Unsettled weather to persist ahead of a nice Sunday
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Temperatures are only around forty degrees in the town of Steamboat Springs and low twenties near the top of the Steamboat Resort under partly sunny skies this Thursday noon. Cooler air to our north will keep unsettled weather around through the first half of the weekend, with our best chance of showers from Friday afternoon through Saturday. But a break in the unsettled weather should bring mostly sunny skies and warmer temperatures for Closing Day on Sunday.
A ridge of high pressure currently extending northward from the Gulf of Alaska is flanked by a strong storm over the Aleutian Islands and a vortex of cold air over the Canadian Plains. A waves of cool air rotating around the backside of the Canadian vortex brought a cool front through our area last night with a half inch of snow reported at mid-mountain at the Steamboat Resort and two inches near the summit.
Though some clouds will remain, showers look to stay away from our area until tomorrow afternoon when another cool front approaches our area. We should see showery weather by midday Friday that will persist through some of Saturday, with the best chance of accumulating snowfall at the higher elevations Friday night. There could be some new snowfall by Saturday morning in the 1-4” range.
Temperatures in town may reach fifty degrees today, which is around five degrees below our average of 55 F, with a few degrees of warming on Friday and Saturday. But we should be around five degrees above average by Sunday as that Aleutian storm moves east and forces the Gulf of Alaska ridge overhead and the Canadian vortex of cold air toward the Northeast.
The unsettled weather should return early in the work week as the remnants of that Aleutian storm graze our area with another cool front on Monday, though any precipitation looks to be insignificant at this time.
Let’s hope we can eke out some additional snowfall on the hill early in the weekend, and be sure to enjoy what should be a very pleasant Closing Day at the Steamboat Resort. And be sure to check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon for more details on the weather for the coming work week.
