Weather pattern to shift Monday with snow likely by later Wednesday
Sunday, February 8, 2026
High clouds and sun are over Steamboat Springs this Sunday at noon with mild temperatures in the low forties in town and upper twenties near the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort. The weather will turn unsettled by Monday afternoon as a grazing cool front brings increasing clouds and a chance of overnight precipitation. Temperatures will cool, though remain unseasonably warm through the workweek, as several interacting storm systems bring good chances of significant precipitation starting later Wednesday.
An eddy of low pressure near Baja sits under a weakening ridge of high pressure over the West, while a large and complex storm system is over the Gulf of Alaska. The ridge is being pushed eastward by a jet stream over the Pacific Northwest, fortified by an atmospheric river from Hawaii, colloquially known as the Pineapple Express.
A wave moving through the Northern Rockies on Monday will graze our area Monday evening, first bringing increasing clouds Monday afternoon, but allowing for another day of high temperatures in the low fifties, well above our 33-degree average. There may be overnight high-elevation snow showers, though accumulations are likely to be negligible.
Meanwhile, another large storm spanning the Northwestern Pacific will eject some waves of energy that will travel through and around the Gulf of Alaska storm on Monday, splitting the jet stream into northern and southern branches. The southern branch will form a couple of eddies; the first one moving across Northern California on Tuesday while forcing the Baja eddy eastward, and the second moving southward well off the California coast.
These eddies will interact, slowing the speed of both and creating a broad trough of low pressure extending from the Northern Rockies southwestward to off the Baja coast. Additionally, at least some of the northern branch of the jet stream, moving along the Canadian border, will also join the party.
Many moving pieces could lead to significant snowfall starting by later Wednesday, including subtropical moisture injected into the southern stream from the Baja eddy, part of the first eddy over Northern California moving toward our area, and cool air from the northern branch of the jet stream. These could combine over a stationary-looking front that would maximize precipitation potential on Wednesday night.
We could see 4-8” of snow at mid-mountain by the Thursday morning mid-mountain ski report, with another 2-5” during the day in our favorable cool, moist and unstable northwest flow behind the storm. There may also be chances for some additional snow on Friday as the rest of the lagging southern end of the trough moves across the Desert Southwest on Friday.
Temperatures will stay mild through the entire event due to the dominating influence of the southern jet stream, with high temperatures in town only falling into the low forties by the end of the workweek.
We may have a nice weekend as a ridge of high pressure trends stronger in the weather forecast models, ahead of another series of storms reloading across the Pacific. Hope for more snow than forecast from this storm system, and I’ll have more details on what follows in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
