Next winter storm to arrive Tuesday
Sunday, March 16, 2025
Skies have briefly cleared this Sunday mid-morning in Steamboat Springs with temperatures near freezing in town and low-teens at the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort. Warming temperatures today and more so on Monday will precede another strong winter storm starting early Tuesday that will linger through Wednesday. After a nice start to Thursday, appropriately marking the first day of spring, wintry weather returns Thursday night.
Not sure what to make of the morning ski report as three and a half inches were reported at mid-mountain and four inches up top, with no snow overnight, even though the mid-mountain powdercam and the upper mountain powdercam clearly showed accumulating snowfall after the hill closed. Regardless, mostly sunny skies have briefly appeared behind the winter storm, helping afternoon temperatures warm to near forty degrees in town today, about five degrees below our average of 45 F.
The dry skies result from a ridge of high pressure moving across the West ahead of another winter storm approaching the West Coast. Temperatures will rise toward fifty degrees on Monday despite mid-level clouds and gusty afternoon breezes from the west. The storm is forecast to cross the West Coast Monday and the Great Basin Monday night, eventually bringing a strong cold front through our area early Tuesday morning.
This storm looks quite similar to the one last Friday, with moderate to heavy snow showers starting around the morning ski report and continuing through the day, with 5-10” expected at mid-mountain by sunset on Tuesday. A reinforcing wave of cold air will continue the snowfall overnight in our favorable moist and unstable northwest flow bringing an additional 3-6” overnight and 1-4” during a cold Wednesday as snow showers taper off during the day.
Temperatures in town will be mired in the thirties on a wintry Tuesday, and may not make it to freezing on Wednesday as mountain-top temperatures fall to the single digits by Wednesday morning. Clearing skies by later Wednesday will lead to another chilly Thursday morning, especially in town as the fresh snow cover and light winds allow low temperatures to fall into the single digits, over ten degrees below our average of twenty degrees.
The sun crosses north of the equator at 3:01 am on Thursday, March 20th, marking the vernal equinox and the first day of spring. Mother Nature will try to oblige with a mostly sunny morning thanks to a quick-moving ridge of high pressure, but increasing clouds during the day ahead of a moderate wintry storm starting Thursday night will limit high temperatures to around forty degrees.
So enjoy the weather whiplash this workweek, and check back to my next regularly scheduled weather narrative Thursday afternoon for details on the end-of-week storm and the possibility of more snow for next weekend.
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