Snow chances last through Friday night ahead of clearing and warming

Thursday, February 10, 2022

Temperatures are in the mid-thirties at the Bob Adams airport and around twenty degrees near the top of Mt. Werner under cloudy skies this Thursday afternoon in Steamboat Springs. A small weather system currently moving southward across Wyoming will increase the chances of some snow from this afternoon through Friday night under breezy conditions, though accumulations look unimpressive. Skies should turn mostly sunny on Saturday with seasonably cool temperatures, with continued sun and warming temperatures on Sunday that are forecast to last into the following work week. Our next chance for snowfall looks to wait until around midweek.

Our area is currently located between a persistent-since-early-January ridge of high pressure over the West Coast and a vortex of very cold air centered over Hudson Bay. Waves of Pacific energy have been topping the ridge and mixing to some degree with the cold and dry air from the vortex as they move over our area in northwest flow. The third wave this work week will pass through on Friday, and looks to be moister and further west than the last two waves that passed through on Tuesday and Wednesday.

However, accumulations between this afternoon and Saturday morning will be modest at best under breezy conditions, with 1-4” expected at mid-mountain, as there just is not a lot of moisture associated with the storm. There is enough cold air for the top of the hill to be near zero very early Saturday morning, though temperatures up top are quickly forecast to rebound into the low to mid teens by the afternoon as the western ridge of high pressure moves eastward towards our area and mostly sunny skies return.

More warming and sunny skies are expected on Sunday, with more of the same forecast for the beginning of the work week. Weather forecast models are currently tracking a couple of disturbances off the coast of Japan that look to bring a significant pattern change to our area around midweek, though the details are currently a bit vague. They should hopefully be in better focus by my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.