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Feb. 23-25th Winter Storm Part 2


Chicago Storm

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MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 0128

NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK

0520 PM CST THU FEB 24 2011

AREAS AFFECTED...SERN IA...NERN MO...PORTIONS OF NRN/CNTRL IL/IN

CONCERNING...HEAVY SNOW

VALID 242320Z - 250515Z

SNOWFALL WILL SPREAD E-NEWD ACROSS SERN IA...NERN MO...AND PORTIONS

OF NRN/CNTRL IL/IN THIS EVENING. RATES WILL INCREASE TO 1 INCH PER

HOUR...WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE.

STRONG ASCENT IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE INTENSE EXTRATROPICAL CYCLONE

APPROACHING THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY REGION WILL ALLOW PRECIPITATION

TO EXPAND E-NEWD ACROSS THE DISCUSSION AREA. WHILE THERMAL PROFILES

WILL INITIALLY BE SUPPORTIVE OF RAIN ACROSS PORTIONS OF IL/IN...

RUC/NAM FORECAST SOUNDINGS INDICATE SUFFICIENT LOWER TROPOSPHERIC

COOLING THROUGH THE EVENING FOR THE PRECIPITATION TO CHANGE TO SNOW.

THIS WILL BE IN RESPONSE TO COLD AIR ADVECTION WEST OF THE CYCLONE

AND WILL BE AUGMENTED BY ADIABATIC COOLING ASSOCIATED WITH INTENSE

FORCING.

SNOWFALL RATES ARE EXPECTED TO REACH 1 INCH PER HOUR THROUGH THE

EVENING...AS LOW/MID-LEVEL FRONTOGENESIS QUICKLY STRENGTHENS INVOF

THE BAROCLINIC ZONE DRAPED ACROSS THE OHIO VALLEY REGION. ACROSS SRN

PORTIONS OF THE DISCUSSION AREA...SNOWFALL RATES TO 2 INCHES PER

HOUR WILL BE POSSIBLE. IN THIS REGION...THE JUXTAPOSITION OF AN AXIS

OF DEEPER MOISTURE PER RECENT TPW IMAGERY WITH INCREASING SLANTWISE

INSTABILITY WILL LIKELY SUPPORT PRECIPITATION BANDING AND LOCALLY

HIGHER RATES...ESPECIALLY IF AN ISOLATED THUNDERSTORM WERE TO OCCUR.

..COHEN.. 02/24/2011

bring it on :snowman:

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Dude is a chop. Look at his snowfall map from last night. Alas it is small market TV here...

Yeah, looks like last night's had the heaviest south of here.

Here's what I think. Precip begins later this evening, possibly as a period of rain or mix. Surface temps should still be above freezing when precip begins but it shouldn't take long for them to cool to near and then just below freezing. 6-8" with higher amounts over 8 to possibly near a foot wherever the heavier banding is most persistent.

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Looking to me like the northern edge of this system in Iowa may bust. There is a heavy band from southeast Nebraska into southern Iowa, but it is not making any progress northward. Omaha was supposed to get 2-4 inches, but the northern half of the city apparently hasn't received a flake and the snow is pulling away. Des Moines has 2-5 for their metro and it appears they are only getting brushed by the band with nothing being reported north of Des Moines.

Yeah it looks like a big bust is in the making for areas north of I-80. The donut hole around the DVN radar looks the same as it did a few hours ago. Starting to wonder if we'll get any accumulation at all now. Oh well, at least we had our fun already this season.

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Yeah, looks like last night's had the heaviest south of here.

Here's what I think. Precip begins later this evening, possibly as a period of rain or mix. Surface temps should still be above freezing when precip begins but it shouldn't take long for them to cool to near and then just below freezing. 6-8" with higher amounts over 8 to possibly near a foot wherever the heavier banding is most persistent.

Done deal then. I'll defer to you with this one. Still worried about the changeover, or how much rain/mix falls before the flip to snow, but I can see what you're seeing. Let's go out with a bang. :guitar:

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GRR provides some hope yet...

000

FXUS63 KGRR 250008

AFDGRR

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND RAPIDS MI

705 PM EST THU FEB 24 2011

LATEST UPDATE...AVIATION...

MVFR CIGS DOMINATE THE WEATHER MAP OVER SOUTHERN LOWER MICHIGAN AT 7

PM THIS EVENING. HOWEVER THERE SEEMS TO BE SOME BREAKS IN THOSE

CLOUDS OVER THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN SECTIONS SINCE JXN REPORTS

CLEAR. MOST OF THE OTHER OBS AROUND JXN SHOW VFR CIGS AROUND 3500 FT

AGL. WITH A NORTH NORTHEAST WIND IN THE BOUNDARY LAYER I EXPECT THE

CLOUDS TO REMAIN (HELP FROM LAKE HURON) THOUGH THE NIGHT AND THROUGH

FRIDAY IN FACT.

THE TOUGH QUESTION IS HOW FAR NORTH THE SNOW FROM THE SYSTEM TO OUR

SOUTH GETS TONIGHT. I WONDER IF THE FACT THAT THE SYSTEM DOES NOT

HAVE A CLOSED CIRCULATION AT 500 MB WILL KEEP THE SNOW FROM

REACHING THE I-96 TAF SITES. I DID NOT PUT SNOW AT MKG FOR THAT

REASON. EVEN AT GRR AND LAN I HAVE TO WONDER IF THE FGEN WILL CAUSE

NARROW BUT MORE INTENSE BANDS OF SNOW THAT WILL KEEP THE SNOW SOUTH

OF THOSE TAF SITES TOO. FOR THAT I PLAYED THE SNOW DOWN AT GRR AND

LAN. IT WOULD SEEM AZO...BTL AND JXN SHOULD GET A PERIOD OF HEAVY

SNOW. I USED THE HRRR 21Z RADAR FORECAST AND HOURLY SNOWFALL RATES

TO TIME THE HEAVY SNOW INTO THOSE TAF SITES. WE SHALL SEE HOW WELL

THAT WORKS BUT I HAVE NOTED THIS WINTER THAT THE HRRR DOES A VERY

GOOD JOB WITH THIS SORT OF FEATURE. (I HAVE ABOUT 5 EVENTS IN MY IN

HOUSE CASE STUDY SO FAR).

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Done deal then. I'll defer to you with this one. Still worried about the changeover, or how much rain/mix falls before the flip to snow, but I can see what you're seeing. Let's go out with a bang. :guitar:

Looks like we'll snag 5th with this one. 3rd and 4th not far off, especially if we overperform, and we get a little present in March (although after the warm up 2 weeks ago, I'm pretty ready for spring).

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Yep, that's WAY down there. We will rarely get snow with a track so far south... and the Quad Cities just took out all snow accumulation from CR north. Des Moines is already done before they ever got started.

Yep. A big miss northwest last weekend, and now southeast tonight. Hopefully early next week we split the difference lol.

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Looks like we'll snag 5th with this one. 3rd and 4th not far off, especially if we overperform, and we get a little present in March (although after the warm up 2 weeks ago, I'm pretty ready for spring).

Yeah 5th place looks doable. Which reminds me, the list I sent you a couple of months ago had some additions errors by yours truly. The list in my sig is now the correct one (notably 07-08 lost 4"...must have been drinking at the time when I added up the snowfall from that winter).

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Was banking on the nw trend, like we had with the feb 1st storm. Was that wave stronger coming out of the 4 corners? Or was there just a more impressive baroclinic zone with that one that was facing more NE and less zonal (like this storm).

A lot of reasons--but convection played a huge role--so it does seem it was not negative convective feedback that the NCEP (NAM/GFS) were hitting on. It was such a tough forecast for this reason. We knew convection would play a role in strong pressure falls--just how much that would "drive" storm track was unclear. It does seem convection is playing a large role with this storm heading a bit more E though.

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Was banking on the nw trend, like we had with the feb 1st storm. Was that wave stronger coming out of the 4 corners? Or was there just a more impressive baroclinic zone with that one that was facing more NE and less zonal (like this storm).

That was a much more vigorous upper level system that was able to curl the sfc system NW as it intensified. H5 with this system is fairly meager, which has allowed that deep convection developing over the lower MS valley to dictate the direction of the sfc low. That's my layman's interpretation of what b_i was saying yesterday. Maybe he could illuminate you further.

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