High temperatures back to the low-90s for the mostly dry weekend
Thursday, July 23, 2026
A mix of sun and clouds is over Steamboat Springs this Thursday mid-afternoon, with temperatures in the comfortable upper seventies. Less comfortable are relative humidities above 50%, unusual for our high mountain valley, which averages single digits and teens on most summer days. But the humidity associated with the monsoon brought several days of rain, with between a third and a half inch reported across town this morning, most of which fell overnight. Drier air moving in on Friday will squash shower chances on Friday and Saturday as high temperatures warm into the low 90s for the weekend.
Official records for the long-term weather station behind the High School were finally published through Monday, revealing record-high temperatures for a week ago Tuesday of 97 degrees, breaking the 94-degree record set in 1939, and a week ago Wednesday, when 96 degrees broke the 1934 record by a degree. Furthermore, the 95 degrees just this past Monday broke the 1998 record by a degree.
In addition to hot days, the clockwise circulation around the high-pressure cell to our north brought easterly winds, keeping nighttime temperatures elevated as air compressed and warmed by downsloping off the Park Range to our east. The stretch of uncomfortably warm nights was highlighted by a record-warm low temperature of 57 degrees on Tuesday night, breaking the 1936 record of 56 degrees. That 57-degree low temperature also tied the 8th-warmest low temperature recorded since 1893, behind the warmest low temperature of 71 degrees recorded on August 12th, 1913.
The monsoonal moisture carried northward over our area by winds circulating clockwise around a high pressure over the West brought several days of showers, highlighted by between a third and a half inch of rain falling in town last night. A mercifully cool day today has followed the latest monsoonal surge of moisture, with chances for showers today being replaced with a mostly sunny Friday, with high temperatures back above the average of 84 degrees, reaching the upper 80s.
Even warmer temperatures in the low 90s are forecast for the rest of the weekend, with another mostly sunny day on Saturday followed by a small chance of afternoon and evening showers on Sunday. The upcoming workweek looks similar, with what used to be typical chances for an afternoon or evening storm or two persisting. Above-average high temperatures in the low 90s will start the workweek, with upper eighties by the end of the workweek.
Enjoy a beautiful, if hot, mid-summer weekend, and I’ll have more details about the shower chances from the North American Monsoon in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
