Dry and back to the nineties for the weekend

Thursday, July 30, 2026

Temperatures are approaching 85 degrees under sunny skies this Thursday mid-afternoon in Steamboat Springs. Temperatures in the 90s return for the weekend, with Sunday’s 1931 record high of 96 degrees in jeopardy, with only slim storm chances later today and less on Friday.

A ridge of high pressure over the West was briefly flattened yesterday by a modicum of Pacific energy from the west conspiring with monsoonal moisture from the south, lowering high temperatures to the mid-80s, only slightly above the peak summertime average of 84 degrees. But we only managed to eke out about five-hundredths of an inch of rain, mostly overnight.

Drier air with much lower relative humidities will spread overhead through the weekend behind the passing wave under the rebounding ridge of high pressure. While high temperatures will soar back into the 90s, with Sunday’s forecast high of 96 degrees on par with the 1931 record for the date, low temperatures should drop from the upper 50s back to the upper 40s, close to the comfortable 47-degree average.

The NOAA smoke model, run four times a day, indicates that wildfire smoke from a couple of fires in Nevada and many more in Oregon and Washington may make its way toward our area for hazy skies starting on Friday.

The hot 90-degree temperatures are forecast to persist through the next workweek. However, there is a chance of another round of Pacific energy moving through the Pacific Northwest late in the weekend and early next week, possibly grazing our area around Tuesday.

So enjoy another hot summer weekend, the first of August, believe it or not, and I’ll have more details about the heat next week, and possibly records set earlier this week, in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.