Warm and mostly cloudy skies to persist with some precipitation chances midweek
Sunday, February 2, 2025
Temperatures are in the low forties in Steamboat Springs and upper twenties near the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort early this Sunday afternoon under cloudy skies. After snowfall through much of the day Saturday, southwest winds have pushed the active weather northward, leaving warm temperatures and mostly cloudy skies that will persist into midweek. A grazing disturbance will bring precipitation chances back to our area later Wednesday into Thursday followed by another break ahead of a possibly stronger storm for the weekend.
The weekend weather forecast proved to be as challenging as feared, with almost all snowfall occurring within the first pulse of the Pineapple Express moisture. By the morning ski report, three inches of snow fell at all elevations starting around 3 am Saturday, with an additional 6.5” at mid-mountain and 10” up top by 5 pm Saturday, before increasing southwest winds pushed the active weather northward. The forecast from my last weather narrative was corrupted by an earlier and stronger moisture injection from the storm north of Hawaii and the stronger southwest winds from the merged storm centers off the Vancouver coast.
Now, the Vancouver storm is forecast to elongate to the southwest before a piece moves eastward and merges with the Hawaii storm and its associated atmospheric river, crossing the West coast early Wednesday. A broad ridge of high pressure ahead of the storm extending from the Desert Southwest northward will keep our high temperatures around ten degrees or more above our 32 F average, and low temperatures almost twenty degrees above our 6 F average. Drier air from the Desert Southwest will allow for some sun on Monday for the nicest day of the coming workweek.
Clouds will be back on Tuesday, with the weather forecast models disagreeing on how much moisture makes it past the Sierra Nevadas and how close it will be to our area. The American GFS is the most pessimistic, with a cloudy Wednesday and meager precipitation, however a blended forecast yields an average of around six inches of snow by the Thursday morning report, with a rain-snow mix in town.
Meanwhile, a storm rounding a ridge of high pressure extending southward from Alaska is forecast to eventually dislodge the rest of the still-elongating Vancouver storm and bring it toward our area next weekend. The storm looks colder, dropping temperatures below average, but nowhere near as cold as last week’s arctic outbreak, with significant snow possible.
So soak up the sun on Monday, hope for midweek snow, and check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon for the latest details on the possible weekend storm.
