Precipitation and cooler temperatures to return this weekend
Thursday, March 27, 2025
After a sunny morning, skies have clouded over this Thursday mid-afternoon in Steamboat Springs with temperatures in the upper-fifties in town and mid-forties at the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort. Today will be the warmest day of the upcoming week as a series of Pacific disturbances bring cooler temperatures and precipitation back to our area starting Friday night.
An impressive storm off the Pacific Northwest coast will chaotically eject several waves of energy and moisture through the weekend. Initially, energy will be shunted to our north early on Friday as it encounters the ridge of high pressure over the West, which was responsible for our gorgeous spring weather this past week.
Two additional waves of ejecting energy will eventually break down the ridge, with the first cooling temperatures and starting precipitation around Friday night. While temperatures cool, they will still be warm, with mountain-top temperatures on Saturday reaching above freezing and high temperatures in town in the forties, below our average of fifty degrees. I would expect 1-4” at mid-mountain by the Saturday morning report.
The second wave moves across our area Saturday night, bringing another round of snow in cooler, but certainly not cold, temperatures. It may, however, be cold enough to freeze the upper-mountain snow surface, with another 1-4” possible at mid-mountain.
Meanwhile, as the Pacific Northwest storm disintegrates by the end of the weekend, cold air moving south from Alaska creates a replacement storm by Friday that will similarly approach the Pacific Northwest coast by Monday. Right now, a colder and possibly wetter storm is forecast for Tuesday.
Enjoy the changeable spring weather of the Rockies, and check back for more details on the possible Tuesday storm in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
