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.
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