Wintry weather to begin tonight
Sunday, November 16, 2025
Though Sunday morning started cloudy, mostly sunny skies with temperatures around fifty degrees, on the way towards sixty degrees, are over Steamboat Springs late this morning. But the clouds will return later this afternoon ahead of an approaching storm that will bring wintry weather tonight. Starting as rain below 10,000′, a cold front will bring much colder temperatures and significant snowfall above 8,000′ through Monday, with a bit of snow possible in town. The cold air persists through the workweek, with uncertain precipitation chances around and after midweek.
An eddy of low pressure over southern Nevada is on the move, forced northeastward by another storm approaching the West Coast. While temperatures will approach sixty degrees this afternoon, over fifteen degrees above our average of forty-two degrees, the approaching storm will increase clouds this afternoon, bringing a cold front by mid-evening.
The storm is warm, with snow levels starting near 10,000′ before falling toward the Yampa Valley bottom by Monday morning. Fortunately, the storm has trended further north, wetter, and colder over the last few days, bringing 2-5” of snow above 8,000′ and maybe an inch in town by Monday morning.
This snowfall is sorely needed, not only to begin the season’s snowpack, but also for Opening Day at the Steamboat Ski Resort on this coming Saturday. While coverage on Lower High Noon yesterday was sparse, as shown in the photo I took from near the top of the Sunnyside trail, I’m guessing snowmaking efforts, aided by the colder temperatures this week, will allow access via the Wild Blue Gondola to Upper High Noon, perhaps Tomahawk, and the Sunshine lift.
The eddy is forecast to be in northeast Colorado by Monday afternoon, allowing snow showers to continue in the favorable, moist, and unstable northwest flow behind the storm. High temperatures in town will fall to average, perhaps not even breaching forty degrees, with another 2-5” of snow above 8,000′.
Meanwhile, the next storm will split as it crosses the West Coast Monday afternoon, with the southern end forming another eddy that is forecast to slowly move across southern California through midweek. A transient ridge of high pressure will form over the Intermountain West for at least part of Tuesday, allowing temperatures to rise into the upper forties with periods of sun.
There is a lot of uncertainty starting later Tuesday regarding not only the speed and track of the eddy, but also the northern part of the split, which moves across the Northern Rockies on Wednesday. We could see precipitation chances, perhaps lasting into Thursday, from either the eddy if it moves far enough north, or the northern stream if it extends far enough south.
I will not have those details before my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon, but will have an updated forecast at the Bud Werner Memorial Library on Tuesday, November 18th, at 6:30 pm, where I’ll be discussing how I use the SnowAlarm website to forecast the weather.
