On Wednesday, we saw about 5 inches of dense snow, then on Wednesday night, we saw 2 inches of fluffier snow.

Thursday morning will offer soft turns thanks to the 17 inches of snow during the past 36 hours. We could see some snow showers linger through the morning, then Thursday midday through Friday morning should be dry.

The next storm will bring snow from Friday afternoon through Saturday evening. This storm will be warm with a lot of moisture, so we could see a lot of thicker, dense snow. How much snow? The forecast range from multiple models is 6-24 inches, and anything in there is plausible. A lot of moisture can mean a lot of snow, though warm temperatures, Steamboat's (relatively) lower elevation, and ill-defined storm energy can mean less snow. Whatever snow falls will be dense, like cream cheese, and about half of it will fall on Friday night and the other half will fall on Saturday. So keep your eye on Saturday for dense powder during first chair and more dense powder throughout the day.

Saturday night through much of Sunday should be cloudy yet drier as the wind direction shifts to an unfavorable direction out of the southwest.

Then from Sunday night through Tuesday, another storm will bring 8-16 inches of snow with powder on Monday and powder possibly extending into Tuesday.

Following Tuesday, we could dry out for a couple of days, then there might be more snow around Friday, January 6 to Saturday, January 7.

Thanks for reading! 

JOEL GRATZ
Meteorologist at OpenSnow.com

Snow conditions as of Thursday morning

New snow mid-mountain:
* 7” (24 hours Wednesday 500am to Thursday 500am)
* 2” (Overnight Wednesday 400pm to Thursday 500am)

New snow summit:
* 7” (24 hours Wednesday 500am to Thursday 500am)
* 2” (Overnight Wednesday 400pm to Thursday 500am)

Last snowfall:
* 17” Tuesday Night to Wednesday Night (Dec 27-29)

Terrain
* 19 of 21 lifts
* 161 of 171 trails
* Latest update

Snowpack compared to the 30-year average:
* 129%