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Steamboat Resort in line for one last storm before closing day

Riley Birk catches air off The Wave, a snow feature added at the base of Howelsen Hill's face specially for the last day of the season on Sunday, April 3.
Dylan Anderson/Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Resort is expected to get one last storm this week before the mountain closes for the ski season on Sunday, April 10.

The week will start out sunny on Monday, April 4, with high temperatures near 50 degrees, before the wind picks up that night and a storm moves in from the northwest.

“Overnight on Monday is when things get going, and it looks like it’s going to be a pretty messy system,” said Mike Weissbluth, a local meteorologist who runs the forecasting website Snowalarm.com.



According to Weissbluth, The storm is coming from the northwest, which generally produces precipitation for the area, and forecasting models show some freezing rain by Tuesday morning.

He said Steamboat hasn’t seen many storms coming from the northwest this season. However, after an initial surge, he expects the storm system to dry out significantly.



Throughout the duration of the storm, it will be windy, Weissbluth said. On Tuesday, April 5, the National Weather Service is forecasting wind gusts of up to 40 mph. Weissbluth expects it to snow most of the day Tuesday before colder air moves into the area that night.

Snow should continue Wednesday morning, April 6, before tapering off by midday. For the entire storm, Weissbluth is forecasting 6 to 12 inches at mid-mountain.

“It shouldn’t be a whole lot, maybe a few inches here or there,” said Mike Miller, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. “I’d say probably in the 2 to 4 (inch) range (in town), with a little bit more at the higher spots.”

After the storm moves through the area, a ridge of high pressure will set up over the area, which will end any more chances for snow before the ski season ends in Steamboat, Miller said.

Temperatures are expected to warm through the end of the week with Saturday’s high approaching 60 degrees.

“We’re going to have a beautiful end of the week,” Weissbluth said, adding there could be another major storm soon after the resort closes, but that will be good because it could add to the snowpack.

A potential peak in snow-water equivalent on March 25 at 16.9 inches has so far held, despite the snowpack increasing after a storm late last week.


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