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.
Hot days and warm nights to continue, with rain chances through midweek
Sunday, July 26, 2026
Temperatures are at 95 degrees at the Bob Adams Airport in Steamboat Springs this Sunday mid-afternoon and 90 degrees near the base of the mountain, with mostly sunny skies but storms advancing from the southwest. High temperatures between 5 and 10 degrees above the 84-degree average will persist for the upcoming week, with monsoonal moisture bringing chances for late-day storms that peak on Wednesday. Shower chances diminish or end after midweek, lasting into next weekend.
A ridge of high pressure extends from the West Coast to the Appalachians, bringing hot temperatures to a large part of the U.S. This past week started hot, with last Monday’s 95-degree record, discussed in my last weather narrative on Thursday, eclipsed by another 98-degree record on Tuesday, breaking the previous 1931 record of 94 degrees, and marking another 4th-warmest day recorded in Steamboat Springs since 1893.
More uncomfortable have been the warm overnight low temperatures, with last Thursday’s low of 58 degrees breaking the 2010 record of 57 degrees, compared to our average of 47 degrees. So far in July, we have seen the warmest low temperatures recorded over both 1- and 2-week periods! In fact, the warmest 52.8-degree average low temperature for the 2 weeks from July 12th through July 25th, and the next-warmest 52.1 degrees from July 11th through July 24th, broke the 2003 51.9-degree record from July 16th through July 29th.
It was even warmer during the 1-week periods, with July 2026 currently holding the top four spots of 55.6 degrees from July 19th through July 25th, 55.4 degrees from July 18th through July 24th, 55.1 degrees from July 17th through July 23rd, and 54.1 degrees from July 16th through July 22nd. These all broke the previous 1998 record of 53.6 degrees from July 23rd through July 29th.
While we continue to see near-90-degree high temperatures this week, afternoon and evening thunderstorms from monsoonal moisture rotating northward across our area should bring late-day cooldowns, with any storms capable of producing heavy rain, strong winds, and small hail, peaking on Wednesday.
We are grazed by Pacific energy moving across the Northern Rockies on Wednesday, perhaps leading to the strongest storms of the week and high temperatures cooling into the upper-80s. The southwesterly winds following midweek behind the grazing energy will interrupt the monsoonal moisture tap from the south and bring drier air overhead starting on Thursday. There is disagreement among the weather forecast models as to whether this reduces or eliminates the storm threat as we head into next weekend, though they agree that the low-90-degree high temperatures return.
As I am putting the finishing touches on this blog at 5 pm, a strong thunderstorm is passing overhead, dropping a tenth of an inch of rain so far, and lowering temperatures by 22 degrees from 88 degrees at 4 pm to 66 degrees at 4:45 pm, including a 5-degree fall in just the 5 minutes between 4:25 pm and 4:30 pm.
So hope for additional moisture from the late-day thunderstorms through midweek, and I’ll have more details on how dry the weekend will be in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
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.
Monsoonal moisture to bring rains this week
Sunday, July 19, 2026
Temperatures are 91 degrees in Steamboat Springs on this Sunday mid-afternoon, with mostly cloudy skies and thunderstorms approaching from the east. These hot temperatures will start the workweek, along with modest rain chances from the finally arrived monsoonal moisture. Wednesday and Thursday will bring cooler temperatures and likely rain chances, with warmer temperatures and modest rain chances returning for the weekend.
The north end of a ridge of high pressure over the central Rocky Mountains is being squashed by cool air and Pacific energy moving across southwestern Canada. Monsoonal moisture moving northward around the clockwise circulation around the high pressure has finally made it into our area, with thunder rumbling through town.
Interestingly, the thunderstorms are approaching town from the east as small high-pressure cells form under the parent ridge to our north. These infernal easterly winds warm as they downslope off the Park Range, keeping nighttime temperatures elevated as they move overhead through the evening, sometimes lasting past midnight, as they have for most of this past week.
High temperatures will stay in the low 90s through Tuesday, well above the 84-degree average marking the heart of the summer heat. Modest afternoon and evening thunderstorm chances to start the workweek will become likely on Wednesday and Thursday as energy from or causing forecast storms over and south of eastern Texas and southern New Mexico rotates around the ridge.
High temperatures will fall to around average on Wednesday and to around 80 degrees on Thursday, our first below-average high temperatures in 2 weeks. Precipitation forecasts show around an inch of rain for our area through the workweek, though amounts will depend upon the location and intensity of the storms.
In fact, I’ve just had a cell pass overhead near the base of the Steamboat Resort with brief, moderate rain, leaving around a tenth of an inch, and mercifully dropping temperatures by 20 degrees between 3:30 and 4:30 pm, with 15 degrees of that happening in the last half hour!
Let’s hope for more storms to start the workweek, and look forward to the cooler, wetter weather on Wednesday and Thursday. I’ll have more details on the amount of monsoonal moisture for next weekend in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
Weekend to be cooler with increasing thunderstorm chances
Thursday, July 16, 2026
Some clouds are finally overhead on this Thursday mid-afternoon in Steamboat Springs, keeping temperatures in the mid-80s so far. After last Sunday’s 98-degree record and possible records on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, high temperatures will settle around 90 degrees through the weekend, with increasing chances of mostly dry thunderstorms. Wetting rains become far more likely next week as monsoonal moisture moves overhead.
Not only did last Sunday break the daily record of 95, set in 1954, but it also became the 4th-warmest day in Steamboat Springs since 1893, tying 98-degree daily records set in 2001 on August 4, 6, 10, and 12. The official temperatures for the beginning of the workweek from the weather station behind the Steamboat Springs High School should be published by Sunday morning, so I may have more records to discuss in my next blog post on Sunday afternoon.
The record warmth was from a ridge of high pressure sitting over most of the country, save for the Northwest and Northeast coasts. Southerly winds on the backside of the high pressure have finally carried a plume of monsoonal moisture northward across Arizona and Utah, marking the start of the North American Monsoon.
Though the plume will be concentrated to our west through the weekend, enough moisture will leak eastward for increasing thunderstorm chances. Unfortunately, more wind than rain is forecast through most of the weekend as the dry lower atmosphere begins to moisten, delaying significant wetting rain chances until early next week.
But the afternoon clouds will temper the heat, with high temperatures forecast to be around 90 degrees through the weekend, still above the 84-degree average. So enjoy the cooler, but still hot, weekend, and look forward to the approaching monsoonal moisture as the advancing low pressure over the Northwest coast moves eastward across Canada, nudging the ridge of high pressure eastward. I’ll have more details about the rain chances for the workweek in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
