Wintry weather to end this weekend
Thursday, April 3, 2025
Temperatures are approaching forty degrees in Steamboat Springs late this Thursday morning and twenty degrees at the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort as clouds form ahead of more snow starting this afternoon. The wintry storm that brought significant snowfall to our area starting last Tuesday is not done with us yet, bringing snow later today and again later Friday as cool temperatures persist into Saturday. A warming trend then begins on Sunday.
Snowfall started last Tuesday morning around ski report time, delaying the start of the storm by about six hours so that six inches of snow was recorded at the mid-mountain snow stake during the day and another six inches overnight. The upper-mountain cam showed eleven inches falling during the day, but wind made an observation impossible overnight. However, despite the Steamboat Ski Resort claiming only two inches overnight, the cleared cam at 9:30 am showed an additional nine inches overnight, which was supported by my ground measurements Wednesday morning. That’s a storm total of a foot at mid-mountain and twenty inches up top, highlighted by morning temperatures of seven degrees creating light and dry mid-winter powder, no fooling!
The storm is not finished with us yet as an expansive split trough of low pressure still extends over the West from Alberta southwards to Baja. Energy ejecting out of the center of the trough will move over our area this afternoon and evening, even as additional cold air elongates the trough further southward. Snow showers, sometimes moderate to even heavy, should leave 2-5” of new snow from this afternoon through this evening.
The northern part of the split is forecast to drag a cold front through our area Friday afternoon as the center of the southern part of the trough begins to move through Arizona. Another 1-4” of snow in the afternoon and evening could fall in the final phase of the storm before we see dry weather on a cool Saturday, with high temperatures in town only reaching around forty degrees despite the mostly sunny skies, over ten degrees below our average of 52 F.
The sun should stick around on Sunday as a ridge of high pressure briefly moves over the West ahead of a storm forming in the Gulf of Alaska. High temperatures should warm into the mid-forties under mostly sunny skies, with mid-fifties forecast on Monday.
There may be some energy and moisture from the Gulf of Alaska storm denting the ridge of high pressure on Tuesday as it moves inland, though the ridge of high pressure is forecast to rebuild over the West, bringing warming temperatures for the rest of the work week, perhaps approaching the vaunted seventy-degree mark by next Friday. So enjoy the continuation of the wintry weather heading into the weekend, and I’ll be back with my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
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