Dry and warmer weather to arrive for the weekend
Thursday, November 28, 2024
After some magical flurries early this Thanksgiving morning in Steamboat Springs, the sun has appeared, illuminating a sparkling wintry landscape. Sixteen inches was officially recorded at the downtown weather station by Wednesday morning with around two feet at the Steamboat Ski Resort by Wednesday afternoon. The cold air behind the storm will keep the high temperatures in town in the twenties today before they slowly rise through the weekend toward forty degrees by Monday under mostly sunny skies.
The atmospheric river and the remnants of the bomb cyclone delivered as promised, with the sixteen inches of snow in town since Monday night containing almost one and a half inches of liquid water for a very dense 10:1 snow water equivalent. In hindsight, the storm arrived about six hours earlier than forecast in my last weather narrative, making Tuesday morning snowier than expected while allowing the storm to end earlier on Wednesday. And while the snow totals forecast for the Steamboat Ski Area were close, the snowfall in town was under-predicted by around fifty percent, likely due to the stronger-than-forecast forcing from the former bomb cyclone.
A ridge of high pressure currently over the eastern Pacific ahead of a large storm developing south of the Aleutian Islands will slowly strengthen as it moves eastward through the weekend. Combined with a deep area of low pressure over eastern North America, winds from the northwest will carry predominantly dry and warmer air overhead through the weekend. A weak wave embedded within this flow will bring some clouds overhead on Saturday, especially in the afternoon, but that will not stop high temperatures forecast to be in the mid-twenties today from slowly rising through the weekend toward forty degrees on Monday, compared to our average of 36 F today and 34 F on Monday.
The dry and warmer-than-average weather looks to continue through the workweek, though there is some hope that we may see some precipitation by next weekend or soon after. However, there is considerable uncertainty in the longer-range forecast, so enjoy the beautiful weather for the long Thanksgiving Day weekend and check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon for more details.
