Shower chances to start a mid-80 degree workweek

Sunday, August 23, 2026

After reaching 85 degrees earlier this Sunday afternoon in Steamboat Springs, skies have turned cloudy, with 82-degree-temperatures late in the afternoon. Like early yesterday evening, late-day showers will persist today and Monday before a downturn on Tuesday and Wednesday, with better, but still modest, chances to end the workweek. High temperatures will remain consistently in the mid-80s, around 5 degrees above the 80-degree average.

A ridge of high pressure over the West, responsible for the 90-degree temperatures heading into this past weekend, has been flattened by an eddy of low pressure moving into the southern Canadian Plains. Winds have shifted westerly from last week’s southerly, moderating the hot temperatures.

Unfortunately, the westerly winds have carried some smoke from the week-old Slough Canyon Fire in east-central Utah over our area, as indicated by the NOAA smoke model, leading to a bit of haze, although air quality has remained good.

The Canadian eddy is being forced eastward by another storm developing in the Gulf of Alaska, forecast to loiter over the Vancouver coast starting around Thursday. The flattened western ridge will rebound behind the eddy and ahead of the Vancouver storm, with some drier air from the Desert Southwest rotating around the high pressure and toward our area later Tuesday.

Shower chances will decrease by Tuesday afternoon and last through Wednesday due to the drier air, though late-day showers cannot be ruled out.

Energy rotating around the Vancouver storm will lead to an uptick in shower chances as early as Thursday afternoon, though Friday afternoon is looking better. Nothing in the forecast looks particularly encouraging regarding moisture until the Vancouver storm begins moving eastward around next weekend or early the following week.

So enjoy a cooler, but still warm, workweek, hope for rain no matter how brief, and I’ll have more details on how the Vancouver storm may affect next weekend in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.