Summery weather arrives Sunday

Friday, June 16, 2023

A cool and partly sunny day with temperatures in the low sixties is over the Steamboat Springs area this Friday mid-afternoon. There will be a small chance of some showers today, but a better chance on Saturday as the final piece of a wave moves through our area. Warm and dry weather then appears on Sunday to start our first truly summery week of the year.

A large area of low pressure is currently over the Gulf of Alaska while a much smaller waves moves through the Rockies. The first part of this wave moved through our area yesterday afternoon, bringing a cool front and around a quarter to a half inch of precipitation to town, including some small hail. The cool and drier air behind the front has reduced the shower chances today, but the second part of the wave forecast for tomorrow morning will likely bring showers through the area early in the morning.

Another cool day is in store for Saturday, similar to today, with high temperatures once again only reaching the mid-sixties, over ten degrees below our average of 77 F. But unlike today, enough moisture in the atmosphere should bring better chances for afternoon storms in the unstable atmosphere behind the front.

Those tired of our recent wet and cool weather will be happy to read that summery weather looks to arrive in force on Sunday. That Gulf of Alaska storm is forecast to elongate along the West Coast by then, and the warm and dry winds ahead of the storm from the Desert Southwest promise a beautiful dry summery day with temperatures approaching the mid-seventies.

Several degrees of warming may push our temperatures toward the upper seventies on Monday, though winds should become breezy from the southwest in the afternoon as the former Gulf of Alaska storm approaches the West Coast. But a ridge of high pressure building over the central U.S. should deflect energy ejecting out of that storm to our northwest through the week, with similarly warm and dry weather and breezy afternoons forecast.

And the summery weather arrives in time to mark the summer soltstice, which is when the sun reaches its northermost extent in the northern hemisphere and we see the longest day of the year, which will occur this year at 8:57 am on Wednesday, June 21. So enjoy the start of the summery weather, and I’ll be back with my regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.