Steamboat Springs area short term weather forecast from Saturday night
Saturday, April 16, 2016
This complex and lumbering storm, currently located in northern New Mexico, will slowly move north across Colorado Sunday and Monday before it ends up in central Wyoming by Tuesday. At this point, the storm finally begins to move east, bringing an end to the inclement weather over our area and an apparently short-lived return to spring later Wednesday.
Only light snow with minimal accumulations has been observed in Steamboat Springs Friday night and during the day Saturday as the storm sunk further south than originally forecast, keeping the TROWAL originally predicted to bring us possibly significant snow to our south and west. I still think we will receive some snow tonight, though amounts will be an inch or less in the valleys and 1-4” on the mountain, with some still significant snow overnight for the Front Range foothills.
Light snow showers should continue during the day Sunday before becoming more intermittent and weak overnight and lasting through Monday. There is a possibility of showers becoming heavier in the afternoon Monday as any surface heating during the day will further destabilize the atmosphere.
Strong storms over Kansas and Texas on Sunday will inject a batch of moisture into the upper atmosphere that will form a TROWAL as it rotates counterclockwise around the storm. This precipitation-maker will take the long way to our area, first moving northward and reaching Montana Monday night before curving south by the Tetons and finding its way into our area later Tuesday.
Ahead of this TROWAL, precipitation will decrease substantially overnight Monday and we may even see periods of sun during the first half of Tuesday before afternoon showers appear. Coincident with the main storm finally moving east and bringing favorable northwest flow to our area, the TROWAL will move overhead, bringing a round of possibly significant snowfall, especially on the mountain, overnight and into Wednesday morning.
Warming and drying is still forecast from Wednesday afternoon and into the beginning of next weekend before another storm threatens around mid-weekend.
