Weather to turn warmer and sunnier through the workweek
Sunday, October 5, 2025
Temperatures are in the cool lower fifties early this Sunday afternoon in Steamboat Springs, on their way to only the mid-fifties, with partly sunny skies behind the cold front on Saturday. Temperatures will warm back towards seventy degrees by midweek, with increasingly sunny skies, before the weather turns unsettled around next weekend.
The spectacular color show this fall has migrated to the lower elevations, but not before we enjoyed beautiful weather last week to view the spectacle. These two photos highlight some of the color on the Pioneer Trail at the Steamboat Ski Area on Thursday, though yesterday’s storm, which left between two and four-tenths of an inch of rain around town, including some pea-sized hail and brief upper-mountain snowfall when the cold front passed through just after noon, surely would have thinned or removed some of that foliage.
Similar to yesterday, we have another fifty-degree day today, with more clouds than sun, which is around ten degrees below our average of sixty-five degrees. An approaching ridge of high pressure behind the storm will bring warming temperatures and increasingly sunny skies through the workweek, but not before part of the lingering southern portion of the storm, which has elongated toward the Desert Southwest, reluctantly moves through on Monday.
Temperatures will approach sixty degrees on Monday with more sun than clouds, though a stray shower can’t be ruled out as the storm leftovers pass. Mostly sunny skies with temperatures near average are forecast for Tuesday, rising to near seventy degrees on Wednesday, and the low seventies by Thursday, with continued mostly sunny skies.
Meanwhile, a storm in the Bering Sea is forecast to move across the Gulf of Alaska early in the workweek before elongating along the West Coast midweek, with the southern end of the storm briefly forming an eddy. Additionally, Tropical Storm Priscilla, south of Baja, is forecast to reach hurricane status before weakening and moving northward.
Another pulse of energy is forecast to move across the Gulf of Alaska, forcing the West Coast storm inland around the end of the workweek and towards our area by around next weekend. However, there is uncertainty regarding whether the entire tropical storm will be absorbed, or just some of its moisture, and where in the Great Basin that occurs. While we could see unsettled weather as early as Friday, it may hold off for part of the weekend. Regardless, the storm is cold enough to bring at least some high-elevation snowfall.
So enjoy the pleasant workweek ahead, and I’ll have more details on next weekend’s storm in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Thursday afternoon. Additionally, I have been archiving the Steamboat Four Points webcam images for the last month, and hope to have a time-lapse of the changing aspen trees.
Fall storm to bring colder and wetter weather starting Friday night
Thursday, October 2, 2025
A stunning fall day is over Steamboat Springs this Thursday mid-afternoon, with temperatures in the low seventies and mostly sunny skies. Increasing clouds by Friday afternoon mark a change in the weather, with an approaching fall storm bringing precipitation and cooler temperatures by Friday night that will continue through Saturday, with some snowfall accumulations above 9000′. Behind the storm, precipitation should end by Sunday as temperatures remain cool.
A trough of low pressure extending southward from Vancouver, our incoming fall storm, is moving across the West Coast as a ridge of high pressure extends westward from the East. A separate storm, racing across the Gulf of Alaska, will keep the fall storm moving across California early Friday and the Great Basin Friday night, increasing clouds and breezes over our area by Friday afternoon, but not before high temperatures reach the mid-seventies, almost ten degrees above our sixty-six-degree average.
Energy ejecting out ahead of the storm will start precipitation by Friday evening, with waves of showers continuing through the night in breezy southwest winds. Showers may be spottier Saturday morning, before the cold front associated with the storm passes through around noon, bringing increasing westerly winds, an increased chance of thunderstorms, and lowering snow levels to 9,000′ by Saturday afternoon. We could see several inches of accumulation on the mountain, so be sure to check Steamboat’s Powdercam and Mid-Powdercam for the action.
Temperatures will struggle to reach the sixties on Saturday as the Gulf of Alaska storm moves across western Canada, bringing reinforcing cool air during the day. Lighter precipitation may linger into Saturday evening before winds switch back to the southwest on Sunday, bringing drier air overhead on a similarly cool Sunday.
Temperatures will warm toward average to start the workweek, with partly sunny skies on Monday turning mostly sunny by Tuesday. There may be enough additional reinforcing cold air during the weekend to elongate the southern part of the trough towards Baja, after which there is uncertainty regarding whether an eddy forms and whether a tropical disturbance moves toward our area by the following weekend.
So be sure to take advantage of another couple of the dwindling seventy-degree days left in the season today and Friday, and I’ll have more details on the possible storms for next week in my next regularly scheduled weather narrative on Sunday afternoon.
