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February storm threat discussion


Ellinwood

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Even doing 20 winters there are only 4 above average. A few are not that far off but still below. (for full disclosure the ten prior to those 20 had six above average)

The median for 10 years is 11.3

The median for 20 years is 10.9

There has been somewhat lesser snowfall recently in DC, and the spread between mean and median snowfall has widened, but not all that dramatically:

Last 100-year mean: 16.7 inches

Last 100-year median: 14.4 inches

Last 30-year mean: 15.6 inches

Last 30-year median: 11.7 inches

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In the world of reality...

Nothing is screaming more than a pedestrian event at this point if anything. Reality is that many are hugging some models with an uninpressive track record. Theres still a couple days to hammer this down though. Shame as the EURO and others aren't on the wagon.

the euro is on the wagon pretty much

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living on the edge is never good. we need north trends and not just random well-matched blips. oh so slight chance there is some phase of the streams to give a mod event but it's much more likely we either get a general light snow, rain or a miss to the south. there's just not much real upward mobility unless you believe in miracles.

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living on the edge is never good. we need north trends and not just random well-matched blips. oh so slight chance there is some phase of the streams to give a mod event but it's much more likely we either get a general light snow, rain or a miss to the south. there's just not much real upward mobility unless you believe in miracles.

from what I've seen out of the models that really dig the phase i.e.- GGEM, p006 of the GFS :weenie: , etc, is that theyre pretty good events, on the order of 7-9... but thats in the weenie realm and pretty much the ceiling of where this could go... I'm just hoping for an inch

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from what I've seen out of the models that really dig the phase i.e.- GGEM, p006 of the GFS :weenie: , etc, is that theyre pretty good events, on the order of 7-9... but thats in the weenie realm and pretty much the ceiling of where this could go... I'm just hoping for an inch

i would hope for an expansive light area of precip with maybe a few bands that bullseye someone to like .25". caveat is the euro did move considerably north and if it did so again we could have a solid ~.2-.25" across the area. the pattern definitely argues more for squashing than being amazing.. but sometimes luck really breaks hard. we'd probably want to see that convincingly soon...

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from what I've seen out of the models that really dig the phase i.e.- GGEM, p006 of the GFS :weenie: , etc, is that theyre pretty good events, on the order of 7-9... but thats in the weenie realm and pretty much the ceiling of where this could go... I'm just hoping for an inch

Not sure anywhere north of EZF even gets flurries on the NAM. Sharp cut off events are painful. I am usually on the south side of those watching MD cash in.

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Starting with the GFS. GGEM is prob overdoing and way wrong... didn't check the UKIE though I think Will said it was okay... a Euro hold would be nice with a slightly cooler profile

The Ukie i think showed an inch or 2 for our area, i think it is not unreasonable to hope we finally get a break around here and end up with 2".

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The Ukie i think showed an inch or 2 for our area, i think it is not unreasonable to hope we finally get a break around here and end up with 2".

I think its unreasonable to expect more than a dusting right now IMO. the NAM is supposedly starting to come into its wheelhouse... and being shutout on it is not a good start for the 00z model suite.

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I think its unreasonable to expect more than a dusting right now IMO. the NAM is supposedly starting to come into its wheelhouse... and being shutout on it is not a good start for the 00z model suite.

I do not even expect flurries, i said hope. Actually where i am for the weekend i expect to at least see some flurries.

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I think its unreasonable to expect more than a dusting right now IMO. the NAM is supposedly starting to come into its wheelhouse... and being shutout on it is not a good start for the 00z model suite.

Eh, the event is still more than 48 hours out which is outside the NAM's wheelhouse and on top of that, it has had an absolutely atrocious winter so far. I wouldn't put expectations much higher than a coating either, but the reason wouldn't be because of what the NAM shows right now.

The SREFs actually do have like 10% chace of an inch for DC metro which is not bad in this marginal setup at this time range. Down toward CHO its in the 25-30% range.

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living on the edge is never good. we need north trends and not just random well-matched blips. oh so slight chance there is some phase of the streams to give a mod event but it's much more likely we either get a general light snow, rain or a miss to the south. there's just not much real upward mobility unless you believe in miracles.

A general light snow would be fine with me. It's not like I think we can get a foot.

You mentioned a complex pattern earlier, and the models have certainly had difficulties the last few days. I wonder how close we'll have to get for the models to get a good handle on this thing.

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This is a post from Tony over in the Philly thread, i though it was a very good read:

Part of this is evolution also (and we saw how the 12z gfs run on 12/24 was right after a poor initialization), but the can ggem 500mb 12hr forecast is not verifying well over Eastern Alaska and northern Canada off the 00z raobs, I see a 10m and a pair of 30m height errors meanwhile the gfs is spot on with two and a 20m error with the third. Based on those errors, that northern stream trof is not as sharp as depicted by the canadian forecast. The problem though is what happens to the kicker and that is still in the Pacific south of Alaska. On the Canadian, the forecast closed low by sunday morning is 100 meters deeper than the gfs and that is what drives the ridging in front of it and then permits the not so well initialized lead short wave to phase more. That kicker comes inland 00z sat.

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The optimist crowd really needs the 00Z suite to look decent.

Even if it does, I don't think my confidence level would increase. On the other hand, if it comes in much drier/weaker than previous runs, the confidence will take a hit. If it continues to stay close, then I think being optimistic a little longer isn't a bad play. Being optimistic has no downside, especially in a winter like this. If it doesn't snow, it isn't like it will be a shock to the system.

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Even if it does, I don't think my confidence level would increase. On the other hand, if it comes in much drier/weaker than previous runs, the confidence will take a hit. If it continues to stay close, then I think being optimistic a little longer isn't a bad play. Being optimistic has no downside, especially in a winter like this. If it doesn't snow, it isn't like it will be a shock to the system.

Where exactly do you live in VA?, i am going to the Massanutten resort for the next 5 days and i am trying to figure out the climo there to see if they have a better chance of seeing snow.

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Eh, the event is still more than 48 hours out which is outside the NAM's wheelhouse and on top of that, it has had an absolutely atrocious winter so far. I wouldn't put expectations much higher than a coating either, but the reason wouldn't be because of what the NAM shows right now.

The SREFs actually do have like 10% chace of an inch for DC metro which is not bad in this marginal setup at this time range. Down toward CHO its in the 25-30% range.

Expectations in our area are like marriages, they are almost sure to let you down.

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i guess this is a good starter winter. i got fooled by the feb 06 storm 10 days after i got here...

Yup, and I get where feast-and-famine comes from. Really, the immediate past sequence of seasons have been something else-- take away 09/10, and you're left with 06/07 (well below avg), 07/08 (terrible), 08/09 (bad one snowstorm season), and 10/11 (frustrating near miss season with one storm). The difference with this sequence and past real stinker stretches is that we at least had 09/10.

A glance across DC snow history shows some really rotten rotten stretches- '49-'57 was brutal.

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This is a post from Tony over in the Philly thread, i though it was a very good read:

Part of this is evolution also (and we saw how the 12z gfs run on 12/24 was right after a poor initialization), but the can ggem 500mb 12hr forecast is not verifying well over Eastern Alaska and northern Canada off the 00z raobs, I see a 10m and a pair of 30m height errors meanwhile the gfs is spot on with two and a 20m error with the third. Based on those errors, that northern stream trof is not as sharp as depicted by the canadian forecast. The problem though is what happens to the kicker and that is still in the Pacific south of Alaska. On the Canadian, the forecast closed low by sunday morning is 100 meters deeper than the gfs and that is what drives the ridging in front of it and then permits the not so well initialized lead short wave to phase more. That kicker comes inland 00z sat.

He also said this:

The GFS ensemble members are run at a courser resolution, so maybe that's why they are quicker to phase. But.......the resolution of the op can ggem and ukmet are not exactly coarse in themselves. Ironically the can ggem ensemble members support the op gfs more while the 18z gfs ensemble members are more inclined toward the op can ggem. The NAEFS pops jumped upward, with a tightening of the pop gradient. Without sounding too optimistic, I think you have to leave the door open on this one yet. Pretty complicated with rex blocks and phasing (or lack thereof), kind of smacks of the modeling issues that occurred with boxing day, don't have to slow streams down too much without getting a plethora of different solutions. We may not know a definitive answer til the 00z run on Saturday.

And, HPC said this:

THE MAIN MODIFICATION TO THE FINAL PROGS IN THIS PACKAGE WAS OVER

AND OFFSHORE THE E COAST STATES SUN/MON DAYS 3-4...WHERE WE PLAYED

UP THE INTENSITY OF THE SYS CROSSING TN/NC/VA AS PER THE 12Z/02

UKMET/CANADIAN/ECMWF

In total, I don't think that increases our chances for snow. But, it does say that the possibility exists, and is not dependent upon what the models say 2.5 days in advance.

BTW, I live 75 miles almost due north of Massanutten. They would seem to be in line for more precip, but they'd likely have warmer temps as well. Maybe not on the mountain, but down in Harrisonburg.

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