Cold front this evening followed by average temperatures and decreasing winds by midweek
Monday, June 12, 2017
A strong winter-like storm currently in the Great Basin has brought 4” of snow to the Alpine Meadows ski area near Lake Tahoe, California! While the dry southern end of the storm will preclude any precipitation for the Steamboat Springs area, temperatures will drop when the cold front blasts through our area around or a few hours before sunset with windy conditions.
Winds will diminish overnight leading to quite chilly Tuesday morning temperatures, with frost possible, so cover your tender, just-planted vegetation. Winds will become breezy again as the cool day wears on, with temperatures over twenty degrees cooler than today.
As the storm moves across first Wyoming early tomorrow and then Montana later Tuesday into Wednesday, temperatures will rebound by Wednesday, though stay around average. Flat westerly flow will keep the comfortable temperatures and breezy afternoon winds around for the rest of the work week.
By the weekend, the American GFS has a shallow ridge of high pressure building over the West Coast, with the European ECMWF recently trending to that solution as well. The American model advertises a couple of waves embedded in the west-northwesterly flow moving over our area during Saturday, and these will bring breezier conditions with even some showers possible later in the day and overnight.
After that, models disagree in the strength of the West Coast ridge and whether any additional waves in northwest flow will move over our area for the end of the weekend and the beginning of next week.
Cooling on Tuesday followed by increasingly hot and dry weather
Monday, June 5, 2017
A wave currently located along the northern Montana border has flattened the western U.S. ridge of high pressure that brought this past weekend’s spectacular weather. This grazing storm will drag a weak cool front through northern Colorado later this afternoon and evening and storms will be possible as this boundary moves through the Steamboat Springs area.
Some storms will also be possible on a cooler Tuesday afternoon as lingering moisture and instability from the front remain over our area.
The western U.S. ridge rebounds on Wednesday, bringing warming temperatures and perhaps a stray afternoon shower as the strong surface warming acts on any remaining moisture in the atmosphere.
Drier air and hot temperatures invade the Intermountain West for the rest of the work week with meager chances for precipitation.
While we are basking in mid summer-like weather, a strong and powerful storm approaches the Pacific Northwest coast around Thursday. However, seasonality dictates that the battle between the storm and the ridge will be dominated by the ridge, at least through the weekend. The main affect on our weather will be the appearance of breezy southwest winds ahead of the storm that will make only slow eastward progress through the weekend.
Breezy conditions will persist into the beginning of the work week. Models now generally agree that some sort of cool front will be dragged through our region around Tuesday as the Pacific Northwest storm eventually moves eastward, and this will bring cooler temperatures and a chance of showers for the day.
Weak storm today followed by typical summer-like weather
Thursday, June 1, 2017
A splitting Pacific storm is currently moving across the Great Basin. While most of the storm will avoid Colorado, increasing moisture and upward motion ahead of the storm will bring good chances for showers to the Steamboat Springs area this afternoon and tonight.
Lingering energy and moisture will fuel the chance of afternoon thunderstorms on Friday as the northern part of the storm moves towards the Great Lakes.
The last forecast discussed the possibility of the southern part of the split possibly affecting our weather on Saturday, but numerical weather forecasts now have that area of low pressure well to the south of northern Colorado. Drier air moves over our region behind the departing northern part of the storm leading to a very pleasant Saturday.
Late in the weekend another storm crosses the Pacific Northwest coast. As earlier predicted by the European ECMWF, a building ridge of high pressure over the Rockies will shunt the slow-moving storm first to our northwest and then to our north. The ridge will be flattened over our area by the grazing storm, and this will lead to a small chance of afternoon storms on Sunday and a better chance on Monday and Tuesday as the airmass is destabilized by cool air aloft associated with the storm.
Temperatures will warm again starting on Wednesday and continuing through the rest of the work week as a ridge of high pressure rebuilds over the Intermountain West behind the grazing storm.
Nice weather turns unsettled near the end of the work week
Monday, May 29, 2017
Energy traveling southward along the western periphery of a large storm near the Great Lakes has kept seasonably cool temperature in place for the Steamboat Springs area. There will be a threat of afternoon and early evening storms today, with gusty winds likely as most of the precipitation will evaporate in the dry sub-cloud layer before reaching the ground (virga). This evaporation will cool the air beneath the cloud, forcing it first downward as it becomes negatively buoyant and then outward as it encounters the ground.
The diffuse area of low pressure talked about in the last forecast looks to stay south of northern Colorado through midweek, allowing a ridge of high pressure to build over the Intermountain West. Mostly sunny skies and warm temperatures are expected with only a slight chance of afternoon storms for Tuesday and Wednesday.
A splitting Pacific trough of low pressure approaches the West Coast midweek, and the first effects will be much increased chances of afternoon storms on Thursday as some moisture to our south is carried northward by the southwest flow ahead of the trough.
The southern end of the splitting trough looks to move over Colorado on Friday, bringing a weak cool front through the area with showers likely during the day.
By Saturday, Colorado will be caught in the somewhat chaotic and slow-moving area of the split flow, leading to more chances for showers, though likely less numerous and intense than on Friday.
On Sunday, the Steamboat Springs area looks to be in either drier flow from the southwest or moderately unstable flow from the north as some of the northern split interacts with more energy rotating southward from central Canada. At this point, the forecast could be either dry or unsettled.
Models agree that another storm will cross the West Coast late in the weekend, but disagree on its position. The Amercian GFS has the further south solution compared to the European ECMWF, and would bring another round of cooler temperature, showers and unsettled weather for the beginning of the new week.
Showers for the next week with more persistent showers today and Saturday
Thursday, May 25, 2017
While the bulk of a storm currently affecting the Steamboat Springs area is located in the southern Canadian Prairies, just north of Montana and North Dakota, a cold front moving into the Great Basin on the backside of that storm will keep a somewhat stationary front over the northern borders of Utah and Colorado through Saturday. Showers will be the heaviest and longest-lasting with cooler temperatures today and Saturday, as the stationary front moves southward, with Friday being a less active and warmer day as the once-cool front retreats northward back over our area as a warm front.
Some energy lingers over the southern Great Basin even as the storm passes east of our area by Saturday night, and that will contribute to the possibility of much lighter afternoon showers for Sunday and Memorial Day along with near-average temperatures.
Around Tuesday, a large diffuse area of low pressure crosses the northern Baja coast. Though the exact track of this low pressure is in question, models agree that subtropical moisture will be drawn northward across New Mexico and Colorado on the front-side of the storm, leading to heavier afternoon showers on Tuesday and Wednesday.
More uncertainty exists around midweek as the European ECMWF has uncharacteristically changed its solutions from earlier runs and now has the storm moving over Colorado later in the work week. The American GFS, on other hand, keeps the bulk of the storm south of us in the Chihuahuan Desert over northern Mexico and southern New Mexico. Continued afternoon showers are likely with this solution while a wetter period later Thursday or Friday is advertised by the ECMWF.
