Nice weekend of weather ahead
Thursday, November 26, 2020
It is snowing lightly this Thanksgiving afternoon in Steamboat Springs, with 3” of what looks like low-density, fluffy accumulations on the Steamboat Powdercam and about an inch on my deck. Snows will taper off by midnight after several more inches fall at the higher elevations before a chilly Friday morning is followed by sun and warming temperatures that will persist through Monday. And it now looks like we have cooler temperatures with some snow chances to commemorate our rescheduled Opening Day at the Steamboat Ski Area on Tuesday, 1 December.
Our current wintry Thanksgiving is courtesy of a splitting storm that is bringing enough moisture and energy over our area for some persistent snowfall of light intensity. Cold air will continue to infiltrate our area overnight behind the storm for a chilly Friday morning with low temperatures around zero, which is about ten degrees below our average of 11 F. But a ridge of high pressure that has built behind the storm moves over our area starting on Friday for warming temperatures and sunny skies.
More gorgeous weather is forecast for Saturday before a a grazing storm moving through the top of the ridge of high pressure may be close enough to bring some cooler air and clouds for Sunday. But if any clouds do appear, they will be chased away by a warm and sunny Monday.
There has been a lot of uncertainty in the weather forecast models starting around Tuesday, and the latest consensus is that a storm moving through the Gulf of Alaska will make landfall along the Pacific Northwest coast early Monday before moving first to the east and then the southeast before it eventually passes overhead on Tuesday. That early easterly trajectory looks to allow the Cascades to grab most of the moisture from the storm, though the storm stays cold and several inches of snowfall is now looking possible through the day Tuesday and overnight.
The storm is forecast to form some sort of eddy nearby or overhead, and it may not be completely cut off from the jet stream which makes predicting its movement difficult. And that eddy may itself split, leaving some of the storm near our area and some migrating to the southwest. Right now, it looks like precipitation ends early Wednesday as the cold air sticks around for the day before we see a cold Thursday morning give way to sun and warming temperatures.
And though there is an active jet stream forecast over the Pacific during this time frame, our weather is looking quiet as we head into the following weekend. Stay tuned to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative late on Sunday afternoon for an update to our Opening Day weather, and enjoy the beautiful upcoming weekend.
