Wintry weather to return tonight
Thursday, April 17, 2025
Temperatures are in the upper fifties this Thursday mid-afternoon in Steamboat Springs under a mix of sun and clouds. A cold front on our doorstep will move through this evening, bringing sharply colder temperatures, more representative of early March than mid-April, and snowfall to all elevations through Friday. Temperatures will slowly warm through the weekend as low-elevation snowfall ends Friday night while snow showers persist at the higher elevations.
It turns out that two high temperature records were broken last week; the 76 F recorded downtown on Friday broke the 74 F record from 2012, and the 73 F recorded on Saturday broke the 72 F record set in 1992. But those early June high temperatures will be replaced by early March high temperatures on Friday as a storm from the Gulf of Alaska moves into the Great Basin after mixing with some cold air from western Canada.
Be prepared to wake up to snow Friday in town as the cold front associated with the storm blasts through Thursday mid-evening. Moderate to heavy snowfall rates of an inch an hour or more are possible at the higher elevations along and behind the front, creating difficult driving conditions at times over Rabbit Ears Pass. We could see 4-8” of snow at mid-mountain by the Friday morning ski report, and an inch or two in town.
The storm responsible for the cold front is forecast to elongate along the Nevada-Utah border through the day Friday before splitting from the northern jet stream and quickly moving across Arizona and New Mexico on Saturday as an eddy. There may be a break in the precipitation Friday morning before moderate to heavy snow showers in our favorable moist, cool and unstable northwest flow bring another 2-5” to mid-mountain in the afternoon and evening. High temperatures in town will struggle to reach forty degrees, well below our average of 55 F and typical of early March.
Winds are forecast to turn to be from the east as early as Friday night due to counterclockwise winds around the eddy to our southwest, likely ending precipitation due to air downsloping and drying off the Park Range. By Saturday afternoon, the eddy may be far enough away to allow winds to turn back to the northwest, with snow showers possible on the hill and high temperatures in town rising into the mid-forties.
Meanwhile, another storm moving across the Gulf of Alaska on Friday is forecast to cross the Pacific Northwest coast on Sunday. Energy and moisture ejecting out ahead of the storm may bring a chance of showers on Sunday, though there is uncertainty regarding how much energy and moisture make it overhead. High temperatures in town will rise another five degrees from Saturday and be around fifty degrees.
That storm is forecast to rotate through the northern Rockies early in the workweek, and our weather will depend upon the southern extent of a stationary front associated with the storm and some trailing energy. Monday currently looks pleasant with a chance for an afternoon shower and high temperatures in the upper-fifties.
Let’s hope for another powder day Friday ahead of Closing Weekend for the Steamboat Ski Resort, and I’ll have more details on the workweek weather in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
