Weekend to start nice start but end with significant precipitation
Thursday, April 23, 2026
Mostly cloudy skies with temperatures approaching the mid-forties, on their way toward 50 degrees, are over Steamboat Springs at noon on this Thursday after a cool front last night. Temperatures will rebound, and skies will clear on a mostly sunny Friday, with some sun possible on Saturday, ahead of good precipitation chances for Sunday.
We are just south of a wintry storm centered over the northern Rockies, which is downstream of a ridge of high pressure over the Gulf of Alaska. Southwesterly winds as high as 40 mph at the Bob Adams Airport and 50 mph at the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort preceded the cool front yesterday, which moved through late in the afternoon.
The storm’s center is forecast to wobble over southern Alberta and Saskatchewan through the weekend as a wave of energy moves over the top of the Gulf of Alaska ridge, elongating the storm toward the southwest across the Pacific Northwest and northern California.
Meanwhile, two areas of low pressure undercutting the Gulf of Alaska ridge and moving eastward will be drawn into the southwestern end of the Canadian storm, the first bringing clouds by Friday night after a mostly sunny day with high temperatures just above our average of 57 degrees.
We may see some periods of sun behind the departing wave centered around noon on Saturday, before clouds increase again ahead of the stronger, wetter wave for Sunday, even as temperatures warm a few degrees from Friday.
Depending upon the speed of this second wave as it slingshots around the main storm, showers could start as early as Saturday night or as late as noon on Sunday. More persistent precipitation will follow Sunday afternoon, continuing through the night, with snow levels above 8,500′ early in the day, falling to around 7,500′ by Monday morning.
Another wave of energy moving down the west side of the Canadian storm on Monday will reinforce its southwesterly elongation, possibly grabbing some moisture left behind by the Sunday wave and continuing showers on Monday.
We could see around a foot of snow at the higher elevations and between a half inch and three-quarters of an inch of rain at the lower elevations by Monday evening. After a short break on Tuesday and at least part of Wednesday, we may see additional precipitation from the southern end of the Canadian storm, forecast to wobble into Manitoba by midweek.
So enjoy the nice start to the weekend, look forward to the coming, desperately needed moisture, and I’ll have more details on the evolving precipitation chances for the following workweek in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
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