SnowDawg

Sorry but, throwing in the towel first week of January during an El Niño is crazy. 80% of NC winter storms in Niño years happen after Jan 8th. 50% still after Feb 5th. We are just now beginning to move into a period where our most favorable climo can be seen on long range modeling, and while everything is not perfect there's more going for us than agaisnt us. You may well end up right, but this is the south no snow is always the best bet.

Classic case of the Euro looking worse simply because it only goes out 240. That mid-month time period is exactly when we should expect the blocking to start shifting the cold eastward. Everything over the top still looks great on the Euro though, blocking going bonkers by the end of the run and the NAO retrograding westward.

We had temp issues anyway, still in the 40s, so really wouldn't have mattered but I was definitely shocked to not even see so much as a sprinkle.

Man I hope that happens. I will happily stay up Friday night for a nice front end thump of snow. Haven't seen snow on the ground imby since Jan 2022 and even though rain would eventually ruin it, it'd be nice just to see again lol

If the blocking is as advertised then this flip to -WPO may be the last piece of the puzzle we need, allowing the cold to bleed eastward off the plains. Frankly, this can be better than an arctic blast being dropped right on top of us and suppressing everything to Cuba. But the question as always remains, will these positive changes ever actually come to fruition?

Yeah, almost certainly MJO related. EPS moved towards the GFS idea of getting into phase 4, instead of stalling into the COD at phase 3. Just one run, so could change. And even so, any warm period would likely be brief given the changes still advertised in the higher latitudes, and that the MJO is still likely heading into the COD even if it does get into phase 4 for a bit. Mid January thaw is an expected part of strong Niño so I'm not panicking over it yet. I think the writing has been on the wall for a while now that our winter will be make or break on peak Niño climo from late Jan through all of Feb coming through for us. Lucky for us it really only takes one good storm down here.

I think the GFS/GEFS is showing it's progressive bias with the MJO, leading to its outlier warm signal. Both EPS and GEPS are stalling around phase 3 and look about as good as we can ask for by mid month. Just look at this ridge bridge over top of north America, with a crazy strong west based -NAO. 5 day average for the 12th-17th.

Just got NAM'd!! Too bad it's the NAM at range lol.

Yeah, EPS and GEPS both have good looks at H5 into the longterm. I think a broader trough gives us more chances at timing up cold air with the stj waves, as opposed to these sharp troughs dropping in right on top of us right now and trying to get lucky with phasing. Hopefully the GFS/GEFS is out to lunch with its insistence on se ridge showing up. If we get a raging SE ridge in prime climo El niño then I'm convinced the super niño back in 2016 broke something in the Pacific, and we have a new winter base state outside of enso impacts.

That system on the 4th is starting to trend back towards maybe delivering at least a light snow for some ahead of the admittedly longshot that is next weekend. I know last year has made us all jaded and as pessimistic as can be, but I do think it's good to remember how out of nowhere sometimes decent little events can sneak up on us.

It needs more spacing, especially from behind with the western trough dropping in. The wave in front needs to get well out front and amp up in the 50/50 region to increase confluence and give just enough cold to work with. And the trough behind needs to trend west/slower to stop heights rising too much in the east inducing warmth and an inland track. Odds are probably 90/10 against us at best, but what else have we got to talk about.

I wouldn't call it a high chance, but certainly still a chance. Looked like around a quarter of GEFS members with over an inch in those areas. Enough of a signal to bear watching but it's gonna be a close call.

Unfortunately that wasn't just a feature last year, it has largely become our background base state for the last 7 years. Silver lining for the rest of January is that the Niño should dampen the SE ridge and allow the Arctic boundary of a broad trough to occasionally flex far enough SE to time up a stj wave running along it for at least parts of the forum.

Whether it's snow, rain, or nothing for us we need that system around the 4th to phase, deepen, and move into the 50/50 region to give us our best shot at something widespread with the following system on the 7th/8th. The GEFS was really sending a solid signal for it at 18z but even the ensemble is jumping around wildly, so clearly things are far from settled good or bad for next week. Canadian shows the potential if we can time things up right.

Really is a nice look, just can't get any highs over top of our storms this year. Even a weak CAD high would make all the difference at the surface.

The northern stream is still stuck on La Niña and making things harder than usual. This upcoming stretch would be extremely favorable, especially for light to moderate area wide events, but the northern stream is just on overdrive and mostly shredding and crushing all of our southern waves. Without the Atlantic blocking to backup the flow it's an extreme game of thread the needle to get a phase to happen at the perfect time. I still think we can score in this 10 day stretch or so, it just looks more complicated than it did before. As for later on, many signs still point to a potential blockbuster late January and February but only time will tell. A warming event would certainly help to likely lock in a -NAO.

6.23 with maybe a bit more to come. Was I too focused on early January or were totals like this not forecast at all?

Yep. There's still time for things to flip back but with how northern stream dominant things have suddenly become I'd swear we're looking at a La Niña cold spell. Pretty much kills any shot at something simple like a weak slider. Will take much more complicated phasing and timing. We haven't exactly done complicated very well in recent history.

I hate seeing all this strung out, positive tilt, late blooming stuff from the OP models. Feels like it's been forever since we've had the pleasure of a storm forming back in Texas and getting to just watch it roll in.

GEFS snow mean is really trending up now over the last few runs. Hate seeing the OP GFS show the Atlantic pattern messing everything up with fast flow positive tilt waves with no room to amplify. But at least it's own ensemble trended away from it at 6z by separating the short waves undercutting the pacific ridge. Really just a few small tweaks away from being in a position to maybe score more than once in just the first 10 days of the new year.

Hard to hate this look on an ensemble this far out. Low in the 50/50 region, Canadian HP pushing in, and low pressures building along the gulf.

Generally my thinking as well that things could go really great come late January into February with the delayed impacts of a strat event potentially lining up with the MJO finally making it back around to colder phases, or at the very least going into the COD and letting the strat warming and Niño control the pattern.

To this point this winter we've pretty much followed climo for a strong el niño to a tee. If this were to continue then we should get a 1-2 week favorable window in early January, which we are starting to see on the models. Normally that would be followed by a mid/late January thaw. Decent chance that by that time the MJO is heading into the warm phases for us so certainly possible. Not all bad because troughing to our west can build that snow pack over the northern plains. This sets us up perfectly for February, the banner month of strong el Niños, usually very cold and very snowy in the east. This could time up well with possible stratosphere impacts and the MJO making its way back out of the warm phases.

Will definitely be needed to score on any close calls, but if we get a great track and well placed high pressures I don't think it will matter at least for the climo favored areas north/west of 85. Moving into the heart of winter, even the slightly above average air from the northern plains advecting down will be plenty cold enough. Getting those HP's built overtop of our active STJ has been pretty much non-existent thus far though, thanks to the Pacific firehose blasting southern Canada. So hopefully that will change with the ridge retrograding.

I wish it would have dug just a bit more cause this one's looking like it's got enough forcing for some squalls to break containment.