Morning temperature inversions (cooler air at a lower elevation) are standard in Steamboat during stretches of dry, clear, and calm weather. On Thursday morning, you’ll find lots of sunshine with a temperature near the river of about -5F, a temperature at the base area of about 10F, and a temperature at mid-mountain of about 20F. By midday, temperatures from base-to-summit should warm nicely into the upper-20s to low-30s with plenty of sunshine. These conditions will be repeated on Friday.

On Saturday, expect clouds to increase during the day, with light snow beginning during the late afternoon or early evening. On Saturday night, snow will likely intensify, and I think you’ll wake up on Sunday morning to 3-6 inches of fresh powder with light snow continuing to fall through mid-morning. Plan to ski on Sunday morning to take advantage of the new flakes!

From Sunday evening through Tuesday morning I think we’ll see dry weather, then the next storm will bring snow sometime between late Tuesday through Friday, January 12th. I do not think it will snow during this whole window, but I cannot pinpoint the timing or track of the storm just yet, so I’ll leave the forecast more general and we will fill in the details over the next few days.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for an update each morning!

JOEL GRATZ, Meteorologist at OpenSnow.com