nrgjeff

It's not a weapon with only 2% fatal (greater than flu less than SARs). However it could be a virus animal experiment gone awry. China shut down. Less pollution. Something about the MJO. More cold in the Southeast US. China reopens. SER in March. Well, I doubt that, but we need to get back on topic. Thursday snow showers are looking a little better for the Plateau and Mountains; but, I think Friday night is more interesting. Friday night and Saturday still looks on-track north of I-40, Plateau, Mountains and probably TRI. Might even be Knoxvegas. We'll go snow dome BNA/CHA.

Saturday Feb. 29 has echos of Sat. Feb. 8 for the Valley. Cold air in place instead of that JIT crap for starters. Models correctly default to no snow Valley climo. We'll have to watch it as it evolves. Full and partial thicknesses are buried. 850/700 mb charts have neutral to slight WAA while remaining cold. Little far out to look at soundings but what the heck? Deep moist layer reaches forecast DGZ. Just need some isentropic lift that zone, likely verbatim but Day 6. We'll see!

AMS paper from U. Maryland has a contrarian view we may be heading into a major / active solar cycle. Hypothesis is solar storms dragged out cycle 23. This cycle 24 has been a little short in time duration and solar storms. Getting ready for 25 to roar out of the gates strong. Endless warm winters! Again it's just a contrarian hypothesis. But it would mesh with 2012 going into a warm 2012-13 winter. If anything can go wrong...

Cold core surprise is possible in the Mid South still. Lows are stacked, which is helpful for that type of deal. However cold core is not my wheelhouse. Wake me up in April. Hopefully after Kansas wins the NCAA Tourney in ATL.

Looks like the NAM and ECMWF did the best. They had sticking snow pretty well. They correctly blanked Chattanooga proper, but said yes up on Signal. However the Euro was too warm where snow stuck best. NAM was too cold in places. HRRR nailed the stubborn 40 degrees in KCHA. GFS was a debacle. HRRR > GFS like Warren beating down Bloomberg in the debate. I know we're not supposed to be political, but that was WWE folding chair regardless of your politics. I'm not saying I agree with any side, but that's what happens to Chattanooga every time cold air is not totally in place first. Time for the KU meme again. Save Chattanooga from the 40 degree chair!

Actually phases 4-5-6 are still warm in March. I call those Indonesia or Maritime Continent. If I say West Pac I'm thinking 7-8-1 out by the Dateline. Sorry for the confusion. Maybe I'm not using convention. Speaking of conflicting signals, the ECMWF did warm up the 12-20 day forecast overnight. Oh yeah Indonesia thunderstorms flared up. Diurnal or a true KW? I hope only diurnal. Would explain all the diurnal model zig zags too. West Pac out by the Dateline is still going. Winter lovers can pray it dominates. Either way looks good next week. I-40 north of course! First storm may cut. Second comes in behind. That ought to be good along I-40 and points north. It gets TRI on both the front side and back side. That sequence won't work for KCHA; however, KTYS would have hope back side. KBNA is total crap shoot. Honestly BNA has been less lucky than CHA, which is wow!

Yeah the JIT cold air is usually not in time. Kind of like moisture with severe. Anyway the HP was building in from the northwest. Better if it had been established north or northeast. That's playing havoc over in NC lower elevations too, trying to get that surface ridge to set up. That's a wrap for me. Happy for those who got nice snow. Chattanooga is reflecting on Feb. 8, lol.

ECMWF weeklies concur with the above posts. 12Z EPS just out is not quite as cold 11-15 day with less +PNA; and, the weeklies are based on 00Z with quality +PNA. However they are both active and not warm. Tropical drivers include the IO calming down while the West Pac is convecting. See how long it can continue.

Yes those charts are not bad for winter. I was whining about spring severe. That'd work next winter for me.

Euro is back on board. I'll stick with I-40 north, Plateau and Mountains. Should be TRI if that holds. Cold drizzle KCHA, lol!

HRRR nailed the stubborn 40 in KCHA. NAM seemed to do better points north and northwest. Euro caught on so late it just gets partial credit. LOL at the GFS. Still rain Chattanooga Central Business District. Still figure it ends light snow (no stick) suburbs and even Chattanooga proper outside the Downtown heat island. That's OK we got ours February 8, that gorgeous Saturday morning.

Yes new lift is coming out of the Mid South. One can deduce it on both satellite and radar trends. It's back of the cloud band, not morally ideal, but it's bullish this time. GSP NWS put out a late morning AFD that explains this upper feature. Of course they talk about sensible weather their CWA. However their discussion of a new baroclinic leaf coming out of the Mid South is quite relevant to our Region. Also the subtle surface wave has formed in South Georgia. Surface winds should continue to or maintain backing/northerly. KCHA probably still can't be helped, but others will continue to smile this event. Bottom line, I would believe those radar simulations for this afternoon.

Whatever happens, it better not mess up severe season, lol! At any rate it may be the +PNA that saves winter. Relentless western Canada trough is finally ridging, while Alaska does too. All that is great through March; then in April, my priorities change sharply.

Yes the GSP AFD is a good read. Even yesterday the forecast was always for the best snow in the afternoon hours today. So, really nothing has changed. Always gotta have the cliff diving stage before the happy stage, lol! Mountains are looking great! Lots of radar blind spots; so, let your heart not be troubled. New fine line on radar shows up Tennessee side. It's relevant over your way because it looks like the leading edge of more backed (northerly) winds to usher in / maintain cold air. Low level wave is just now developing in South Georgia. It's associated with the Mid South baroclinic leaf GSP mentions. New lift is evident on satellite coming out of the Mid South, back edge but it's for real. As the Emperor says: Everything is progressing exactly as I have foreseen. Difference is this will end better in the Mountains than it did for the Empire, lol!

Appears the leading edge of more backed (northerly) winds shows up on radar. Reflectivty is on a previous page. Here's Correlation Coefficient CC out of Hytop. I've highlighted the same feature. Changeover aloft is noted well south of Chattanooga. Believe that's where the warm air about 800mb dynamically cooled. Surface changeover is highlighted again. Snow in Florence AL, up on Signal Mountain TN, and now dropping down south of Knoxville. Behind that line the CC is even more solid pink (more correlated all snow). Athens and Sweetwater may be the end of the south-ward march along I-75. Points south toward Chattanooga are at a lower elevation. Southeast Tenn will require a miracle (as usual). North winds must work hard to advect low-level cold; dew is too high. Requires heavy precip at the same time. LOL KCHA up a degree as I type.

Hope that's wrong. Totally backwards vs severe favorable TNI.

Ways to keep life simple. 1. Forecast rain in Chattanooga and snow on Signal Mountain. 2. Go flat tax and index card return. Cheers!

Next week is starting to look like Cutter City. GFS is still OK but many of its GEFS members cut. Euro cuts. Enjoy today!

Thank you all for reports! I'm still catching up from page 5, but this is time sensitive. Correlation Coefficient out of Hytop shows the rain-snow line gradually sinking south. I've highlighted my manual adjustment. Close to the radar it should be right on. Ditto for higher elevations. Farther from the radar it's higher in the cloud; so, I manually move the line north. This is still better than most color radar algorithms. The big question locally, KCHA wall? OHX radar is solid pink. I deduce all snow up there if/when it starts snowing. It'll snow in Nashville and suburbs. Knoxvegas should go back to snow. CC rain-snow line is sinking south of TYS as I write. Mountains are already snow of course. Haven't looked hard at TRI qpf, but that'll be all snow if it does. Kingsport vs JC back-and-fourth cage match with folding chairs may be in effect, haha! Oh Chattanooga proper, can I say it? Bless our hearts! Still 50 deg at 10pm last night so... Well, at least we had Surprise Saturday. Signal Mountain is money though today!

Inverted trough is now in the isobars. My chips are mostly snow if not all snow.

KCHA is already at season snow climo. Might go AN snow tomorrow! We are definitely playing with casino chips at this point. Along with record rainfall pace and ludicrous AN temps.

That's unanimous on all 3 globals, USA CAD ECMWF.

And the Euro is All Snow baby! Picks up on isentropic lift, though such charts are not available. However one can deduce it from 700 mb which finally shows WAA but steady/falling temps at 700 mb. As MRX says we will be under the right rear/entrance of the jet max. That's ideal in winter if the moisture is available. Soundings are saturated through a deep DGZ. Oh it's the ARW version of the WRF I sometimes like. NAM is still my most used, simply because more charts at more levels are available. So my head says a dusting for KCHA but my heart is now thinking 2 inches could happen. Probably improves north and east from here, assuming the precipitation shield makes it. Plateu and now parts of Middle Tennessee also look good. Less than 24 hours away. Mahomes Magic time!

I feel the call of a Catalooche daytrip from Chattanooga! @Maggie Ace will they run the shuttle bus from Maggie Valley parking even if the upper lot is not full? I ask because I don't want to drive that road up. Thank you. Separately I guess I should take I-40 around. Figure the pass from Cherokee will be a little crazy. Maybe come up tonight, but need some other things to be canceled locally first. Weekdays are short lift lines and cheaper lift tix. Oh yeah!

Now that I'm briefing people at work, time to get serious. Unfortunately I'm afraid @dwagner88 is correct on the previous page regarding warmer surface temps compared to Saturday Surprise 8 Feb. My concern is actually just the opposite of MRX. They go cold enough to start as snow, changing to rain. I'm thinking, stays warmer overnight than forecast due to increasing clouds. Building HP might help; but, I don't know. We're talking about the southeast the Tennessee Valley in southeast Tenn, lol! Enough precipitation starting as virga and evaporative cooling could actually bring down temps after it starts. One would hope for that inverted trough to back winds closer to north. Again the trough is not shown in isobars, just a hint in surface wind fields. It's not the 2014 or 2015 storms. Finally while the track, thickness lines and even progged radar have similarities to Surprise Saturday, the system is quite different. Saturday was a tight feisty little thing. This is a lumbering wave. True it's just right (greater than post-frontal junk, less than WAA beast) it's still a lot different. I'm sorry my optimism is fading. Head is going with MRX. OHX also concerned about temps. Heart is of course going with bullish GFS runs! Oh, and the 12Z NAM, hello. Cage Match thread title is just epic! Probably the best in our sub-forum all-time. So I have to add this meme. When snow misses Jayhawks, we go all WWE!