Pattern change to bring unsettled weather starting Saturday

Thursday, November 12, 2026

A beautiful day is over Steamboat Springs this Thursday mid-afternoon, with temperatures in the upper 50s and nary a cloud in the sky. Similar weather on Friday will precede a pattern change, bringing cool, unsettled weather to our area on Saturday as the first of a couple of storms moves overhead. A second stronger, colder, and wetter storm is forecast around midweek, just in the nick of time for Steamboat’s scheduled Opening Day a week from Saturday.

The ridge of high pressure over the West responsible for this week’s gorgeous weather is spending its last couple of days overhead before being forced eastward by a storm approaching the West Coast. Some clouds Friday will do little to dent the high temperatures, with another day in the upper 50s, well above the 44-degree average.

While Saturday will begin dry, high-elevation snow showers and low-elevation rain showers will start later in the day as the storm crosses the Great Basin. Timing is uncertain due to the storm’s splitting nature, with showers starting as early as noon or holding off for most of the day. Several inches of snow are possible at the top of the Steamboat Ski Resort, with high temperatures in the Yampa Valley around 50 degrees. Keep an eye on the snowfall accumulations at the upper-mountain and mid-mountain Powdercams.

This is a quick-moving storm with skies clearing Sunday, and high temperatures in the low 50s.

Meanwhile, a promising storm south of the Aleutian Islands has ingested tropical moisture from the western Pacific, intensifying over the Gulf of Alaska early next week as it mixes with cold air moving south from the Bering Sea and Alaska.

Temperatures will rebound to the mid-to-upper 50s from Sunday through Tuesday as southwesterly winds ahead of the developing storm carry warm air overhead. Timing is uncertain, but we should see accumulating snow at all elevations by Wednesday as the storm passes, with cool, wet weather possibly continuing into Opening Day on Saturday as another storm follows.

Enjoy the nice weather and dry trails while they last, and I’ll have more details on the evolving midweek storm in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.