A gorgeous weekend ahead to be followed by a stormy start to the workweek
Thursday, May 29, 2025
Mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-sixties are over Steamboat Springs early this Thursday afternoon. Shower chances will linger for the rest of today and Friday before temperatures warm toward our first eighty-degree day of the season this weekend under mostly sunny skies. Wetter and cooler weather will start the new workweek.
Our area is under the influence of cool northwest flow around a circulation center extending southwestward across the Northern Plains, ahead of a ridge of high pressure centered over western Canada. Additionally, a storm is moving eastward across the Gulf of Alaska, and an eddy of low pressure that vacationed north of Hawaii this week is over northern Baja. Finally, Alvin, the first named tropical storm of the eastern Pacific hurricane season, which starts mid-May and is two weeks ahead of the Atlantic hurricane season, is moving northward off the Mexican coast towards Baja.
The ridge of high pressure will be pushed eastward this weekend by the advancing Gulf of Alaska storm, with some ejected energy moving through the ridge and continuing this afternoon’s chance of thunderstorms tomorrow as it grazes our area to the northeast after a mostly sunny morning. High temperatures will approach seventy-five degrees, about five degrees above average.
Gorgeous, mostly sunny weather is advertised for the weekend, with our first eighty-degree day of the season possible on Saturday, if not Sunday. Winds will shift from northwestly today and Friday, becoming quite light and variable for most of the weekend, before becoming southwesterly by Sunday afternoon.
This shift in winds will precede a stormy start to the workweek, with some showers possible later Sunday. The Gulf of Alaska storm is forecast to split as it approaches the West Coast mid-weekend, with the southern end of the split forcing the meandering Baja eddy northwestward across the Desert Southwest and toward our area.
While the eddy has been relatively dry, moisture streaming northward around Alvin will be drawn into the eddy, bringing likely chances of moderate to heavy rain to our area starting later Monday. The active weather may continue for a few days as the northern part of the split Gulf of Alaska storm follows on Tuesday, with perhaps the southern part of the split following on Wednesday.
So enjoy what should be a spectacular summer-like weekend. Normally, I’d say to check back on Sunday afternoon for my next regularly scheduled weather narrative, but I will be traveling starting Saturday, and will post when I am able. If not already a subscriber, consider signing up for free to be emailed as soon as I publish.
Seasonable temperatures and late-day showers to persist through the workweek
Sunday, May 25, 2025
After a sunny Sunday morning in Steamboat Springs, with temperatures reaching the upper sixties at noon, temperatures have fallen into the low sixties this mid-afternoon due to some clouds ahead of a weak and disorganized approaching storm. Afternoon and evening thunderstorms will be possible throughout the workweek as high temperatures rise into the low-seventies by Tuesday after a Memorial Day similar to today.
A weak and splitting wave extending from Wyoming southwestward into Utah will pass through our area in two pieces tonight and tomorrow. Even though showers are having a tough time developing today in the cool air, energy ejecting out of Utah will provide a better chance for thunderstorms by early evening, accompanied by gusty winds as some precipitation evaporates in the dry lower-level air.
Winds will shift from the southwest to the west tonight as the northern part of the split drags some cool air from the Canadian Plains southwestward, encouraging the formation of a circulation center in the Dakotas Monday night. Afternoon clouds and shower chances will follow a mostly sunny start to Memorial Day as the southern part of the split passes overhead during the day, keeping high temperatures right around our average of 69 F.
Another weakening wave from the Gulf of Alaska is forecast to split as it crosses the West Coast on Memorial Day, with the northern part of the split merging with the circulation center over the Dakatos by Wednesday. A cool front will pass through our area later Wednesday, providing a focus for a better chance of afternoon and evening storms that could produce brief heavy rain, small hail, and gusty winds, but not before high temperatures rise to the low-seventies.
A less active day will follow on Thursday with similar temperatures and a reduced chance of late-day storms.
A ridge of high pressure is forecast to build over the West by the end of the workweek ahead of yet another storm forecast to develop over the Gulf of Alaska. Temperatures will rise into the mid-seventies on Friday and upper-seventies for the weekend, with precipitation chances currently uncertain.
So enjoy the unofficial start to the summer over the rest of this Memorial Day holiday weekend, and check back for more details on next weekend’s weather in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
Pleasant Memorial Day weekend to see increasing shower chances by Sunday
Thursday, May 22, 2025
Mid-seventy degree temperatures, breezes, and mostly sunny skies are over Steamboat Springs this Thursday mid-afternoon. The pleasant weather will continue through the long Memorial Day weekend, with only slight chances for a passing afternoon storm on Saturday. By Sunday, those chances increase and persist for Memorial Day as a weak storm moving through the area drops high temperatures to around seventy degrees.
A weak storm approaching the West Coast is being pushed along by a developing stronger storm in the Gulf of Alaska. The weak storm is forecast to grow weaker as it moves through the Great Basin on Saturday and splits. We should see a couple of beautiful days on Friday and Saturday with high temperatures persisting in the mid-seventies, above our average 68 F on Friday and 69 F on Saturday. Friday will be sunnier and breezier, with a chance of a passing shower Saturday afternoon and evening as the storm approaches.
While we will still see likely sunny mornings on Sunday and Memorial Day, clouds will increase after noon with a good chance of afternoon and evening showers as the parent storm moves overhead. Breezes will decrease due to light winds around the storm’s center, except for gusty winds around the thunderstorms, and high temperatures will cool a bit and fall toward average.
As the sun moves higher in the sky as summer approaches, cold storms will have an increasingly difficult time displacing the warm air in their path, and such will be the case with the approaching Gulf of Alaska storm. It is forecast to significantly weaken as it crosses the West Coast on Memorial Day, only bringing chances of late-day storms as temperatures rebound back to the mid-seventies for the rest of the workweek.
Enjoy the beautiful start to the Memorial Day weekend, and check back for more details on the weak storm to end the weekend in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
Strong cold front on the doorstep
Sunday, May 18, 2025
After sunny morning skies, temperatures peaked near sixty degrees at noon this Sunday in Steamboat Springs. The spotty showers with more wind than rain so far this afternoon will be replaced with steadier precipitation this evening as the cold front passes. Much colder temperatures on Monday with significant high-elevation snow and possible snowflakes in town will be followed by warming and drying through the workweek, with seventy-degree temperatures returning by Thursday.
A cold storm in the Great Basin is on our doorstep and will bring a cold front through our area by early evening. Spotty showers ahead of the front are producing more wind than rain so far, as the precipitation evaporates in the dry air from the Desert Southwest that was carried over our area in the southwest winds ahead of the storm yesterday, but that should change later this afternoon as the cold front approaches.
Snowfall rates as high as an inch per hour could make travel over Rabbit Ears Pass difficult at times tonight after the front passes in the early evening, with 3-6” of snow expected at and above 9000′ by sunrise, with lesser accumulations down to 8000′ and snowflakes in town. An additional 1-4” above 9000′ are possible through the day as winds transition to be from our favorable northwest direction, helped by a reinforcing surge of cool air during the day that will keep the temperature in town around fifty degrees, well below our average of 67 F.
A series of incoming Pacific storms to our north will be deflected by increasingly hot air in the Desert Southwest, keeping our area south of the storm track through the workweek, which is seasonably appropriate. Temperatures on Tuesday will warm into the upper-fifties with a chance of some stray showers in the moderately unstable post-frontal environment. But mostly sunny skies are forecast for the rest of the workweek with temperatures in the upper-sixties on Wednesday and mid-seventies for Thursday and Friday.
The gorgeous weather is forecast to continue into the Memorial Day weekend, with uncertainty for the end of the weekend around the track of a storm forecast to develop in the Gulf of Alaska. So be prepared for another dose of short-lived wintry weather tonight and Monday, enjoy an increasingly nice workweek, and check back for more details on the holiday weekend weather in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
Storm to end tonight ahead of another for the end of the weekend
Thursday, May 15, 2025
Temperatures are in the mid-forties under cloudy skies this Thursday mid-afternoon in Steamboat Springs behind an early afternoon thunderstorm. Good precipitation chances will continue through midnight before we see mostly sunny mornings and warmer temperatures through the weekend. Afternoon thunderstorm chances will linger on Friday and Saturday before the next storm brings good precipitation chances and cooler temperatures from Sunday afternoon through Monday.
After a beautiful start to the workweek, with high temperatures above seventy-five degrees on Monday, high temperatures plummeted into the low-fifties on Wednesday behind a cold storm from the Gulf of Alaska. We went from temperatures representative of mid-June to mid-April in just a couple of days, which is not uncommon for the mercurial spring season.
Winter Park reported nine inches of snow this morning and Arapahoe Basin reported seven inches for that classic mid-May powder day. We saw snow above 8000′ and a couple of tenths of an inch of rain in town, with a low temperature of 21 F at the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort this morning. The cool temperatures and showers, with sometimes moderate to heavy rain and small hail, are forecast to continue through midnight in the favorable moist and unstable northwest behind the storm, now moving northeast through the eastern Dakotas.
A ridge of high pressure is building over the West Coast ahead of another strong storm brewing over the Aleutian Islands, which has incorporated some sub-tropical moisture to form a weak atmospheric river. The storm will push the ridge eastward as it moves across the West Coast early Saturday, warming temperatures into the upper-fifties on Friday and mid-sixties on Saturday, right around our average of 66 F.
Mornings should start mostly sunny, with only a small chance of late-day thunderstorms on Friday, but a better chance on Saturday as a wave of energy and moisture ejecting from the landfalling storm moves overhead.
Take advantage of the nice start to Sunday as the storm rotates through the Great Basin, first bringing increasing clouds by noon that will cap our high temperatures in the low-sixties, and then a cold front in the afternoon or evening, accompanied by precipitation.
The storm will be wetter than the departing storm, pinwheeling through Colorado on Monday and bringing additional snow to the higher elevations and rain in town. While showers may linger in our favorable northwest flow behind the storm on Tuesday, temperatures will begin to rise by Wednesday under mostly sunny skies, perhaps reaching back into the mid-seventies by Friday and next weekend.
So enjoy the break between storms that will begin on Friday and last through at least the first half of Sunday, and I’ll have more details on what will be a soggy start to the workweek in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
