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Feb 22 Snow Threat


WxUSAF

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I believe the EURO shows it snowing from about 1AM - 10 AM? So we will get some help with it happening at night

Yup.

And I mentioned sun angle in describing the myriad of excuses we here throughout the year especially around this time, wasn't specifically talking about an event that's obviously happening at night.

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The trouble with this system is the band is so narrow. I'm still playing things conservatively on the blog but if the nam makes on more shift south, if so,we don't get dry slotted, we'd do OK.

I'd take the NAM if forced

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Well at least it would give us snow and some people would see accumulations.

I'd take the EURO of course as well, but I went with 3" like 5 days ago at DCA so I'll prob have to root for that. :P

This map isnt as pleasing as the other.

post-1615-0-11225000-1298234474.gif

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It's happened plenty of times. Not sure why people keep buying into the myth that it can't stick, etc due to warm temps/sun angle. Sure, it will take wasted qpf to do that, but with decent rates and dropping temps, it can stick.

I'll chime in on that one. This morning, 9am or so, I took a walk across my yard and the top layer was frozen. Now, it wasn't that cold here last night, 26 or so, and the ground was only frozen on the very top as in many places I just pushed right through it to soft, wet ground. But the point is it takes more than just a few days of warmth to warm the ground to any sig. depth. Just one week ago yesterday we had snow on the ground. We've had frozen ground since early December. It won't take as much for snow to stick as many think, especially if the temps are really crashing. Perhaps a struggle on roadways, but heavy rates will overcome all that. This is assuming that we get snow in the first place.

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It's interesting to see how the trend towards warm/wet has reversed to cold/snow as we approach the event. Now we are inside of 48 hours so drastic swings have become much less likely. I kinda have a feeling that the 18z gfs will look better than 12z.

Of course the ultimate outcome would be for the Euro to hold its 12z solution and let everything else play catchup. Not the most likely outcome but who knows?

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my gut says we fill in precip qpf east of the mts on subsequent runs

http://www.nco.ncep....am_p60_060l.gif

I was just thinking this exact same thing. Do the models have issues with precip moving over the mountains? I know there is some loss of moisture but this looks a little drastic to me.

I remember before Jan 26th the models were showing something similar, then the QPF began to fill in east of the apps.

I think if you are at BWI or N and W you should be feeling decent about at least a couple inches as a feasible goal at this point..

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I'll chime in on that one. This morning, 9am or so, I took a walk across my yard and the top layer was frozen. Now, it wasn't that cold here last night, 26 or so, and the ground was only frozen on the very top as in many places I just pushed right through it to soft, wet ground. But the point is it takes more than just a few days of warmth to warm the ground to any sig. depth. Just one week ago yesterday we had snow on the ground. We've had frozen ground since early December. It won't take as much for snow to stick as many think, especially if the temps are really crashing. Perhaps a struggle on roadways, but heavy rates will overcome all that. This is assuming that we get snow in the first place.

it's not that hard to get snow to stick to grass in almost any situation other than one where it's like snizzle snow in the middle of the day and/or with marginal temps. even surfaces which can readily absorb and hold heat arent getting much or any direct sunshine from here forward thru the event. rain beforehand could be a factor unless we flash freeze which the models seem to indicate we might.

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I was just thinking this exact same thing. Do the models have issues with precip moving over the mountains? I know there is some loss of moisture but this looks a little drastic to me.

I remember before Jan 26th the models were showing something similar, then the QPF began to fill in east of the apps.

I think if you are at BWI or N and W you should be feeling decent about at least a couple inches as a feasible goal at this point..

my initial guestimate from earlier today was 1-3" DCA metro and 2-4" BWI metro area

I haven't seen anything to make me change my mind.........yet :unsure:

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it's not that hard to get snow to stick to grass in almost any situation other than one where it's like snizzle snow in the middle of the day and/or with marginal temps. even surfaces which can readily absorb and hold heat arent getting much or any direct sunshine from here forward thru the event. rain beforehand could be a factor unless we flash freeze which the models seem to indicate we might.

Agree, and with temps really heading down, at night, I don't think we would have any trouble seeing accumulation. Cold rain for a few hours before doesn't hurt either. Biggest question is timing of temp drop along with amounts of precip. Looks to me that the NAM came back to us in a big way. Bad thing, can it be trusted? It's been pretty wild. I do like the fact that the Euro has been quite consistent and evidently looks good. Not being able to see it is frustrating, and I sure would like to know the timing of the cold (enough) air and the amount of precip that falls after it.

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my initial guestimate from earlier today was 1-3" DCA metro and 2-4" BWI metro area

I haven't seen anything to make me change my mind.........yet :unsure:

I think that initial guess may very well be right on target. I'll take it. 2-4 would probably put me at about average. I'll take that considering how ****e this winter has treated us.

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Agree, and with temps really heading down, at night, I don't think we would have any trouble seeing accumulation. Cold rain for a few hours before doesn't hurt either. Biggest question is timing of temp drop along with amounts of precip. Looks to me that the NAM came back to us in a big way. Bad thing, can it be trusted? It's been pretty wild. I do like the fact that the Euro has been quite consistent and evidently looks good. Not being able to see it is frustrating, and I sure would like to know the timing of the cold (enough) air and the amount of precip that falls after it.

I guess maybe I'm just being pessimistic but to me there is still more that can go wrong in the final stretch than right. That said the Euro has seemingly been locked in (maybe not on precip amounts) so that should be a little comforting. It should be a climo storm one way or another so I'd definitely be more comfortable in elevation away from the city.

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