psuhoffman

Which is my point. It used to be cold enough to overcome imperfections in patterns. I’ll give you an example. When I looked at every 5”+ snow at Baltimore from 1948 on there was a subset of storms in fall Hudson Bay high storms. Because the whole pattern was utter dog shit except for that one feature. Because a high there tended to force a favorable storm track and almost all these storms were warm and barely cold enough to snow. The most recent example was 1997. A horrible pattern. -pna. But we got an 8” wet snow storm when it was like 45-50 the day before and after the storm. But those have gone extinct. Now they are just perfect track rainstorms. Lately when the pattern isn’t perfect it’s too warm.

I could show you dozens of examples of snowstorms with a similar look

That’s not going to happen…but if it did, mid Feb, with a cold N Amer profile, a block and 50/50, and a perfect track rainstorm…I have the final chapter of my book

Mdecoy knows

The pacific is really hostile around Feb 13-19 you’re right. But…there is a leftover cold regime and look at the Atlantic. We’re not just talking about some help. Look at that 50/50. If that Baja wave ejects into that…I don’t care what the pacific long wave pattern is that could work. Typically we’d be dead with that pac look but if that 50/50 presentation is close with the cold left over from the previous pattern this isn’t the typical setup.

Fringed with 2 feet

Euro and EPS is leaving too much energy back in Baja and washing out what’s left. Maybe. But if that’s wrong and a stronger wave comes out…it’s actually trended better with the blocking in front. Imagine if it didn’t leave the Baja energy behind and instead attacks this Atlantic setup with a healthy wave! I think the threat still exists. It’s not likely but anytime there is a setup with big potential I’ll pay attention. Sooner or later we have to get lucky.

Hmm I do hear what you’re saying. But I actually thought the long range guidance improves today in those regards. On the EPS and GEfS I saw signs the pacific was evolving to a workable less awful configuration with a poleward WPO ridge starting to link to ridge bridge to the AO and some troughing showing up near Hawaii again. That configuration is worlds different from the +400 anomalies just north of Hawaii we saw in recent years. Much less hostile impacts downstream imo. This doesn’t look that bad to me

@Stormchaserchuck1 the last 10 years a hostile EPO/PNA is a killer and been game over but historically that’s not always been true. We’ve had plenty of snowstorms without an EPO PNA ridge. But it depends on several things. 1) the antecedent thermal profile across N America. If the continent is torched it won’t work. 2) AO/NAO without blocking up top and a favorable Atlantic pattern it’s game over. 3) the depth of any PNA trough. Factors 1&2 can overcome a -1 PNA. If the PNA ends up -3.5 it’s probably game over. So I’m not saying you’re wrong but it’s not as simple as “we lots the EPO PNA game over”. If those 3 factors go our way we can still snow. But the last 10 Years everytime the pna went wrong everything else went wrong too. And if we did have some blocking help the PNA went some crazy -4 or something which is impossible to overcome, especially earlier in the season which some of those cases were. So curious…do you see wings the PNA is going so hostile, or that those other factors will also ne unfavorable…or are you ignoring everything else and just looking at the PNA. Because while the PNA has been a great single indicator recently it’s not always been that way and hopefully doesn’t continue to be because some of our best snowstorms came with a -PNA

I'm a gonna be greedy...I want BOTH

@Jersey Andrew but… I should add that 83 storm was a classic Nino STJ moisture bomb storm like Feb 2010 and Jan 2016. If we do get a MECS HECS storm it’s unlikely to have that level of STJ moisture feed. Even 96 didn’t. It had to snow for 36 hours to get those crazy totals in 1996. Our absolute top end is probably capped a little by the Nina. But we can definitely get VERY big snowstorms in a Nina.

Anytime we have blocking in February it’s possible. It’s true most HECS storms are in ninos but not all. Jan 96, Jan 2000 and Feb 2006 were all a Nina. And March 2018 was borderline HECS up here and that was a Nina.

personally I am fine with what the AIFS Ens show...because I am done with the part of winter where I am worried about getting minor snowfalls...it's time to go big or go home...I am exclusively big game hunting once we get into mid February on. So I would much prefer a 6" mean from a handful of 20" storms in the ensemble...than a 6" mean from a bunch of 6" storms. Give me some HECS lottery tickets and I'll take my chances.

They have had an issue with "follow the leader" but in this case their high snow mean is because about 1/3 of the members didn't follow the op and instead show a blizzard over PD weekend.

digging into the AIFS ens its mixed... so the mean went back way up...but the median is only about 2". The reason why is the mean is skewed by the fact that about 30% of the members are huge HUGE hits...like 1-2 foot snowstorms even using 10-1...legit PD3 storms. Classic east coast storm distribution look to them. But that's only 1/3. The rest have a much weaker system with either less snow like the AIFS op that showed 2-3"...and then there are about 40% that have no snow at all and a warmer solution. So the AIFS ens are saying we have a decent chance (like 30%) of a BIG snowstorm...but the most likely outcome is a smaller 1-3" type event.