Pleasant and warmer weekend to follow significant snow Thursday night
Thursday, April 2, 2026
After 3” of snow was reported at mid-mountain this morning, 7” up top, and 2/3 of an inch of rain in town, skies have partially cleared early this Thursday afternoon in Steamboat Springs with breezes accompanying the mid-fifty degree temperatures in town and mid-twenty degree temperatures near the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort. A much colder and more prolific snowstorm tonight will bring wintry weather to all elevations and much colder temperatures on Friday, followed by a mostly sunny and warming weekend.
Unlike the last storm, in which a decaying Pineapple Express atmospheric river joined forces with a warm low-pressure eddy from the eastern Pacific, this next storm is quite cold, having traveled across the Gulf of Alaska while mixing with cold air from the north. Winds ahead of the storm have already gusted up to 50 mph at the top of the ski area, possibly reaching 60 mph when the cold front associated with the storm blasts through around 6 or 7 pm today.
Snowfall rates will quickly increase this evening, peaking as high as 2” per hour, perhaps accompanied by some thunder, and making travel hazardous over Rabbit Ears Pass, and possibly in town as well. Temperatures will plummet, reaching the single digits at the top of the hill by the 6-12” Friday morning ski report, briefly bringing mid-winter conditions back to the area.
Town will not be spared the wintry weather, waking up to 2-5” of new snow Friday morning and seeing high temperatures only in the upper-thirties, over ten degrees below our average of 51 degrees. As the storm travels through Wyoming on Friday, additional snow showers persisting through the day and night in our favorable cold, moist, and unstable northwest flow behind the storm could leave another 1-4” for the Saturday morning ski report, but only minor additional accumulations in town.
This will be quite a shock after our record-warm March, which I will describe in more detail once the official weather data from the climate monitoring station behind the high school are published. Probably the most eye-popping statistic so far is that we set or tied the highest-ever March temperature on 8 different days, culminating in the 81 degrees set twice on Saturday, March 21, and Wednesday, March 25. Not only did that shatter the old 70-degree record set in 2017, but it also exceeded the highest April temperature of 79 degrees set in 2000 and 1943!
Behind the cold storm, and ahead of another storm developing in the eastern Pacific, a ridge of high pressure will build over the West, bringing mostly sunny skies and warming temperatures for the weekend, with high temperatures in town around average on Saturday and 60 degrees on Sunday.
The pleasant weather is expected to last into the start of the workweek, with unsettled weather returning as early as later Tuesday. So enjoy the ironically appropriate mid-winter powder day on Friday as we head into Steamboat Ski Resort’s Closing Weekend, and I’ll have more details about next week in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
