High temperature records to continue despite Monday cool front
Sunday, March 22, 2026
Some passing clouds are over Steamboat Springs this Sunday at noon, with temperatures approaching 60 degrees in town, on their way to 70 degrees and another daily record, and 40 degrees at the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort. The workweek will continue to be hot, despite a grazing cool front on Monday that may bring a shower, with temperatures warming on Tuesday and perhaps approaching 80 degrees on Wednesday under mostly sunny skies. Another hot day on Thursday will precede a grazing cool front around Friday, which will only blunt the record warmth for a day.
oA flat ridge of high pressure extends between a persistent storm over the Gulf of Alaska and a vortex of cold air extending southward from Hudson Bay. Energy ejecting from the Gulf of Alaska storm has flattened the ridge, which brought daily and monthly temperature records to our area starting last Tuesday. The energy will graze our area on Monday with a cool front, bringing clouds and perhaps a late-day or overnight shower, but temperatures will stay warm, approaching the 70-degree record set in 2012.
This follows tying the 66-degree record last Tuesday, set in 2015, and breaking the 70-degree record on Wednesday, set in 2017 with 72 degrees. Wednesday not only broke the daily record but also the 70-degree monthly record for March, set in 2017, 2012, 2004, and 1897. But that record lasted only a day, as the 76 degrees on Thursday set the new monthly record while shattering the daily high record of 64 degrees set in 2017.
The energy traveling to our north will eventually mix with cold air moving southward from Hudson Bay. At the same time, the Gulf of Alaska storm intensifies, forcing the flat ridge over most of North America to rebuild, bringing another stretch of mostly sunny record-breaking high temperatures on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday’s high record of 67 degrees and Wednesday’s 69 degrees, both set in 2012, will likely be broken by the forecast temperatures above 70 degrees, with Wednesday’s high temperature forecast between the mid-seventies and near 80 degrees.
More energy forecast to be ejected from the Gulf of Alaska storm may bring another grazing cool front around Friday, with light showers possible depending on the frontal strength. But any cooldown will be brief as the ridge is forecast to rebuild again over the West for the weekend.
The average high temperature for mid-June is 76 degrees, so enjoy the eager three-months-early summery weather this week, hope that any precipitation from the possible Monday showers reaches the ground, and I’ll have more details about the weekend in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
