Jump to content
  • Member Statistics

    17,586
    Total Members
    7,904
    Most Online
    LopezElliana
    Newest Member
    LopezElliana
    Joined

Christmas (Sunday) Night - Windex Potential


Tropopause_Fold

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 311
  • Created
  • Last Reply

some of that stuff is probably being enhanced slightly by the lake and the upslope on the hills east and southeast of BUF.

Yeah it usually is...I used to love windex events when out at Cornell because of the enhancement from the lakes...it (the cold front) would often "pick up" Lake Ontario bands (or Erie if it came from the due west) and carry them into our region along with the other dynamics producing snow squalls...my favorite were the NW flow windex events since Ontario was a closer lake.

We could usually pick up a good 3-5" from those...the best was when you'd have a W or WSW wind ahead of the front coming in from the NW and then it would just pick up the band over Lake Ontario and carry it south with the rest of the squalls the front was producing...and we'd get like a whiteout for 90 minutes. 2-3 inch per hour stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah it usually is...I used to love windex events when out at Cornell because of the enhancement from the lakes...it (the cold front) would often "pick up" Lake Ontario bands (or Erie if it came from the due west) and carry them into our region along with the other dynamics producing snow squalls...my favorite were the NW flow windex events since Ontario was a closer lake.

We could usually pick up a good 3-5" from those...the best was when you'd have a W or WSW wind ahead of the front coming in from the NW and then it would just pick up the band over Lake Ontario and carry it south with the rest of the squalls the front was producing...and we'd get like a whiteout for 90 minutes. 2-3 inch per hour stuff.

sad state of affairs when you can manage lake-enhancement on -5C 850s in late December lol. Hopefully it explodes in a few weeks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is this snow actually WINDEX related?

Seems sort of non dynamic

The stuff in NYS def is...the current stuff is def being helped by very good lapse rates above 800-850mb but we don't have a lot of forcing around yet so its just in pockets and the snow is mostly light. When the upper level cold pool and the LL convergence currently in NYS moves over is when it will become a bit more classical...however, this is not your typical arctic front WINDEX event when LL lapse rates go off the charts, so we are a tad deficient in that area, but some good low level convergence and strong PVA could help compensate for that a tad. Also the fact that we are dealing with a warmer airmass actually introduces possible rain showers into this, lol.

WINDEX is really just talking potential snow squalls from winter time instability...and the most classic cases are an arctic front with a mega cold pool aloft plowing into a polar airmass where low level moisture pools ahead of the front and the forcing stretches the atmosphere a bit...kind of like winter time version of thunderstorms, but a bit different due to the natural tendency for the winter inversion. But occasionally you can actually be unstable from the sfc like we were for a brief period on Jan 28, 2010...that was the Windex event that gave us a crap load of thundersnow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i think that's from weak WAA out ahead of the cold front/potent vort max.

Yeah the WAA is def producing the weak omega, and I think its tapping into the steep ML lapse rates a bit...but its obviously not that impressive out this way at the moment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Echoes look a bit more impressive over e CT now. Didn't see anything here as they passed thru but they were weaker. Maybe rain anyway.

We have weenie flakes right now from slightly less impressive echoes in ORH right now, but they are really pathetic...its the type of flakes where you need to put a tree branch in between you and the street lamp to see them. Vis is hardly affected at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have weenie flakes right now from slightly less impressive echoes in ORH right now, but they are really pathetic...its the type of flakes where you need to put a tree branch in between you and the street lamp to see them. Vis is hardly affected at all.

It's possible I just missed it as it passed. Nothing of major note at least.. ;) Doubt I'll wait up for any stuff later if it even happens. My snow drought can continue.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a disastah. At the fiirepit, buzzing along, tell the family it's way too warm, then as soon as the words come out it starts raining, disastah, snow fire pit cancel. I may meltdown Rayesque.

Have you ever?

The few flakes I saw were lame and short lived. But still kinda nice to see Christmas morning snow flurries and again in the evening...

I guess flurries might be too strong a word

Temp rising 35.4F now

Have a pleasant mid-April night

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The stuff in NYS def is...the current stuff is def being helped by very good lapse rates above 800-850mb but we don't have a lot of forcing around yet so its just in pockets and the snow is mostly light. When the upper level cold pool and the LL convergence currently in NYS moves over is when it will become a bit more classical...however, this is not your typical arctic front WINDEX event when LL lapse rates go off the charts, so we are a tad deficient in that area, but some good low level convergence and strong PVA could help compensate for that a tad. Also the fact that we are dealing with a warmer airmass actually introduces possible rain showers into this, lol.

WINDEX is really just talking potential snow squalls from winter time instability...and the most classic cases are an arctic front with a mega cold pool aloft plowing into a polar airmass where low level moisture pools ahead of the front and the forcing stretches the atmosphere a bit...kind of like winter time version of thunderstorms, but a bit different due to the natural tendency for the winter inversion. But occasionally you can actually be unstable from the sfc like we were for a brief period on Jan 28, 2010...that was the Windex event that gave us a crap load of thundersnow.

Thanks for the well thought out and articulated reponse.

Not sure I will stay up for any of this.

1/28/10 was very nice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...