This guide is an overview of our site. It was designed to give you a quick look at steamboatweather.com and some pointers on navigation. If you are weather wise, then just hit the home button and enjoy yourself.
How did steamboatweather.com come to be?
Up until the spring of 2003, there had been no accurate local weather data available to the public for Steamboat. The closet weather information was from Hayden Regional airport, CO. Unfortunately Hayden is 30 miles away and with very different terrain and weather conditions. Because of the varied year round outdoor recreational activities, we felt it was time to provide reliable weather data for Steamboat Springs, CO. In order to provide that data, we chose an instrument site between downtown and the ski mountain which is totally unobstructed from physical objects which would effect accurate weather readings.
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Why is weather in Steamboat so hard to predict?
Steamboat Springs is in a very unusual terrain, virtually surrounded by mountains. That makes weather forecasting very difficult. Our closet National Weather Forecast office is Grand Junction, Colorado. Unfortunately, due to a high mesa just north of their Doppler Radar site, they cannot see Steamboat weather below 23,000 ft. Storms that come in under that altitude, they never see. With the installation of our weather station in Steamboat, they are able to get local weather data from our site over the Internet. Though this is not on the scale of radar coverage, it does provide valuable basic data.
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How to navigate our site
Our home page has all of the current data updated every 5 minutes. If you want a current forecast, just click on forecast. This will display the NWS forecast for Steamboat. If you scroll down, you will see a radar display. Click on this display for a larger presentation. If you would like the display in motion, click on long range. This will take a little time to load, depending on your internet connection speed. You will be able to see the tract and intensity of a storm. Red being the most intense.
In our links section you will find current CDOT ROAD CONDITIONS and all of the CDOT Road cams. The Eisenhower cam is especially helpful if you are headed for Denver.
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Why does it seem the forecast are never correct?
The complaint I hear most is the weather forecast is never right, why should I even bother. Unfortunately weather at best is very unpredictable. The weather service can only give us their best guest based on the data they have. I personally look at the forecast as the worst or best case scenario. I use it as a guideline of what to be prepared for. If it does or doesn't happen, at least I am prepared for the worst.
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If you are an aviation buff
Go to our links and click on Aviation weather, this give you access to local and national aviation information.
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The other part of steamboatweather.com
We're not just weather
Although weather is our primary objective, in our links section, you will also find a host of information on the Steamboat & Routt County local websites of interest..
We hope that you enjoy steamboatweather.com
In our endeavor to make our site even better, we invite your comments and suggestions. Please free to contact me: jim@steamboatweather.com
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