Pineapple Express to bring rain, snow and wind this weekend
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Crystal clear skies with cool temperatures near ten degrees in Steamboat Springs and the low twenties near the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort are over the area this Thursday at noon. We’ll see another nice day on Friday before an approaching storm brings increasing winds, moisture and temperatures starting Friday night and lasting through the weekend.
A complex series of features as seen by the water vapor satellite imagery over the eastern Pacific includes a couple of storm centers extending south from the Gulf of Alaska, a storm just north of Hawaii, and an atmospheric river extending from Hawaii to Vancouver, the so-called Pineapple Express. Interestingly, the two Gulf of Alaska storms evolved from the splitting Aleutian storm discussed in my last weather narrative from Sunday, and are destined to meet again on Friday.
A ridge of high pressure ahead of these features is over most of the West, allowing for the sunny days and clear nights this workweek. These conditions have allowed the stubborn low-level temperature inversion in Yampa Valley to persist, forcing subzero nights over ten degrees below the five-degree average and high temperatures struggling to reach our average of 31 F.
We should see another nice day Friday before the Gulf of Alaska storms merge and push the ridge of high pressure eastward. Winds will shift from the cold north to the mild west during the day as the merged storm system spins over Vancouver. Meanwhile, southwest winds ahead of the storm north of Hawaii will direct a firehose of moisture toward the Vancouver storm, bringing heavy precipitation to the Pacific Northwest on Friday. Energy ejecting from the storm will carry Pacific moisture across the northern Rockies, first bringing increasing clouds to our area Friday night, and showers by Saturday evening, including gusty winds from the west as high as 70 mph around midnight.
Snow levels will rise through the weekend, reaching the valley bottom by Saturday morning and Christie Peak on Sunday. So expect any precipitation to be a rain-snow mix in town on Saturday, ending up as more rain than snow on Sunday.
Snowfall guesses are problematic as a wavering stationary front extending eastward from the Vancouver storm will separate the cold air to our north from the warm air to our south. Additionally, the width and location of the atmospheric river are still changing in the weather forecast models, making it unclear how much moisture may eventually move overhead. One sometimes-right model predicts up to six inches of snow by the Sunday morning report with temperatures falling to five degrees up top, likely making for some good skiing, wind-affected snow from Saturday night notwithstanding.
Precipitation will likely extend into Monday before we see a break ahead of more snow chances by midweek as at least a piece of the Vancouver storm moves nearby. So enjoy the beautiful weather before the weekend, check the mid-mountain Powdercam and upper-mountain Powdercam first thing Sunday morning for the ground truth, as I will, and check back in the afternoon for my next regularly scheduled weather narrative where I’ll have more details on the next possible storm.
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