Flurries tonight and tomorrow with better snow chances for Saturday
Thursday, December 18, 2025
Temperatures are at a seasonable thirty degrees in town and ten degrees up top with mostly sunny skies early this Thursday afternoon in Steamboat Springs. After a disappointing storm last night that produced no snow accumulations but plenty of wind, some moisture accompanying a strong jet stream will bring high-elevation flurries tonight and later Friday on a warmer day with morning sun. Winds will again increase starting Friday afternoon, accompanied by a stronger wave with still-spotty moisture which will bring snowfall chances from Friday night through Saturday, possibly lingering into Sunday.
A broad jet stream is moving between a ridge of high pressure over the Dateline and cold air in Canada. A trough of low pressure extending southwestward from the Gulf of Alaska towards Hawaii has carried an atmospheric river, also called the Pineapple Express due to its Hawaiian origins, northeastward into the Pacific Northwest. While we did get wind last night due to the proximity of the jet stream, including a gust of 78 mph near the top of the Steamboat Ski Area at 7 pm, measured at ten meters above Storm Peak Lab, and even 97 mph at 9 pm, measured at twelve meters above the lab, we did not get the moisture, disappointingly leaving only flurries.
After a seasonably cool day with temperatures in town several degrees above our average of twenty-nine degrees, there may be some flurries tonight as we are brushed a weak wave embedded in the jet stream.
While Friday will start sunny and be warmer than today, another wave of cool air carrying the remnants of the Pineapple Express will approach later Friday, increasing afternoon winds and the chance for evening showers. Unlike the last storm, which quickly brought a strong cold front through town, this front stalls around our area from Friday night through Saturday, leaving an opportunity for showers to develop along the stationary front.
Strong winds will continue Friday night, and thankfully decrease during the day Saturday, but the moisture forecast is uncertain, in no small part due to the poor weather forecast model performance for last night’s storm. We could see 1-4” of wind-blown snow by the Saturday morning mid-mountain report, with that again during the day, depending upon the proximity of the front and moisture quality.
Temperatures are expected to warm on Sunday, with the possibility of additional minor accumulations as another wave in the jet stream grazes the area, although weather forecast models are in disagreement over that scenario.
Monday may remain unsettled before cold air moving southward through Alaska amplifies the Gulf of Alaska trough, building a ridge of high pressure over the Intermountain region and bringing warming temperatures and mostly sunny skies by Tuesday. A piece of that trough may break away and bring unsettled weather back to the region around Christmas Day, though there are a lot of moving pieces associated with that forecast.
So once again, hope for more snow than forecast, and I’ll have more details on what we can expect during the days leading up to Christmas in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
