Lots of sun with warming temperatures through the weekend

Thursday, November 25, 2021

Brilliant blue skies and temperatures in the mid-thirties are over the Steamboat Springs area on this Thanksgiving afternoon. High temperatures will rise around ten degrees for Friday, and we may see some clouds later in the day ahead of a dry cool front early Saturday. Temperatures will be knocked back a few degrees for the Opening Day of the Steamboat Ski Resort on Saturday even as clouds dissipate and mostly sunny skies return for the afternoon. High temperatures recover to the mid-forties on Sunday under sunny skies, with continued sun and even warmer temperatures to start the work week.

The interesting weather for the next several days will be over the northern Pacific Northwest, thanks to a well positioned Pacific storm track, and the upper Midwest and especially the Northeast as several storms move through the quite cold trough of low pressure extending from north of Hudson Bay southward through the Great Lakes.

But our area will be left high and dry with only a grazing dry cool front timed for around Saturday morning. Ahead of that, look for temperatures to rise to around ten degrees above our average high of 35 F on Friday along with an increase in clouds later in the day as the cool front approaches.

Any clouds early Saturday should clear as Opening Day wears on, though high temperatures will cool a few degrees from the day before. But a strengthening ridge of high pressure will begin to move into our area overnight leading to afternoon temperatures breaching the fifty degree mark on Sunday and possibly reaching the mid-fifties on Monday.

Luckily for continued snowmaking operations, the dry skies will allow for overnight temperatures to cool into the teens each night, which is not quite as cold as our average low of 12 F, but plenty cold enough for efficient snowmaking, especially with the forecast of low relative humidity.

Not much is expected to change for the following work week, but there are indications that a pattern change is in the offing around the following weekend. So stay tuned to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon to see if that colder and snowier weather is still in our future.