Cool front tonight followed by continued hot and dry weather
Thursday, June 10, 2021
Temperatures in the low to mid-eighties and gusty winds from the south and southwest are over the Steamboat Springs area this Thursday afternoon. We’ll see some relief from the heat as a cool front moves through tonight along with a chilly start to Friday morning, but the hot and dry weather returns for the following week.
As an administrative note, I have turned back on the NOAA Smoke Plume forecasts for those interested in following where smoke that may be over our area is coming from and how thick it may be, and the first blog post where I discussed this model is here.
A compact and powerful storm for the season that brought some accumulating snow to the northern California mountains last night is currently rotating through the northern Great Basin. We will see continued hot and windy weather ahead of the storm today before the grazing storm brings a cool front through our area tonight. So expect a cool Friday morning with temperatures in the thirties which may require any outdoor plants to be covered, with temperatures quickly warming to five to ten degrees or so above our average high temperature of 72 F.
A ridge of high pressure rebuilds over the Rocky Mountains ahead of another powerful storm that is forecast to spin in the Gulf of Alaska through the early part of next week. So expect more summery days filled with sunshine and hot temperatures with relatively quiet winds.
Some of the storm in the Gulf of Alaska is forecast to eject inland by incoming energy traveling through the northern Pacific, but the massive ridge of high pressure over the Rocky Mountains will resist. The battle between the air masses will result in the storm being shunted to our northwest and into the central Canadian Plains through midweek, with no changes to our weather expected till perhaps near the end of the work week.
Interestingly, the battle will deform the ridge of high pressure for a time before it is forecast to rebuild further west. If this happens as currently forecast, we may see some relatively cooler temperatures for the end of the work week and next weekend along with some very modest shower chances as the upper level flow turns to be from our favorable northwest direction.
Enjoy the quintessential Colorado summery weather this upcoming week, and I’ll have more details on the possible shower chances to end the work week in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
Change to the Morning Ski Report
Friday, February 14, 2020
I’ve changed the methodology used to produce the morning ski reports as of yesterday, 13 Feb 2020. As you may or may not know, SnowAlarm collates ski reports from around the continent from various sources, including the ski areas themselves, and you can sign up for free to have these emailed or texted to you.
Some of these sources allow the ski areas to report through the day, so my previous methodology of choosing the first available morning report could produce incomplete data depending upon the source. This made it difficult to tally the 24 hour snowfall totals over multi-day storms.
The morning report is now based upon the latest available ski report before 10 am local time. This now allows for the easy retrieval of 24 hour snowfall totals from previous days.
Three day time series of SNOTEL temperatures at Buffalo Pass and Rabbit Ears Pass added!
Friday, January 4, 2019
I am now decoding the SNOTEL (snow telemetry) sites for Buffalo Pass (elevation 10.500′) and Rabbit Ears Pass (elevation 9,400′) and presenting them as a three day timerseries. This provides another source of temperature data at elevations similar to the top of Mt. Werner and mid-mountain, respectively.
They are available on the home page, with more details about three day timeseries here.
Also note that I am now displaying the current summit temperatures and winds for the Steamboat Ski Area and the town of Steamboat Springs (from the Bob Adams airport) at the top of the home page (along with a daily summary of the high and low temperatures and maximum wind speed and gust and time of occurrence) for quick reference. I always check these data before heading out on the hill.
I am considering the addition of other locations; please email me your favorite locations and I’ll try and find a station nearby.
Finally, note that you can access all timeseries from the Want other local weather? pulldown, which is also located under the Local Temperatures, Winds & Precipitation heading
Three day time series of Steamboat Springs temperature and wind added!
Friday, July 6, 2018
I’ve added some new functionality to the home page that displays a time series of the Steamboat Springs temperature, relative humidity, wind, wind gust and wind direction over the last three days from the local Bob Adams airport.
I also show a weather summary of the maximum and minimum temperatures below the temperature chart and the maximum wind and wind gust below the wind chart.
Click on the heading ‘Local Temperatures, Winds & Precipitation‘ on the home page to access it.
Note that clicking on the image will open a new window with a larger and more detailed view.
I’ve also added the ability to view a three day time series for Hayden and Denver. I am considering the addition of other locations; please email me your favorite locations and I’ll try and find a station nearby that reports to the National Weather Service, and I’ll see what I can do.
Quintessential Colorado summer days ahead
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Plenty of sunshine will be on tap for the next week as the current summer-like weather continues through the weekend. Currently, a ridge of high pressure over the Rocky Mountains has brought above normal temperatures and dry air to the Steamboat Springs area, eliminating the chances for our typical afternoon thunderstorms.
A strong and cold storm is bringing precipitation to the Pacific Northwest coast, and some energy will eject from this storm and travel well to our north over the weekend. However, the Rocky Mountain ridge will be flattened and moved eastward by the strengthening southwest flow around the storm, bringing breezy southwest winds and more dry air from the desert southwest over our region.
The Rocky Mountain ridge rebuilds for a short time around Sunday ahead of the slowly moving Pacific storm moving eastward across the Great Basin. Even though the ridge will serve to deflect the parent storm north of us towards Montana, keeping precipitation to our north, the storm is potent enough to bring an unseasonably strong cold front through the area around Monday. If the southern end of the storm had any appreciable moisture, we would see snow below 8000′ by Tuesday morning! But just much cooler temperatures will be noted for the beginning of the work week under continued breezy conditions as the front barrels through the region and backs the winds from the southwest to the west.
Winds will slacken and temperatures will warm back to normal on Wednesday, and stay that way for the rest of the work week, with any chances of precipitation confined to the end of this forecast period.
