Afternoon storm chances highest on Friday and Independence Day

Thursday, June 29, 2023

The streak of cloudless skies this past week has ended on this Thursday as afternoon clouds and temperatures in the mid-seventies are over the Steamboat Springs area. These clouds may produce a shower today, but more likely on Friday as a weak cool front grazes our area. Generally dry weather and warming temperatures are then expected Saturday through Monday before another weak cool front brings afternoon and evening storm chances back for Independence Day.

The remnants of the eddy I talked about in last Sunday’s weather narrative is currently moving through Utah as originally forecast. The clouds over our area ahead of the eddy may produce a shower, though any rain would likely evaporate before reaching the ground thanks to the dry lower atmosphere and produce gusty winds.

What is left of the eddy is forecast to move through Colorado on Friday, and winds will shift to be first from the southwest in the morning ahead of the front to the west around noon with the front and finally the northwest by the afternoon behind the front.

Our best chance of showers should be along and behind the front, and even though there will be a better chance of wetting rains as compared to today, a fair bit of wind should still accompany any showers. High temperatures will fall into the low seventies, not quite ten degrees below our average of eighty degrees.

The atmosphere mostly dries for the rest of the weekend with temperatures warming into the upper seventies on Saturday, the low eighties by Sunday and mid-eighties on Monday under plenty of sun. There may be some afternoon clouds around, especially on Sunday, but precipitation should be hard to come by.

But a storm currently just east of the Aleutian Islands is forecast to cross the British Columbia coast on Saturday and travel into the Canadian Prairies by early week. Right now, weather forecast models agree another weak cool front associated with the storm will be dragged through our area around Independence Day, with chances for afternoon and evening storms.

But that is five days away, so be sure to check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon for the latest details on the Fourth of July holiday weather.