Drying and then warming heading through the holiday weekend

Friday, January 17, 2020

The blustery Friday storm arrived as advertised in the Steamboat Springs area, and though snowfall totals were likely less than forecast, it was hard to tell with the blowing snow. But the weather improves through the long Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, with the holiday on Monday being the warmest and sunniest day of the upcoming week. A modest storm is forecast for Wednesday and Thursday of next week, followed by some weak ripples in a disorganized jet stream that may bring a small chance of light snow showers heading into the next weekend.

Behind today’s storm, we’ll see a cold start to Saturday, with high temperatures on Mt. Werner likely staying in the teens, along with some sun and clouds. A ridge of high pressure starts to build over the West on Sunday for warmer temperatures, though we will still see a mix of sun and clouds, before the nicest day of the week arrives on Monday with sunny skies and warm temperatures.

But a strong storm forecast over the Gulf of Alaska will keep the ridge of high pressure moving as it pounds the Pacific Northwest through the weekend before making landfall around Monday. We should see some clouds ahead of the storm on Tuesday before it moves over our area on Wednesday and Thursday. Though there is some cold air from Siberia associated with the storm, there is weather forecast model disagreement on storm strength and amount of moisture, and that will affect the amount of snow we may see from this system.

A relatively weak and disorganized jet stream is forecast to follow the midweek storm and may bring some clouds and higher-elevation snow showers for the end of the work week and the beginning of the next weekend.