Storms on Tuesday and Friday
Sunday, March 1, 2026
A mix of sun and clouds is over Steamboat Springs this Sunday at noon, with temperatures in the mid-forties in town, on their way to 50 degrees, and the upper twenties near the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort. Even warmer temperatures on Monday will be followed by another warm storm on Tuesday, sun on Wednesday, more clouds on Thursday, and a cooler storm on Friday.
The two low-pressure eddies to our west, identified in my last weather narrative on Thursday, are on the move, with the first now approaching the northern California coast and the second evolving south of the Aleutian Islands. Energy and moisture ejecting out of the first brought a half inch of snow at mid-mountain and two inches up top this morning, with skies partially clearing behind that impulse.
A transient and shallow ridge of high pressure ahead of the first eddy will be pushed over our area on Monday as the storm crosses the Great Basin, reaching our area early Tuesday morning. A mix of sun and clouds will accompany the ridge on Monday, allowing the high temperature in town to approach the record high of 56 degrees, set in 1992.
Precipitation should start after midnight on Monday, with snow levels lowering to around 7,500′ by Tuesday morning. We could see 1-4” of dense snow at mid-mountain by Tuesday morning’s ski report, with another 2-5” during the day as the storm moves across. High temperatures in town will fall to the low forties, closer to, but still warmer than our 40-degree average.
Meanwhile, a part of the Dateline eddy will be forced eastward by cold air moving southwestward from the Bering Sea and moisture and energy moving eastward from off Japan’s coast. Another transient ridge of high pressure, but stronger, will form ahead of the storm, bringing mostly sunny skies on Wednesday with high temperatures in town rising back toward 50 degrees.
Cold air moving southward from Alaska will reinforce what is left of the Dateline eddy as it crosses the West Coast on Wednesday. Weather forecast models have settled on a splitting storm crossing the Great Basin Wednesday night, with the northern part of the split bringing advancing clouds on Thursday and winter weather back to our area at all elevations by Friday, the end of the first workweek of meteorological spring.
Snowfall amounts through Friday could be significant at the higher elevations, with as much as 6-12” on the hill and several inches in town, though those amounts will be dependent upon how much energy is partitioned into the northern and southern parts of the splits.
Interestingly, the southern part of the split is forecast to wander southwestward for several days and vacation over Baja, and may eventually be a player in our weather the following week. But that is ten days away, so in the meantime, enjoy the snow on the hill on Tuesday, and I’ll have more details on the likely stronger and colder Friday storm in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.
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