It sort of just crept up on us. All of a sudden Sebago was frozen solid and the snow banks were getting tall. It's a noticeable jump in conditions just an hour north in WVL. The banks were really high there earlier this week.
These SWFE type winters do wonders for building fairly bulletproof pack. Like 2007-2008. There is so much water in it that it's tough to melt.
This is a pretty extreme example, but this general evolution of a blizzard out there isn't uncommon. They're also certain to just lose a few cattle, like literally can't find them or they can't find their way home.
Yeah, that's definitely not the norm out there. I'm not sure I saw any in eastern IA, but once the corn grows in the summer you can't see very far off the highways anyway.
FV3 will be running in parallel (indefinitely) to the GFS, but that transition is TBD. Don't expect to see it before April anyway.
Time to start locking the RGEM again.
That study has plenty of problems with it (owing mostly to how people measure snow) but I think the general trends are correct. 6:1 is way more common around these parts than 16:1.