Dry and windy weekend to follow shower chances through Friday
Thursday, June 25, 2026
Comfortable temperatures around 70 degrees and sunny skies are over Steamboat Springs this Thursday mid-afternoon, following rainfall last night that left between a quarter and a third of an inch of rain in town. After additional shower chances later today and tomorrow, a storm approaching the Great Basin will bring dry and windy conditions for the weekend, with comfortable temperatures in the low 80s.
A strong storm moving through the Gulf of Alaska is forecast to rotate through the Great Basin through the weekend, even as additional upstream energy follows. Moisture moving clockwise around a high pressure cell over New Mexico, combined with some ejected energy from the Gulf of Alaska storm, brought the showers last night, with the next batch now crossing northwest Colorado. Expect another round of showers starting late this afternoon, possibly containing small hail, gusty winds, and locally heavy rainfall, lasting through the evening.
After a mostly sunny Friday morning, more showers are possible in the afternoon and evening as the upstream storm moves into the Pacific Northwest, with high temperatures right around our average of 79 degrees. Fortunately, the NOAA smoke model, run four times a day, shows smoke leaving our area this evening, with smoke-free skies lasting at least until Saturday morning.
Most of the storm will be centered over Oregon on Saturday, but will be deflected to the northeast by a building ridge of high pressure over the Southeast, reaching Montana by later Sunday. While temperatures won’t stray from the pleasant low 80s, southwest winds will increase substantially as dry air is drawn overhead, with mountaintop gusts reaching up to 60 mph.
A dry cool front behind the Montana lobe of the storm will pass through later on Sunday, bringing continued mostly sunny skies and below-average high temperatures in the mid-70s on Monday. Temperatures will slowly rebound during the mostly sunny days of next week, reaching the upper 80s as we head into the long Independence Day weekend.
Let’s hope for additional precipitation later today and Friday afternoon ahead of the dry and windy weekend. I’ll have more details on how hot the days leading up to the holiday weekend will be in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
First week of summer to start hot, dry and breezy
Sunday, June 21, 2026
Welcome to the first official day of summer, though unofficially, it sure feels like we’ve had summery weather for a while. Mostly sunny skies, southwesterly breezes, and temperatures in the mid-seventies are over Steamboat Springs on this Father’s Day mid-afternoon, which is almost 10 degrees cooler than the last few days. But the heat quickly returns this week, with chances for precipitation appearing at the end of the workweek.
The hazy skies last night were due to wildfire smoke from the Iron fire near Eureka, Utah, about 40 miles southwest of Provo. This has prompted me to add an air quality widget to the SnowAlarm home page, with a link to the NOAA smoke model. The current forecasts show a brief plume of smoke passing overhead around midnight, followed by a more sustained period of smoke arriving Monday afternoon and lasting through at least Tuesday.
The winds transporting the smoke are driven by the jet stream positioned over the Canadian border. Behind the Pacific disturbance bringing the near-average temperatures of 78 degrees today, a ridge of high pressure will build over the Desert Southwest through midweek. High temperatures will rise back to just below the mid-80s on Monday, followed by a couple of degrees of warming for Tuesday and Wednesday, with continued afternoon breezes.
Clouds and afternoon and evening thunderstorm chances appear on Thursday and Friday as the monsoonal-like clockwise circulation around the high pressure carries some moisture from the Gulf of California and the nearby Pacific overhead, cooling temperatures by a few degrees.
Meanwhile, a storm over the Aleutian Islands strengthens and moves toward Vancouver by Friday, settling over the Pacific Northwest during the weekend. Initially, we will see dry air moving overhead with strong winds to start the weekend, though the strength and eventual storm track are uncertain.
So enjoy the first week of summer, and I’ll have more details on the end-of-workweek precipitation chances and how the weekend is shaping up in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
Hot start to the weekend with a windy Saturday followed by a cooler Sunday
Thursday, June 18, 2026
Cloudless skies, temperatures near 80 degrees, and westerly breezes are over Steamboat Springs this Thursday mid-afternoon. Temperatures will warm into the mid-80s on Friday and Saturday, before cooling back to 80 degrees on Sunday, the first day of summer, as a Pacific weather disturbance passes. Winds will increase on Saturday, with any clouds on Saturday and Sunday likely producing far more wind than rain.
A small storm off the British Columbia coast will be ingested by a lobe of cool air in western Canada rotating around the persistent Hudson Bay gyre on Friday, moving across the Northern Rockies through the weekend before temporarily stalling. The southern end of the storm will elongate southwestward, bringing some elevated Pacific moisture overhead on Saturday and Sunday.
Ahead of that, temperatures will rise into the mid-80s on Friday, well above our 77-degree average. Winds will increase on Saturday, with afternoon high-elevation gusts around 50 mph, and continued hot temperatures. The lower levels of the atmosphere will remain dry, so any clouds that do form from the Pacific moisture will produce far more wind than rain.
Cooler air behind the Pacific disturbance will drop high temperatures back toward 80 degrees on Sunday, though there is still a threat of gusty winds from any dry thunderstorms that form. Sunday will be the official first day of summer and the longest day of the year, with the sun reaching its northernmost point at 2:24 am, at which point daylight begins its daily decrease from its maximum of 15 hours and 4 minutes.
Temperatures will warm again next week, reaching the upper 80s by midweek, with near-nil chances of wetting rains. The next chance of precipitation won’t be until next weekend from an advancing storm currently south of the Aleutian Islands, though its eastward progression is uncertain.
Enjoy our first summer weekend, and check back for my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
Workweek to stay dry and turn increasingly hot
Sunday, June 14, 2026
A lovely day is over Steamboat Springs this Sunday mid-afternoon with clear skies and temperatures in the low 70s, on their way to the mid-70s. Another similar day on Monday will be followed by temperatures increasing through midweek, reaching the mid-80s on Wednesday before cooling off a bit on Thursday, with little hope for precipitation until next weekend.
A ridge of high pressure is centered over the West Coast, while a persistent gyre of cool air and low pressure continues to spin over and west of Hudson Bay. A wave of cool air brought morning stratus to the Front Range, grazing our area and allowing temperatures to cool from Saturday’s 82-degree high, above the 76-degree average.
Pacific energy moving around the southern end of an expansive storm over the Aleutian Islands will cross the British Columbia Coast on Tuesday, keeping the weakening ridge moving eastward, before grazing our area early Thursday.
Until then, we should see a Monday similar to today, perhaps a degree or two warmer, followed by high temperatures in the low 80s on Tuesday. As the grazing wave approaches our area on Wednesday, temperatures will rise into the mid-80s with strong westerly winds, before temperatures decrease back to the low-80s on a calmer Thursday behind the weak cool front.
After another warm day on Friday, with high temperatures rebounding back to the mid-80s, there is at least some hope for precipitation during the weekend as weak Pacific energy, left behind early in the workweek by the southern part of the Aleutian storm, approaches. So enjoy another summery workweek, and I’ll have more details about the possible weekend moisture in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
Dry weather and warmer temperatures to persist through the weekend
Thursday, June 11, 2026
A beautifully crisp and sunny late-spring day is over Steamboat Springs this Thursday, with temperatures approaching 65 degrees this mid-afternoon. After warming to around 80 degrees on Friday and Saturday, a couple of weak cool fronts will drop temperatures to the mid-70s on Sunday and Monday, with light precipitation chances confined to the areas south and east of North-Central Colorado.
The Hudson Bay vortex is still alive and well, a bit unusual so close to the summer solstice, helping direct the last couple of dry cool Pacific Northwest fronts through our area on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. A broad, shallow ridge of high pressure has built over the Gulf of Alaska behind these fronts, moving across the Pacific Northwest this weekend and bringing 80-degree temperatures on Friday and Saturday, above our 75-to-76-degree average.
A wave of cool air rotating around the vortex will combine with some Pacific energy traveling over the ridge to bring three grazing cool fronts toward our area through the weekend. While the first on Friday night is the weakest and will not affect our temperatures, the second on Saturday night will bring some clouds, cooling high temperatures to the mid-70s on Sunday.
The final cool front on Sunday night will also keep Monday’s high temperature around average before the weakening ridge moves over the West through midweek, continuing the dry weather and bringing hot mid-eighty-degree temperatures by midweek.
So enjoy another very pleasant weekend, and I’ll have more details on the coming heat in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
