Beautiful weekend before the next early-week storm
Thursday, November 12, 2015
A fast-traveling wave to our north and east has kept temperatures cool today and may produce some light snow showers on the hill. Dry air should move over the area by tomorrow morning leaving the Steamboat Springs area under mostly sunny skies through most of the weekend before high clouds invade the area later Sunday. Temperatures will warm at the higher elevations while the valley may stay cool as the current temperature inversion persists.
Another strong Pacific wave is forecast to cross the West Coast early Sunday. Numerical models have the storm undergoing a weak split as it crosses the Great Basin, with a dominant southern portion of the storm impacting the entire state of Colorado Monday through early Tuesday.
Similar to the storm this past week, early indications are this storm my produce another 6-12” of snow on the hill by early Tuesday, with about half that in the valley. Cold temperatures under clearing skies should be noted as the storm moves east of the area Tuesday before snow showers are forecast to redevelop in the cold and unstable airmass Tuesday afternoon and lasting through Wednesday.
There may be a break for most of Thursday before some sort of storm threatens Steamboat Springs again by the end of the work week. There is considerable model disagreement with the American GFS forecasting a couple of grazing waves while the European ECMWF has a much deeper and more significant system lined up that will last into the weekend.
