Cool and unsettled weather to return Sunday
Thursday, April 10, 2025
A gorgeous spring day is over Steamboat Springs late this Thursday morning with sunny skies and temperatures around fifty degrees in town and freezing at the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort. Three more days of warm weather, with a possible record high temperature on Saturday in the low-seventies, will precede a cold front on Sunday, bringing a chance of precipitation and dropping afternoon temperatures by around twenty degrees.
A ridge of high pressure sits over the Intermountain West supported by southwesterly winds ahead of a deep trough of low pressure over the Gulf of Alaska that brought forty inches of snowfall to Alaska’s Alyeska Resort over the last 3 days. A wave of cold air from the Bering Sea will rotate through the trough this weekend, causing it to split. While the southern part of the split eventually forms an eddy that will approach southern California early next week, the northern part is forecast to cross the Pacific Northwest coast Friday night and drag a cold front through our area on Sunday.
High temperatures will rise from the low sixties today to near seventy degrees on Friday, well above our 53 F average, under mostly sunny skies. Skies will start mostly sunny on Saturday for Steamboat Resort’s 43rd Annual Cardboard Classic, with high temperatures flirting with the record high of 72 F set in 1992, and increasingly breezy afternoon winds with mountain-top gusts reaching as high as 50 mph. That record will depend on the extent and timing of increasing clouds by Saturday afternoon ahead of the Sunday cold front.
Unsettled weather is in store on Sunday with the cold front bringing much colder temperatures and a chance for low-elevation rain showers and upper-elevation snow showers producing an inch or two of accumulation at mid-mountain, just what the participants of the Splashdown Pond Skim don’t want to hear! High temperatures will fall around twenty degrees from Saturday and end up near average, with a chance for some afternoon sun appearing depending upon the speed of the cold front.
The workweek will start dry but stay similarly cool, before temperatures rise on Tuesday ahead of possible unsettled midweek weather thanks to the slowly approaching eddy from the southern part of the Gulf of Alaska storm. So soak up the near summertime warmth to start the weekend, and check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
Pleasant spring weather to be interrupted by cool front Wednesday
Sunday, April 6, 2025
Temperatures are in the low thirties in Steamboat Springs and upper teens at the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort under sunny skies late this Sunday morning. Warming temperatures this week will be briefly interrupted by a grazing cool front on Wednesday that will bring some clouds starting Tuesday. The warmup resumes on Thursday with mostly sunny skies and temperatures approaching seventy degrees on Friday.
While what is left of last week’s storm moves well to our south and east, a ridge of high pressure ahead of a Gulf of Alaska storm moves over the Rocky Mountains today and Monday. Expect mostly sunny skies and temperatures warming from the upper forties today into the mid-fifties on Monday, just above our average of 52 F.
The Gulf of Alaska storm, currently bringing precipitation to the Pacific Northwest, is forecast to weaken as it rotates across the northern Rockies on Tuesday and Wednesday. Ahead of a grazing cool front on Wednesday, expect increasing clouds and westerly breezes on Tuesday, with high temperatures a degree or two warmer than Monday.
High temperatures on Wednesday will fall toward average along with a possible high-elevation flurry before rebounding toward sixty degrees on Thursday under mostly sunny skies. Even warmer temperatures approaching seventy degrees on Friday and heading into next weekend are possible.
So enjoy the very pleasant spring workweek ahead, and check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon for a look at the weather during next weekend’s 43rd Annual Cardboard Classic and Splashdown Pond Skim.
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.
Precipitation and cooler temperatures to return this weekend
Thursday, March 27, 2025
After a sunny morning, skies have clouded over this Thursday mid-afternoon in Steamboat Springs with temperatures in the upper-fifties in town and mid-forties at the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort. Today will be the warmest day of the upcoming week as a series of Pacific disturbances bring cooler temperatures and precipitation back to our area starting Friday night.
An impressive storm off the Pacific Northwest coast will chaotically eject several waves of energy and moisture through the weekend. Initially, energy will be shunted to our north early on Friday as it encounters the ridge of high pressure over the West, which was responsible for our gorgeous spring weather this past week.
Two additional waves of ejecting energy will eventually break down the ridge, with the first cooling temperatures and starting precipitation around Friday night. While temperatures cool, they will still be warm, with mountain-top temperatures on Saturday reaching above freezing and high temperatures in town in the forties, below our average of fifty degrees. I would expect 1-4” at mid-mountain by the Saturday morning report.
The second wave moves across our area Saturday night, bringing another round of snow in cooler, but certainly not cold, temperatures. It may, however, be cold enough to freeze the upper-mountain snow surface, with another 1-4” possible at mid-mountain.
Meanwhile, as the Pacific Northwest storm disintegrates by the end of the weekend, cold air moving south from Alaska creates a replacement storm by Friday that will similarly approach the Pacific Northwest coast by Monday. Right now, a colder and possibly wetter storm is forecast for Tuesday.
Enjoy the changeable spring weather of the Rockies, and check back for more details on the possible Tuesday storm in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
Some clouds Monday to be followed by warm and dry weather for most of the workweek
Sunday, March 23, 2025
Temperatures are in the upper thirties in Steamboat Springs and upper teens at the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort under some passing clouds at noon on this Sunday. After the chance of light high-elevation snow showers early Monday, passing clouds and temperatures in the fifties will yield to mostly sunny skies and mid-fifty-degree temperatures on Tuesday before sixties are forecast for Wednesday and Thursday. Unsettled weather then returns as soon as Friday and persists through the weekend.
After the disappointing weekend storm that severely underperformed relative to the model forecasts, a ridge of high pressure is building over the West ahead of a strong storm forecast to develop in the eastern Pacific. While the shorter-range models correctly forecast the storm last Tuesday and Wednesday, they regressed for this past weekend. One model blend I look at is run four times a day, and snowfall amounts from the Saturday forecasts for Sunday morning decreased from 10”, to 4.7”, to 2.5”, to 0.7 inches. Our storms often underperform in the presence of warming temperatures, and perhaps this is the culprit, though the lack of consistency makes the job for this forecaster difficult.
Though temperatures are warming, some light high-elevation snow showers are possible through early Monday as Pacific moisture rounds the top of the ridge in our favorable northwest flow. Winds will be breezy, especially at the higher elevations today and Monday thanks to the proximity of the jet stream, with gusts as high as 50 mph possible under mostly cloudy skies.
The ridge of high pressure is forecast to move east through the workweek, with temperatures in town warming from near fifty degrees on Monday despite the clouds, just above our average of 48 F, to the mid-fifties on Tuesday and mid-sixties on Wednesday under mostly sunny skies.
Some high-level moisture slingshot around the eastern Pacific storm will increase clouds on Thursday, but will not dent our mid-sixty-degree high temperatures in town. As the storm moves toward the West Coast, we may see some light showers on Friday with more energy and moisture ejecting from storm bringing good snow chances back to our area for the weekend.
So relish the warm spring midweek weather, and be sure to check back for more details about the possible weekend snow in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
