Yeah I always feel like models overestimate the nucleation issues out here...probably the salt nuclei like you said. It seems to be a bigger problem in the midwest and plains where you're pulling off ZR despite a sounding completely below 0C.
It's ZL. Probably some nucleation issues with crappier lift. Pretty cold around 850 though, but the lift is in the meh zone. The RH drops off to Death Valley levels above the cloud layer.
Really weird what the 18z 12k NAM is doing. It’s like the echoes are frozen in place over parts of CNE. It’s as if it’s virga in the lower els, but it’s accumulating above 1k. The 3k doesn’t do this.
That’s pretty good. You get enough fluff that it still really piles up. Someone east of Ontario can pull 3ft and it’s compacted down to a foot in a week, but you’re more like the Tug hill where you are.