Steamboat Springs area short term weather forecast from Thursday night
Thursday, March 24, 2016
A Pacific storm just to our northwest will split tonight as it approaches our area, with the northern part of the split traveling over northern Colorado around sunrise tomorrow. Breezy west-northwest winds, with some westerly winds around sunrise, will drive orographic or terrain-driven snows, where higher elevations will see more snow than lower elevations. Snows will increase tonight becoming heaviest between midnight tonight and noon Friday. I expect 3-6” on the mountain for the Friday morning report and some Steamboat Magic after that bringing an additional 2-5” by noon.
Steamboat will likely see around 1-3” by the morning with another 1-3” during the morning, while Craig will be closer to an inch overnight and again during the day Friday, with possibly mixed rain-snow showers during the day.
The second half of the split will affect our area Friday night as the storm head to the Four Corners by Saturday, bringing another 3-6” overnight Friday for a 5-11” Saturday morning ski report. Snow showers will persist on the mountain Saturday while they linger in the valleys.
Moisture decreases but looks to hang around for Sunday and Monday keeping showers around for the afternoons though the mornings should see sun. Temperatures will warm considerably for these days compared to the beginning of the weekend.
The next possibly significant storm may begin affecting our area by Tuesday.
