Spring Fever to arrive today and last through the weekend
Thursday, February 27, 2025
Bluebird skies and temperatures in the mid-twenties at all elevations are over the Steamboat Springs area this Thursday at noon. Gorgeous springlike weather with clear skies and warming temperatures are forecast through Saturday, with the warm temperatures remaining on Sunday even if we see some clouds from a passing storm to our south. Cooler and wetter weather returns for the start of the following workweek.
Our first case of Spring Fever arrives in full force today after a disappointingly unproductive couple of weather disturbances passed through our area on Tuesday and Wednesday. A ridge of high pressure has now built over the West bringing three days of sunny skies, with high temperatures rising from around forty degrees today, mid-forties on Friday and around fifty degrees on Saturday, well above our average of forty degrees. The high temperature records are 52 F on Friday, set in 1940, 53 F on Saturday, set in 1983 and 56 F on Sunday, set in 1992, and our best chance of challenging a record will be on Saturday, the first day of meteorological spring.
Meanwhile, an area of low pressure off the West Coast has just split, with the southern part of the split forming an eddy that will be pushed eastward by a powerful storm developing south of the Aleutian Islands. The weather forecast models have struggled with the track of the eddy after it begins traveling through the Desert Southwest on Saturday, with the eddy predicted to be between central New Mexico and southern Colorado by Sunday. We may see some clouds Sunday, which may lower high temperatures by several degrees, but precipitation for our area is unlikely.
At the same time, the Aleutian storm is forecast to cross the California coast on Sunday, with a complex evolution that brings the first part of the storm through our area late Monday or early Tuesday. A second wave is forecast to follow later Tuesday, with our area seeing good chances for significant accumulations through midweek.
Enjoy what promises to be a gorgeous springlike weekend, and I’ll have more details about the impending pattern change in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
