Light snow tonight followed by a nice couple of days
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
After another cold day in Steamboat Springs this Thursday, light snow will fall tonight into Thursday morning before we see a storm-free and pleasant Friday and Saturday. A couple more Pacific storms will turn the weather unsettled from Sunday through midweek before a longer dry period may commence as we head into the following weekend.
A weak Pacific storm that rode over a ridge of high pressure over the West Coast will graze our area tonight into Thursday morning. The strength of the ridge means our accumulations will be quite modest, with light intensity snow starting around midnight and continuing through the early morning. I would expect 1-4” of snow from the storm, with some of that before the morning report and some after.
We will likely see some sun tomorrow behind this small storm, especially down in the Yampa Valley. But much warmer and drier weather is forecast for Friday and Saturday as the ridge of high pressure is forced eastward over our area by another storm forecast to develop over the Gulf of Alaska on Friday.
This Pacific storm is forecast to strongly split as it crosses the West Coast on Saturday with weather forecast models unsurprisingly disagreeing on the amount of energy partitioned between the northern and southern parts of the storm. So while snowfall amounts are uncertain, it does appear that snows could start late Saturday night or early Sunday morning and continue intermittently through the day. Some sort of cool front does look to pass through or linger over our area around Sunday night, and snowfall amounts will depend upon the eventual strength and movement of this front.
Periods of snow look to continue through the day Monday before ending from Monday night through some of Tuesday. A smaller but more organized, and possibly more favorable storm for our area, crosses the Pacific Northwest coast early on Tuesday and is forecast to begin snows over our area around Tuesday night. We should see cold temperatures and snow for Wednesday, with drier but still cold temperatures hanging around for Thursday.
A ridge of high pressure is forecast for the end of that work week for warming temperatures heading into the weekend.
