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After early season storm brings 20 inches to Steamboat, more snow in store for Thursday

Week starts with sunny skies, before wind picks up on Tuesday

Dylan Anderson
Steamboat Pilot & Today
This week's weather had the slopes of the Steamboat Ski Resort looking like winter on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022. Of course, it's going to take a few more wintery days before skiers and riders can start making turns.
John F. Russell/Steamboat Pilot & Today

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Steamboat Ski Resort hasn’t started updating their snow totals yet but based on live feeds of the measurement station near Thunderhead Lodge, last week’s wintery weather garnered roughly 20 inches of snow.

The top of the mountain actually got less, about 12 inches through the week, by local meteorologist Mike Weissbluth’s count.

“The 3 inches of snowfall on my deck by the ski resort on (Thursday) morning marked the fifth straight day of snow in town, worthy of any mid-winter storm cycle,” Weissbluth wrote in his weather narrative at SnowAlarm.com.



After a week of snow, the sun was able to burst through over the weekend and Weissbluth said he expected that to continue for the start of the week before more snow chances blow in on Thursday, Nov. 3.

The National Weather Service is forecasting patchy fog before 10 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 31, before sunny skies will warm things up to near 50 degrees, which is just shy of the 51-degree average high temperature for Halloween in Steamboat. Weissbluth said it looks to get into the mid-50s on Tuesday, Nov. 1, which will likely be the warmest day of the week.



Currently, there is a storm in the Gulf of Alaska that will elongate down along the West Coast to start the week, which will lead to an increase in wind out of the southwest on Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 2, Weissbluth said.

But that storm complicates as it approaches Colorado, with models projecting it will split. The part that will affect the area locally will come in from the southwest, Weissbluth said, and will probably start a bit warmer.

“Snow levels do look like they’ll be around 7,000 to 8,000 feet, so it could be close in town,” Weissbluth said. “There may be a rain-snow mix down here actually — probably kind of a miserable day.”

Temperatures drop off as the storm moves in, with the weather service predicting a high of 42 degrees on Thursday, and 35 on Friday, Nov. 4. Low temperatures each of those nights will get into the teens, but won’t be in the single digits like late last week.

The weather service predicts more chances for snow on Friday. Weissbluth said temperatures should stay cool enough on Friday to be favorable for snowmaking on the mountain, even if the natural snow spigot turns off.

“Cold air will be left behind so snowmaking should be good,” he said. “It looks pretty good up there from town.”

There is another grazing front expected early next week, but it looks like the next chance for snow would be towards the end of next week, Weissbluth said.

“End of the week or the following weekend,” Weissbluth said. “So not too exciting in the longer term right now.”

This story is from SteamboatPilot.com.


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