A couple of storms to bring significant snowfall through early Sunday
Thursday, February 11, 2021
The Steamboat Springs area saw snow showers this morning along with some peeks of sun as temperatures climbed into the mid-thirties by this Thursday noon. A warm and breezy storm will pass through our area from tonight through Saturday morning followed by a short break around midday. A much colder storm then quickly follows for Saturday night.
A frigid vortex of cold air is stretched across southern Canada and has brought bitterly cold temperatures to the northern Midwest and East. The current storm track is along the boundary that separates that cold air from much warmer air to the south and southwest, and fortuitously is over our area. A storm currently just off the northern West Coast will move inland tonight and bring snows to our area from tonight through Friday night.
Similar to last Friday, the storm is warm and has a lot of moisture, so expect snowfall to pick up tonight and become moderate to heavy on Friday as the winds turn to be first from the west and eventually from the west-northwest later in the day. I would expect 3-6” to be reported at mid-mountain by the Friday morning report with an additional 4-8” falling during the day, with higher amounts at higher elevations likely. Another 5-10” is forecast for Friday night for a 9-18” Saturday morning report.
Some energy ejecting out of a strong storm near the Aleutian Islands is forecast to move across the Gulf of Alaska and mix with some of that bitterly cold air over western Canada and cross the northern West Coast Saturday morning. We’ll see a break between storms for the first part of Saturday, though the snowfall may not stop but only become lighter in intensity.
But snowfall will again become moderate to heavy later Saturday and overnight when the much colder storm moves by. While the center of the storm eventually digs into the Desert Southwest, additional cold air mixes with the system as it moves across the Great Basin, and it is not clear if our winds will turn to be from the favorable northwest or not. At this point, we could see as little as 3-6” by the Sunday morning mid-mountain report, or as much as 6-12” under the more favorable scenario. Additionally, the winds will die down and temperatures will be fifteen to twenty degrees colder than Saturday, with the temperatures falling during the day and creating low-density, fluffy powder.
Much lighter and more showery snowfall is forecast to continue through the day Sunday and overnight as the storm moves eastward to our south. It appears this storm will be strong enough to displace the cold vortex of air over Canada to the east, though there are indications that more cold air from the northern latitudes returns, but not quite as cold.
Another piece of that Aleutian storm is forecast to eject eastward on Sunday and take a similar path to the previous storm. We won’t see the heavy snowfall we will likely see on Saturday night as we will already be in the cold air, but snowfall is currently indicated to start up again after a brief break on Monday and last through most of the work week. The persistent low-density snowfall may quickly pile up, though I won’t venture a snowfall guess at this point as my attention is focused on this weekend.
I’d like to mention that I added the live Colorado Avalanche Information Center’s (CAIC) threat map to the SnowAlarm home page, so I encourage all backcountry and sidecountry users to check this valuable and easily accessible resource before beginning their journey.
Additionally, I’d like to mention to new users that the home page has all of the information needed for a safe and comfortable day on the slopes. Right at the top I show the town and mountain-top temperatures and wind so I know how to dress. I’d like to mention that you cannot trust the mountain-top wind and temperatures from the Steamboat website or phone report since their sensors are hung off the Patrol Headquarters building, and the location shadows westerly winds and inflates afternoon temperatures as the sun heats the deck. I grab my data from the Desert Research Institute weather station at the top of the Morningside lift and the Bob Adams airport. New snowfall as well as the Powdercam movie are also easily accessible so you can inspect the goods.
My next weather narrative will be issued Sunday afternoon, likely late Sunday afternoon as I hope to be skiing powder all morning! I’ll post the storm totals and have more details about the snowy week ahead.
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