Strong and mostly dry cold front arrives Monday afternoon
Sunday, March 28, 2021
Mostly sunny skies with temperatures of 35 F at the Bob Adams airport and 21 F near the top of Mt. Werner are over the Steamboat Springs area late this Sunday morning. Plenty of sun and warming temperatures can be expected for the rest of today and Monday morning before a strong, windy and moisture-starved cold front passes through our area Monday afternoon. After a dry and cool Tuesday, warming temperatures are forecast through the work week and next weekend.
The Steamboat Ski Resort reported 4.5” at mid-mountain and 7” up top yesterday morning thanks to a couple of storm cells that passed through late Friday. The first cell dropped 4” of snowfall between 4:40 pm and 6:40 pm on the Steamboat Powdercam and the second an additional 3” between 8:40 pm and 9:40 pm. These storm sells are similar to summertime thunderstorms in that they are localized and capable of hefty precipitation rates over short periods of time; in fact my weather station recorded a lighting flash as the first cell approached which was indicative of the unstable spring atmosphere.
So after a cool day yesterday, we should see some sun and clouds with temperatures around our average of 46 F today. Monday will start sunny, though the cold front I talked about in the last weather narrative will arrive earlier, and unfortunately drier than earlier advertised, and is now expected on Monday afternoon. The storm will still be windy, possibly affecting lift operations at the Steamboat Ski Area, with falling temperatures Monday afternoon and snow showers starting first at the higher elevations and then descending to the valley floor by around sunset. It now appears that the bulk of the 1-4” of snowfall expected at mid-mountain will be over by around midnight and will be followed by a brisk Tuesday with some sun and clouds and temperatures ten to fifteen degrees below average.
Sunny skies with temperatures approaching average are forecast for Wednesday, with continued sunny skies and temperatures within five degrees of sixty expected by Thursday and lasting through the next weekend.
Chances for additional snowfall after next weekend and for the closing week of the Steamboat Ski Resort are uncertain at this time. There is a storm that weather forecast models agree will develop in the Gulf of Alaska by the end of the work week and approach the West Coast during next weekend, though it is not clear if the storm loiters off the coast during closing week as depicted by the European ECMWF of moves inland like the American GFS. Stay tuned to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon when our weather for closing week should be in better focus.
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