Temperatures to slowly warm this work week
Sunday, April 7, 2024
Temperatures are only in the mid-thirties in Steamboat Springs and low teens near the top of the Steamboat Resort this Sunday mid-afternoon, and despite some sunshine, brisk winds are making it feel like mid-winter rather than early spring. Temperatures will slowly warm each day through the work week with more sun than clouds except for midweek when a weak wave brings a chance for some showers. And thanks to the departing storm moving a bit further north than earlier forecast, there is a better chance for unobstructed viewing of the partial solar eclipse that will cover a maximum of 59% of the sun at 12:38 pm on Monday.
Before getting to the weather narrative, note that I have added another product to the SnowAlarm home page under the Local Temperatures, Winds & Precipitation heading in order to get a more accurate description of the winds near the top of the Steamboat Resort. I did this when trying to make sense of the wind speed and direction yesterday at the Storm Peak Lab, which is adjacent to the top terminal of the Morningside lift. As shown in the figure, I’ve added the wind speed and direction observed at the supplemental height of 12 meters below those observed at 10 meters, which is the standard measuring height for wind. I do not know why there was such a large discrepancy between those data yesterday, but the discontinuities in speed and direction are absent with the taller sensor.
Also, note how quickly we changed from spring to winter, with the temperature falling over thirty degrees between late Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, accompanied by snowfall rates as high as three inches per hour between 1:30 am and 5 am.
The storm responsible for that current winter blast is currently approaching the border between South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa while another much weaker storm dives south through Nevada toward the Desert Southwest. Cool air is forecast to only slowly moderate through the work week as our area is caught between the two storms and remains cut off from warmer air to our south.
After showers end later today, they look to be relegated to our north and south tomorrow, with a good chance that there will be unobstructed viewing of the partial solar eclipse, which peaks at 12:38 pm on Monday. Temperatures in town will warm to around forty degrees, which is quite cool and over ten degrees below our average of 52 F, but warmer than today!
Look for mid-forties on Tuesday under mostly sunny skies, with the warming interrupted on Wednesday as a weak cool front to our north brushes our area. High temperatures should be similar to Tuesday, along with some clouds and a chance of some showers at the higher elevations.
The warming reemerges on Thursday with mostly sunny skies and near-average high temperatures, with even warmer temperatures in the sixties advertised for Friday.
Enjoy the increasingly pleasant work week, and be sure to check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon where I’ll discuss what is looking like a rare nice start to our weekend with perhaps a wintry end.
