Weather turns unsettled for the week ahead
Thursday, March 28, 2019
The unseasonably warm and sunny weather over the Steamboat Springs area this Thursday afternoon will give way to a a series of storms over the next week. Our best chances for snow look to occur from Friday through the weekend with seasonably cool temperatures and again around Wednesday and Thursday.
Currently, a strong storm spinning off the Pacific Northwest coast has been trapped under a ridge of high pressure that extends northward into Alaska the last few days. Another Pacific storm between Hawaii and California, which will eventually affect our weather midweek, will dislodge the Pacific Northwest storm and force it to move piecemeal across the Great Basin through the weekend, mixing with some cool western Canadian air as it moves east.
So after a mild night tonight, the leading part of the storm will bring a strong cold front through our area around mid-morning on Friday at which point snow showers will begin, even down in the Yampa Valley. Light to moderate, and at times heavy snow showers should continue through midnight or so, and I would expect 3-6” to fall at mid-mountain while the lifts are spinning and another 3-6” to fall after that.
Showers may end for a time, or not, early Saturday as the second main piece of the storm approaches. Even at this close range, there is uncertainty in the weather forecast models with how this second storm evolves, with some briefly energizing the storm as it passes near our area. While Saturday afternoon snow showers are a possibility, we may see some better snowfall Saturday night as the storm briefly stalls over western Colorado, and again during the day Sunday as the storm moves to our south, possibly resulting in some favorable cool, moist and unstable northwest flow. At this point, along with seasonably cool temperatures, we could see anything from a partly sunny day with afternoon snow showers, or more accumulating snow.
Monday and Tuesday will stay seasonably cool, along with the chance of afternoon snow showers before temperatures dramatically warm again ahead of next advancing Pacific storm that was responsible for moving the weekend storm over our area.
Again, weather forecast models disagree on the amount of cool air from western Canada that mixes with this storm, but agree on another unsettled weather pattern beginning late Tuesday or Wednesday. Snow amounts are uncertain, though it looks like our best chance for accumulating snows will be behind the cold front associated with the storm, which is forecast to cross the area around Wednesday night or Thursday. Snows will then become more showery by Friday before a break in the weather is advertised for the following weekend.
I absolutely love this super-warm split-finger mitten-glove! I’m on my second season with these and am very impressed with their durability and warmth, especially when combined with the standard HotHands handwamers. Three fingers sit together with the index finger separated, but there is enough room to scrunch all your fingers together while on the lift, which is especially nice if you have a handwarmer in the mitten-part of the glove.
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