the evening.
After a mostly sunny Friday morning, more showers are possible in the afternoon and evening as the upstream storm moves into the Pacific Northwest, with high temperatures right around our average of 79 degrees. Fortunately, the NOAA smoke model, run four times a day, shows smoke leaving our area this evening, with smoke-free skies lasting at least until Saturday morning.
Most of the storm will be centered over Oregon on Saturday, but will be deflected to the northeast by a building ridge of high pressure over the Southeast, reaching Montana by later Sunday. While temperatures won’t stray from the pleasant low 80s, southwest winds will increase substantially as dry air is drawn overhead, with mountaintop gusts reaching up to 60 mph.
A dry cool front behind the Montana lobe of the storm will pass through later on Sunday, bringing continued mostly sunny skies and below-average high temperatures in the mid-70s on Monday. Temperatures will slowly rebound during the mostly sunny days of next week, reaching the upper 80s as we head into the long Independence Day weekend.
Let’s hope for additional precipitation later today and Friday afternoon ahead of the dry and windy weekend. I’ll have more details on how hot the days leading up to the holiday weekend will be in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
First week of summer to start hot, dry and breezy
Sunday, June 21, 2026
Welcome to the first official day of summer, though unofficially, it sure feels like we’ve had summery weather for a while. Mostly sunny skies, southwesterly breezes, and temperatures in the mid-seventies are over Steamboat Springs on this Father’s Day mid-afternoon, which is almost 10 degrees cooler than the last few days. But the heat quickly returns this week, with chances for precipitation appearing at the end of the workweek.
The hazy skies last night were due to wildfire smoke from the Iron fire near Eureka, Utah, about 40 miles southwest of Provo. This has prompted me to add an air quality widget to the SnowAlarm home page, with a link to the NOAA smoke model. The current forecasts show a brief plume of smoke passing overhead around midnight, followed by a more sustained period of smoke arriving Monday afternoon and lasting through at least Tuesday.
The winds transporting the smoke are driven by the jet stream positioned over the Canadian border. Behind the Pacific disturbance bringing the near-average temperatures of 78 degrees today, a ridge of high pressure will build over the Desert Southwest through midweek. High temperatures will rise back to just below the mid-80s on Monday, followed by a couple of degrees of warming for Tuesday and Wednesday, with continued afternoon breezes.
Clouds and afternoon and evening thunderstorm chances appear on Thursday and Friday as the monsoonal-like clockwise circulation around the high pressure carries some moisture from the Gulf of California and the nearby Pacific overhead, cooling temperatures by a few degrees.
Meanwhile, a storm over the Aleutian Islands strengthens and moves toward Vancouver by Friday, settling over the Pacific Northwest during the weekend. Initially, we will see dry air moving overhead with strong winds to start the weekend, though the strength and eventual storm track are uncertain.
So enjoy the first week of summer, and I’ll have more details on the end-of-workweek precipitation chances and how the weekend is shaping up in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
Hot start to the weekend with a windy Saturday followed by a cooler Sunday
Thursday, June 18, 2026
Cloudless skies, temperatures near 80 degrees, and westerly breezes are over Steamboat Springs this Thursday mid-afternoon. Temperatures will warm into the mid-80s on Friday and Saturday, before cooling back to 80 degrees on Sunday, the first day of summer, as a Pacific weather disturbance passes. Winds will increase on Saturday, with any clouds on Saturday and Sunday likely producing far more wind than rain.
A small storm off the British Columbia coast will be ingested by a lobe of cool air in western Canada rotating around the persistent Hudson Bay gyre on Friday, moving across the Northern Rockies through the weekend before temporarily stalling. The southern end of the storm will elongate southwestward, bringing some elevated Pacific moisture overhead on Saturday and Sunday.
Ahead of that, temperatures will rise into the mid-80s on Friday, well above our 77-degree average. Winds will increase on Saturday, with afternoon high-elevation gusts around 50 mph, and continued hot temperatures. The lower levels of the atmosphere will remain dry, so any clouds that do form from the Pacific moisture will produce far more wind than rain.
Cooler air behind the Pacific disturbance will drop high temperatures back toward 80 degrees on Sunday, though there is still a threat of gusty winds from any dry thunderstorms that form. Sunday will be the official first day of summer and the longest day of the year, with the sun reaching its northernmost point at 2:24 am, at which point daylight begins its daily decrease from its maximum of 15 hours and 4 minutes.
Temperatures will warm again next week, reaching the upper 80s by midweek, with near-nil chances of wetting rains. The next chance of precipitation won’t be until next weekend from an advancing storm currently south of the Aleutian Islands, though its eastward progression is uncertain.
Enjoy our first summer weekend, and check back for my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
