Christmas storm to bring more snow
Sunday, December 24, 2017
Steamboat Springs did quite well from this last storm, with a foot on my deck and 18” at mid-mountain. Unfortunately, the strong westerly winds near the end of the storm adversely affected the snow quality today as wind slabs made for uneven skiing. But that could be fixed starting around midnight tonight when another strong storm from the northwest begins snowfall again.
This storm is similar to the Saturday storm, but the temperatures will not be as cold as the -3F up top this morning. (Made me glad to have the awesome Hotronic foot warmers for my toes and Black Diamond lobster glove for my hands). Additionally, the winds won’t be quite as strong and they should not stray to the west as strongly, leaving what falls in better shape than today. I would expect 4-8” of snow for the Monday morning report, with another 4-8” during the day.
Snows will diminish after noon Monday, and taper off during the day Tuesday. Another 1-4” will likely fall after the mountain closes Monday.
Along with seasonable temperatures, there is a chance for some light snow from about Wednesday afternoon through Thursday afternoon and again Friday ahead of another possible weekend storm. However, numerical forecast models are struggling with the timing and strength of the storms in the relatively fast jet stream, and the Saturday storm is much weaker in the European ECMWF.
Amazingly, model agreement increases late in the forecast period with another possibly significant storm moving over our area after New Years Day.
