Snow chances Monday night, Friday and the weekend

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Mostly sunny skies and breezy winds are left behind the quick moving storm that brought an inch to the Steamboat Ski area early this Easter morning, about a day later than my last forecast. This weather will persist into the first half of Monday before a cold and compact storm currently crossing the Pacific Northwest coast affects our weather by late Monday.

While the storm will bring a good cold front through northern Colorado with a period of moderate to heavy snow, moisture is sparse which will limit our accumulations. While me may see some showers develop ahead of the front by Monday afternoon, the bulk of the 2-5” of snow I expect should fall between sunset and midnight on Monday.

Tuesday will start quite chilly, but temperatures should warm under mostly sunny skies.

Weak passing waves in westerly flow will bring some clouds to our area for later Wednesday and Thursday, with the chance of some showers on Thursday.

Pacific energy and moisture associated with another storm, this one warmer than the last, is forecast to move over our area on Friday and may bring rain at the lower elevations and snow at the higher elevations. Weather prediction models currently disagree on the strength of the storm, but the American GFS is currently stronger and brings more precipitation to the area.

Regardless of the strength of the storm, weather models agree a ridge of high pressure quickly translates over our area on Saturday bringing warming and drying for at least the early part of the day.

Meanwhile, a large and strong Pacific storm with good moisture and cold air crosses the West Coast early in the weekend, bringing heavy precipitation to that area before affecting our weather as soon as Saturday afternoon with some warm showers.

A weakening cold front is currently forecast to move through our region around Saturday night as the storm evolves, and significant precipitation is likely for Saturday night and Sunday, which possibly extends into the new work week.

There is considerable forecast uncertainty as to the evolution of this storm and how much cold air from western Canada eventually mixes with it, so further details will have to wait until my next forecast on Thursday.

Save your soles! As the snow disappears in the spring, you know the grating and grinding sounds you hear from your ski boots as you walk across hard surfaces can’t be good. In fact, worn boot soles make your binding unsafe as it interferes with the boot-binding interface. Cat Tracks are a flexible protector that keeps your boot soles pristine, and adds a cushion for walking comfort. When it’s time to click into bindings, I take them off and stash them in my coat pocket. Yaktrax are similar, but I have not used them since they appear they would take up a bit more space in my jacket pocket. But you get a rocker sole that promotes a natural stride which may be worth the space sacrifice. If I did not have to carry them around all day, these would be my choice.