weatherwiz

probably more so a few hundred miles but we always play the "what if" game with these things A heck of alot more needs to happen than just tweaking the interaction between the two energies

Would be nice and I hope that happens but all of these "nice trends" are going to have to happen upwards of several hundred miles farther west. Not very likely to get that at this stage

start digging the trough farther west towards Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois then maybe there is a chance. Otherwise the most favored spot for sfc low development is still way too south to give us anything outside of some snow showers.

Correct Put me on record as to saying this is a nada for everyone but maybe enough to get some stray snow showers, particularly east

It's a race between when we get our next region wide crippling ice storm and a cat 3 hurricane

definitely possible...the BL may be a bit torched down that way.

Agreed. They are closer to the llv baroclinic zone and also more in line with the RR of the jet

ehhh its too much of a big if. I mean there has to be some sort of reasoning or some clue to provide evidence that would be possible. I think this one is done. Even with a better interaction of the closed low and trough, the profile just scream cyclogenesis and the low-level baroclinic zone is way too far south. By the time diffluence starts developing aloft...its way too late and sfc low doesn't get going until well east. Our best shot IMO is getting that baroclinic zone farther north and working with llvl magic. I don't think that ridge in the west is going to have much influence on anything versus just getting a better interaction with the two energies...but that alone isn't or won't be enough. All of this would start to have to occur several hundred miles west.

Looks like the closed low digs into the base of the trough much better this run but ultimately, aloft doesn't appear too conducive for sfc low development

Santa having to go down the chimney straight into the basement?

Sure does If you live in Bloomington, IL

Absolutely something to keep in mind. Like dendrite said...this could easily turn into an overrunning pattern. Sometimes its easy to get caught up in the H5 charts but the sfc may not always connect. Remember back in like 2017(?) the Great Plains were under like 560 heights and it was widespread single digits at the sfc lol because they had that stout Arctic high.

along with scattered rain showers

Might see a Christmas Day severe weather outbreak in the Mississippi/Ohio Valley if this keeps up

Yup...definitely something to consider. Could see 564 heights at 500 and +10C at 850 but could easily be wedged at the sfc

I'm ready for May. Time to fire up the thread

Well this is just an anomaly map...these colors don't necessarily mean "warm", especially this time of year. It's relative to climo. So for like NNE...its still going to be cold or chilly but a bit above of what it should be for the time of year.

I guess one big question when comparing this stretch of subpar winters versus stretches of subpar winters historically is, are the reasonings similar or are there glaring differences? For example, (as mentioned earlier), if our snowfall is more correlated to precipitation versus temperature and historically, our subpar winters occurred with winter which were abnormally dry, but our subpar winters now are occurring with average-to-above average precipitation, well then there clearly is a differentiator. Where subpar winters historically connected to periods of faster flow aloft, lack of storms, suppression, etc.

If people are upset with the pattern and how things have done so far then they should be hoping for this break IMO. If this pattern sucks as some say...well the best way to get out of that is to break it and thats what we would be doing towards the end of the month. But I don't see anything signaling we flip to prolonged riding. But...I will say, I don't think it can totally be tossed out. Let's say the Arctic becomes unfavorable and we get a stronger PV that contracts...we open the flood gates for the jet to retract northward and get a milder, zonal flow across the country. Not saying that happens but it was a concern I had a few months back based on how the PAC had looked.

We were bound to get some ridging and warmer temperatures at some point. That doesn't mean winter is done or winter is over.

The good news is any ridging that period should be short-lived and looks like the pattern is re-loading as well. Maybe in some way this will help set things up more favorably moving into January.

I think this goes to show that even ensembles have their biases and limitations. At that range, it's all we really have but these patterns we have been in, sometimes smoothing and just averaging isn't really going to tell the true story. But at that range...nothing else we can really do or utilize so just have to roll with it and proceed with caution.

Looks fine to me...even around MA Pike

I was hoping to see some CAPE modeled

That's the thing too...there are way too many products out there (which are not even NCEP products, just derived products from 3rd party vendors) which everyone flocks too and leads to unnecessary hype and unrealistic expectations. This includes snow maps, precipitation type maps, supercell composite parameter, significant tornado parameter, etc. If snow maps were never created, probably 85% of extended storms would garner little interest outside of the, "Oh look the GFS has an HECS at D10". Now, folks see a 8 day 24 HR snow map which 20-30 inches and all of a sudden, "there's a real threat". Same goes with severe...so many events in the midwest now are labeled with having potential to produce numerous tornadoes and strong/violent tornadoes because STP is forecast to be 5 or SCP is forecast to be 20.