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April 14-17 Severe Prospects


Indystorm

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If you figure that you typically look for ~100J/kg or higher for significant tornado development and your shear vectors will be fairly perpendicular to the front...yeah...

The NAM 0-3km CAPE progs are pretty concerning. We may be able to get away with relatively unimpressive total CAPE values if the low level CAPE is similar to what is being shown.

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I think that the models are under doing the amount of potential instability for Sunday, the only one that is close is the NAM, the GFS is apparently forecasting for another planet on this one...

Also note you don't need ungodly amounts of instability as Tony mentioned 750-1000 J/kg with the amount of shear that is forecasted to be in place will be more than enough.

Lastly those 0-3KM CAPE values are pretty significant enough to get the job done and then some.

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Apparently I'm missing something as the NAM isn't that much more impressive on instability compared to the GFS. 1000-1250j/kg vs 500-750j/kg?

That is a pretty big difference when we are talking severe weather with the amount of shear forecasted to be in place, GFS hangs to close to climatology with respect to the surface temperatures, thus the lower amounts of instability.

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I've never seen wording like this before for an event more than 24 hours away.

AFTER COLLABORATION WITH WFOS WICHITA...NORMAN...TOPEKA...TULSA AND DODGE CITY...A HIGH RISK WILL BE ISSUED DUE TO THE POTENTIAL FOR A HIGH-END LIFE THREATENING EVENT ACROSS THE SRN AND CNTRL PLAINS.

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That is a pretty big difference when we are talking severe weather with the amount of shear forecasted to be in place, GFS hangs to close to climatology with respect to the surface temperatures, thus the lower amounts of instability.

What I think the GFS does (I had a lightbulb moment tonight) is that it saturates the upper levels of the atmosphere much too strongly. Every run it does this. This prevents an accurate estimate of radiation received at the sfc, thus limiting how much the sfc warms and radiates back into the low-levels of the atmosphere.

If you adjust the GFS forecast soundings for the NWS predicted temps at 7 PM CDT Sunday evening, you have plenty of low-level CAPE to cause significant issues.

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I've never seen wording like this before for an event more than 24 hours away.

AFTER COLLABORATION WITH WFOS WICHITA...NORMAN...TOPEKA...TULSA AND DODGE CITY...A HIGH RISK WILL BE ISSUED DUE TO THE POTENTIAL FOR A HIGH-END LIFE THREATENING EVENT ACROSS THE SRN AND CNTRL PLAINS.

The second part reads like a few MCDs I've seen on major outbreak days...

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What I think the GFS does (I had a lightbulb moment tonight) is that it saturates the upper levels of the atmosphere much too strongly. Every run it does this. This prevents an accurate estimate of radiation received at the sfc, thus limiting how much the sfc warms and radiates back into the low-levels of the atmosphere.

If you adjust the GFS forecast soundings for the NWS predicted temps at 7 PM CDT Sunday evening, you have plenty of low-level CAPE to cause significant issues.

Hopefully SPC realizes this too when putting together the Day 3 SWO. I'm assuming they'll be sufficiently concerned about the extreme low level shear and just mention the uncertainty over instability. But if the low level CAPE is there, it could be a very bad evening and night. Also, if I'm not mistaken an analysis around the time of the Henryville tornado found only 1000-1250 J/kg of MLCAPE, so again echoing what's been written before, you don't need huge CAPE if you have huge shear, especially if the CAPE is in the right place.

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This MCD from March 2nd comes to mind when thinking about relatively low MLCAPE in an outbreak situation (They are referring to the West Liberty supercell in the first paragraph):

MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 0220

NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK

0513 PM CST FRI MAR 02 2012

AREAS AFFECTED...ERN KY INTO EXTREME SRN OH AND WRN WV

CONCERNING...TORNADO WATCH 58...62...

VALID 022313Z - 030015Z

THE SEVERE WEATHER THREAT FOR TORNADO WATCH 58...62...CONTINUES.

DAMAGING TORNADO OUTBREAK UNDERWAY ACROSS ERN KY WITH SEVERAL

SUPERCELLS LIKELY CONTAINING STRONG TO VIOLENT TORNADOES. SUPERCELL

OVER MORGAN COUNTY KY IS MOVING INTO LAWRENCE COUNTY AND LIKELY

CONTAINS A VERY DAMAGING TORNADO. THIS STORM SHOULD EVENTUALLY

CONTINUE EWD INTO WAYNE COUNTY WV.

SUPERCELLS MOVING THROUGH ERN KY WILL CONTINUE THROUGH AN

ENVIRONMENT VERY FAVORABLE FOR STRONG TO VIOLENT TORNADOES AS THE

LLJ STRENGTHENS TO IN EXCESS OF 60 KT. LAST VWP DATA FROM JACKSON KY

INDICATE VERY LARGE 0-1 KM HODOGRAPHS WITH STORM RELATIVE HELICITY

ON THE ORDER OF 800 M2/S2 AND 500 J/KG MLCAPE. THESE PARAMETERS

ALONG WITH THE DISCRETE NATURE OF THE CONVECTION WILL CONTINUE TO

PROMOTE A THREAT OF TORNADOES...VERY LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WIND

NEXT FEW HOURS.

..DIAL.. 03/02/2012

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Hopefully SPC realizes this too when putting together the Day 3 SWO. I'm assuming they'll be sufficiently concerned about the extreme low level shear and just mention the uncertainty over instability. But if the low level CAPE is there, it could be a very bad evening and night. Also, if I'm not mistaken an analysis around the time of the Henryville tornado found only 1000-1250 J/kg of MLCAPE, so again echoing what's been written before, you don't need huge CAPE if you have huge shear, especially if the CAPE is in the right place.

Adjusting a 7 PM CDT sounding at Rockford for a 69°F sfc temp yields a sfc-based LI of -5. With 509.1m2s-2 0-1km SRH.

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What I think the GFS does (I had a lightbulb moment tonight) is that it saturates the upper levels of the atmosphere much too strongly. Every run it does this. This prevents an accurate estimate of radiation received at the sfc, thus limiting how much the sfc warms and radiates back into the low-levels of the atmosphere.

If you adjust the GFS forecast soundings for the NWS predicted temps at 7 PM CDT Sunday evening, you have plenty of low-level CAPE to cause significant issues.

You know now that you mention this, I have noticed this popping up several times ever since the last upgrade.

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Hopefully SPC realizes this too when putting together the Day 3 SWO. I'm assuming they'll be sufficiently concerned about the extreme low level shear and just mention the uncertainty over instability. But if the low level CAPE is there, it could be a very bad evening and night. Also, if I'm not mistaken an analysis around the time of the Henryville tornado found only 1000-1250 J/kg of MLCAPE, so again echoing what's been written before, you don't need huge CAPE if you have huge shear, especially if the CAPE is in the right place.

You may have gotten that Henryville range from me lol. I came up with something like that based on my limited analysis right after the event. These low CAPE/high shear events are always tough. Most tornadoes may occur with a better balance of CAPE/shear but there's definitely a sizable subset that don't.

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It's a Slight, that was for Saturday from last night.

I find it a bit strange they didn't go with higher probs/hatched area, considering this discussion:

...UPPER MS VALLEY/SRN GREAT LAKES...

AN UPPER-LEVEL LOW IS FORECAST TO MOVE INTO THE UPPER MS VALLEY

SUNDAY AFTERNOON AS A 90 TO 110 MID-LEVEL JET NOSES IN THE UPPER MS

VALLEY. AT THE SFC...A WARM FRONT SHOULD EXIST ACROSS MN AND WI

WHERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE FORECAST TO BE ONGOING SUNDAY MORNING. NEW

CONVECTION SHOULD INITIATE AROUND MIDDAY TO THE SOUTH OF THE WARM

FRONT AS SFC TEMPS WARM AND AHEAD OF A COLD FRONT APPROACHING THE

REGION FROM THE WEST. STORMS SHOULD PROGRESS EWD ACROSS THE SLIGHT

RISK AREA DURING THE AFTERNOON. FORECAST SOUNDINGS AT 21Z SUNDAY

FROM MADISON WI SWD INTO ERN IA AND FAR NW IL SHOW MODERATE

INSTABILITY WITH SBCAPE VALUES OF 1000 TO 1500 J/KG. IN

ADDITION...THE EXIT REGION OF THE MID-LEVEL JET WILL HELP TO CREATE

STRONG DEEP LAYER SHEAR PROFILES FAVORABLE FOR ORGANIZED STORMS.

THIS SHEAR ENVIRONMENT ALONG WITH COLD TEMPS ALOFT IN PROXIMITY TO

THE UPPER-LEVEL LOW SHOULD BE FAVORABLE FOR LARGE HAIL. FORECAST

SOUNDINGS SUNDAY AFTERNOON NEAR AND TO THE SOUTH OF THE FRONT ALSO

SHOW LOOPED HODOGRAPHS WITH STRONG LOW-LEVEL SHEAR. THIS MAY SUPPORT

A TORNADO THREAT WITH CELLS THAT REMAIN DISCRETE AND HAVE ACCESS TO

MODERATE INSTABILITY. AN ISOLATED SEVERE THREAT MAY EXTEND EWD ALONG

AND TO THE SOUTH OF A WARM FRONT INTO LOWER MI WHERE FORECAST

SOUNDINGS DEVELOP SOME INSTABILITY.

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You know now that you mention this, I have noticed this popping up several times ever since the last upgrade.

It's more than just the last upgrade though...for at least the past 5 years the GFS has had issues with underdoing warm sector temps. It almost never fails to do so.

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It's more than just the last upgrade though...for at least the past 5 years the GFS has had issues with underdoing warm sector temps. It almost never fails to do so.

Yeah that would be due to the climatology influences I mentioned a page or so back, though combined with the issue Tony brings up, it is a double whammy to the surface temperatures.

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6z NAM leaves S WI and N IL high and dry for the most part. Looks like the best support for storms is north of here or downstate IL then back to the west. 6z GFS blows up some storms around Chicago at the last minute before heading eastward towards MI.

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Outlooks for today through Sunday show NE IL out of the risk areas for now. The setup looks pretty impressive throughout the S Plains, and through IA, NW IL, S WI, but NE IL looks out of it for now, unless that changes in later updates. Strong wording from some of the forecast offices, kind of makes me wonder what the potential is for Sat/Sun in this area. Going to go get some flashlights just in case.

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The GFS continues the meager instability. Looks like it has 1000 J/K or so of CAPE around 18z Sunday in C Wisconsin, but it disappears quickly thereafter. What's the biggest determining factor of ML and SB CAPE?

Inside of 48 hours I never look at the GFS, ever. Unles I am wishcasting something. Need a much higher resolution model.

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