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Steamboat Springs — A potentially large winter storm is developing and heading toward Steamboat Springs in time for the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.

"It will be cold, and it will bring snow, especially for the slopes that face the south and southwest," National Weather Service meteorologist Paul Frisbee said Thursday.

The snow was expected to begin falling last night in the Hayden and Craig areas before moving to Steamboat this morning, Frisbee said.

The snow is expected to continue off and on into Saturday. The Steamboat area could receive between 5 and 10 inches of snow when all is said and done. Higher totals are expected in the northern part of the county.

The storm developed a little slower than forecasters thought it would. Earlier this week, forecasters thought Steamboat would see snow Thursday.

"We're fairly confident with how things are shaping up," Frisbee said.

How much snow will fall can be difficult to predict, but frigid temperatures are almost a certainty.

"For the most part we're looking at cold temperatures, especially Sunday through Tuesday," Frisbee said.

Highs throughout the weekend will be in the teens, with lows in the single digits tonight. Temperatures on Saturday and Sunday nights should dip below zero. On Monday, Frisbee said the forecast calls for a low of 14 degrees below zero.

"By midweek we should start to see some warming," he said. "Enjoy today."

The Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort Association has released its own forecast - as it always does during the summer and winter tourism seasons. But that forecast has nothing to do with weather. Rather, the Chamber predicts how many people will spend the night in area lodgings.

The occupancy forecast calls for a busy Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, with 12,200 out-of-town visitors staying in Steamboat on Saturday night. That is nearly 1,000 more people than during the corresponding weekend last year.

"Across the board, Martin Luther King Day weekend has been one of the big ski weekends because kids are out of school and a lot of people are off of work, and people hop in their cars to hit the ski slopes, weather permitting," Chamber spokeswoman Riley Polumbus said. "It's a long weekend, so people are wanting to get their ski fix."

Events this weekend include the Ski Jam concerts at the Steamboat Ski Area and the Nickelodeon & Steamboat Family Snow Festival.

"With all these things going on, it makes Steamboat that much more enticing for families and music lovers," Polumbus said.