Cool and dry fall weather for the weekend
Thursday, October 27, 2022
Temperatures are mired in the low thirties under cloudy skies late this Thursday afternoon in Steamboat Springs. The 3” of snowfall on my deck by the ski resort this morning marked the fifth straight day of snow in town, worthy of any mid-winter storm cycle! After a likely cold Friday morning, the sun returns during the day even as temperatures stay unseasonably cool in the forties. And these cool temperatures will not change much through the weekend despite clouds on Saturday and more sun on Sunday.
The storm that brought our first accumulating snow of the season has formed an eddy over southern Colorado and is forecast to move through Texas on Friday, leaving our area under an unseasonably cold air mass. I’m having a tough time piecing together the accumulated snowfall on the hill since I only archive two days worth of cams, but it appears mid-mountain approached twenty inches of snow from the storm thanks to some enhancement on Sunday night and last night that did not occur up top, where about a foot of snow was recorded.
The weather forecast models are predicting low temperatures tonight in the single digits, ten to fifteen degrees below our 24 F average, though this will be dependent upon clearing skies which may or may not happen overnight. So we may see a situation similar to last Tuesday morning where the forecast cold overnight temperatures never materialized thanks to the insulating effect of clouds.
But sunny skies are forecast for Friday, with high temperatures around five to ten degrees below our rapidly declining average of 53 F. Temperatures will stay similar through the weekend, with clouds on Saturday thanks to a weak Pacific wave of energy that is forecast to split around our area. The sun returns for Sunday and temperatures finally warm toward fifty degrees on Monday and average on Tuesday as a ridge of high pressure begins moving across the West.
That ridge of high pressure will be forced by another large and cold low pressure area that is forecast to form off the West Coast thanks to a wave of energy currently in eastern Siberia that will eventually mix with both subtropical moisture from the south and cold air from the north moving through the Bering Sea. Weather forecast models disagree on the evolution of that low pressure area, but another significant wintry storm may be in our future after midweek. Be sure to check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon where I’ll discuss what follows the pleasant start to the work week.
