Some warming to follow near record low temperatures on Monday
Sunday, January 19, 2025
The Steamboat Springs temperature finally broke above zero degrees under cloudy skies early this Sunday afternoon, though the mountain-top temperature has only reached minus five degrees. The deep freeze will only deepen as a final push of cold air tonight brings some snow and perhaps the record coldest high temperature for the date on Monday, which peaked at eight degrees in 1937. And if skies clear by Tuesday morning, the record low temperatures of -34 F in 1935 could be in jeopardy. Warmer but still below-average temperatures will persist until Friday when more seasonable, and reasonable, temperatures occur before another possibly cold storm around next weekend.
Sadly, the conservative, rather than optimistic, forecast from last Thursday’s weather narrative verified when 3” was reported at mid-mountain Saturday morning and 5” at the summit, in addition to 2” reported at both locations this morning. Using the optimistic model to make a reasonable snowfall guess is problematic as I have found no reliable indicator to weigh its outcome, making the model most useful in hindsight.
But the cold air for this weekend was never in doubt thanks to a sharp ridge of high pressure over the West Coast extending to the North Pole and directing air from a vortex of bitterly cold air centered west of Hudson Bay over our area. A final wave of cold air will pass through tonight, leaving another 1-4” on the hill and threatening our coldest January 20th high temperature of 8 F recorded in 1937. The sun may appear in the afternoon, making it feel marginally warmer, but if skies stay clear we could be threatening our low temperature for the date of -34 F recorded in 1935, unreasonably below our average of 5 F.
A strong storm off the Aleutian Islands is forecast to move eastward, also pushing a leading storm and the weakening West Coast ridge of high pressure ridge eastward. We should see mostly sunny skies for Tuesday as what is left of the ridge moves overhead, though after such a cold start, temperatures may struggle to reach 10 F, well below our average of 30 F.
The weaker storm in advance of the Aleutian storm will move through our area on Wednesday, bringing clouds, a chance of flurries and slightly warmer but still well below-average temperatures. You know the previous morning was cold when the National Weather Service forecast for Wednesday morning says “Not as cold. Lows 10 below zero to 20 below”!.
Temperatures will only slowly moderate for Thursday and Friday, with lows in the minus teens to the minus single digits and highs from the teens to the twenties. Friday looks like the warmest day of the week and quite pleasant ahead of that Aleutian storm forecast to bring some snow and more cold next weekend.
Dress especially warmly for the start of the week, the National Weather Service has an Extreme Cold Watch from Monday evening through Tuesday morning, renamed from an Extreme Wind Chill Watch this season, and expect well below-zero mornings through most of the workweek. Check back for more details on the possible weekend storm in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
