Sunny skies and temperatures near freezing are over the Steamboat Springs area this Sunday noon. Increasing clouds on Monday will be followed by a quick-moving cold front that will bring a bit of snow and cold mid-winter temperatures for Tuesday. But the noteworthy cold will moderate starting Wednesday under sunny skies with temperatures approaching fifty degrees by the end of the workweek.

An eddy of low pressure is currently over Baja as a cold storm from the Gulf of Alaska pounds the Pacific Northwest. Quiet weather between the storms will be overhead today with sunny skies and high temperatures reaching the upper-thirties, around five degrees below our average of 42 F. The approaching storm will dislodge the eddy, though it will stay first south and then east of Colorado as it moves across Kansas on Monday and towards Minnesota by Tuesday.

Clouds will increase Monday morning as the strong cold front associated with the northwest storm approaches. Light snow showers under breezy conditions should break out after noon ahead of the cold front timed for sunset, give or take several hours, with better showers along and behind the cold front. Snow showers look to hang on during a continued breezy Tuesday in the unseasonably cold air behind the front, though due to limited moisture, total storm amounts may only be an inch or two in town and 2-5” on the hill.

High temperatures in town on Tuesday may only reach the low twenties, almost twenty degrees below average, with the record coldest high temperatures for the date being 20 F in 1929, 21 F in 1930 and 24 F in 1985. And if skies clear as expected Tuesday night, low temperatures will fall into the low single digits, even to around zero degrees in the favored low-lying spots of the Yampa Valley, well below the fifteen-degree average.

Temperatures start to recover on Wednesday as a ridge of high pressure begins to build over the West ahead of a strong storm forecast to develop in the Gulf of Alaska. Mostly sunny skies should allow temperatures to rise above average and into the mid-forties on Thursday, with even warmer temperatures approaching fifty degrees on Friday despite possible high clouds.

Similarly warm temperatures are forecast for Saturday, which is Opening Day at the Steamboat Ski Resort. There is a fair bit of uncertainty concerning how that Gulf of Alaska storm evolves, with current forecasts advertising snow for Sunday. Enjoy the sunny days before and after the mid-winterlike cold front on Tuesday, and check back for the latest Opening Weekend forecast in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon.