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Looking Ahead to Spring 2012


North Balti Zen

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Typically spring coming out of a La Nina winter would mean more severe... but this hasn't been a regular Nina.

To get more severe, one typically looks for a pattern that would allow for more upper-level cold air to come into the region via the polar jet, with a "clashing" of air masses (continental Polar from Canada vs. Maritime tropical from the Gulf of Mexico) over the region. La Ninas usually allow the polar jet to dip down from western Canada into the central and eastern US during the winter and early spring. However, this year the cold air has been locked up in Canada along with the polar jet, so I'm not sure if severe season will be booming around here unless we can get a pattern change that allows the polar jet to push further south.

Thanks Mark, much appreciated.

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Had some time to dig into stats a bit. I pulled a list of most second year Ninas and all Ninas that averaged -1.0 or less in the DFJ monthlies. Not a perfect data set here but not a bad one either.

I got a little excited when I saw the temp gradient set up in April. That has a better chance of severe look to me (any thoughts Ellinwood?). Could be wrong. Below normal precip anom isn't much of a signal. We average plenty of precip in April. Half inch below normal isn't much.

March is interesting overall. Pretty clear cold signal in the middle of the country and pretty wet on the EC. Rodney S, zwyts, or Ian, can one of you guys pull the Mar snowfall data for the years selected? I have additional years that are decent enso analogs but I didn't include them because the Nina was too strong and I already had some second year nina's in the data set that exceeded my -1.0 baseline.

My guesses or interpretations of all this stuff are always based on what I think the "odds" are. Kinda like if I had to place a wager on what the weather will be. My wager would be on a colder and wetter than normal march and a temp battleground april with good boomers but what the heck do I know.

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Had some time to dig into stats a bit. I pulled a list of most second year Ninas and all Ninas that averaged -1.0 or less in the DFJ monthlies. Not a perfect data set here but not a bad one either.

I got a little excited when I saw the temp gradient set up in April. That has a better chance of severe look to me (any thoughts Ellinwood?). Could be wrong. Below normal precip anom isn't much of a signal. We average plenty of precip in April. Half inch below normal isn't much.

March is interesting overall. Pretty clear cold signal in the middle of the country and pretty wet on the EC. Rodney S, zwyts, or Ian, can one of you guys pull the Mar snowfall data for the years selected? I have additional years that are decent enso analogs but I didn't include them because the Nina was too strong and I already had some second year nina's in the data set that exceeded my -1.0 baseline.

My guesses or interpretations of all this stuff are always based on what I think the "odds" are. Kinda like if I had to place a wager on what the weather will be. My wager would be on a colder and wetter than normal march and a temp battleground april with good boomers but what the heck do I know.

The regular Nina analogs would recommend an above average severe weather season, but there is probably going to be a lingering warm signal from the winter that will degrade the cold/warm gradient across the U.S., so I'm not that confident we'll see the more active spring (unless we can get a pattern change and develop the temp gradient).

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The regular Nina analogs would recommend an above average severe weather season, but there is probably going to be a lingering warm signal from the winter that will degrade the cold/warm gradient across the U.S., so I'm not that confident we'll see the more active spring (unless we can get a pattern change and develop the temp gradient).

Yea, this has been one tough year to understand. I don't think any lr forecasts saw Dec-Jan coming. Feb isn't shaping up too hot either.

I think we probably have an equal chance at a distinct pattern change in Mar-Apr that would basically "look good if it was winter" kinda pattern. We'll see I guess. I don't like wet aprils at all becuase I fish alot for trophy stripers in the bay. Rainy springs screw it all up so I always root for dry. We can get great storms in a dry regime though. Probably moreso than a wet one becuase the atmophere is less stable for convection. Bring on the se ridge and canadian cold fronts.

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Sure is going to be a major tornado season. Wow the Gulf of Mexico temps are really warm this year and that a lot of times spells trouble for spring. Watch out in the south especially the Dixie States again this spring.

There is a lot more to it than that and you should be ashamed of your posts.

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This winter has been nearly a carbon copy of 08-09 down here in SE Va. No snow or cold all winter, then a little at the end. That Spring, the typical rainy pattern came in March (which is what Ellinwood's analogue maps also suggest) then April was drier and warmer.

ENSO was very similar too. That Winter was a weak Nina/cold neutral that began fading into Spring and saw an El Nino rise that Summer (which is quite plausible for this Summer).

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It's 67 when I click exactly at where I live..........but it doesn't really matter, I was just a little surprised.

Oh, I see what you mean... its 69 for me when I click exactly where I live. weird.

Anyways, yes... looking forward to it!

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