Matthew-Northern Italy Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Hi Guys ! After a pretty december with a good snowfall on the 14th, followed by 2 weeks of snowcover until Christmas, January has been quite boring and mild on northern Italy, a part a couple minor of episodes. But now we are facing a possible major Snowstorm this next Monday/Tuesday; the models are very good from days, and now the more we go closer, the more they confirms ! the storm could bring more than 12-18 inches in good part of Po valley (Milan, Brescia, Modena, Verona, Mantua etc) and here in the foothills of the Alps locally more than 20-22 inches. And even more exciting, this major Snowfall should be followed by new colder air, with frosty lows in the 0s/10s after the middle of the week. Needless to say that the northern italian weatherfans are quite excited, expecially because in these past years february has been usually "stingy" towards cold and snow If you find interesting, I can update here the situation Just a couple of maps for Monday, to start http://postimage.org/'> In this map of the temperatures at 850 hPa, you can notice how the cold air is "trapped" in Po valley between the Alps and the Appennines (the biggest reason that bring us so big snowfalls and cold periods even if we are so close to mediterranean sea). Tuesday Cold spell this week-end + quick low pressure from W-NW = handbook snowstorm on northern Italy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donsutherland1 Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Keep us posted. Hopefully, the blizzard will materialize. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Smith Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 The northern part of that system could also produce heavy snowfall in parts of England, northern France, Belgium, Holland and western Germany. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew-Northern Italy Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 And Ecmwf confirms ... my oh my ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew-Northern Italy Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 Ok, my snowblower is ready Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PottercountyWXobserver Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Venice will look incredible! Good luck matthew, and post plenty of pictures please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew-Northern Italy Posted February 8, 2013 Author Share Posted February 8, 2013 New confirms this morning !! possibile 15 inches here in my town Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew-Northern Italy Posted February 8, 2013 Author Share Posted February 8, 2013 You have to be kidding me ... that's 35-45 mm of precipitations in 36 hours ... all as snow and probably in the mid 30s with good cm/mm ratio... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew-Northern Italy Posted February 9, 2013 Author Share Posted February 9, 2013 Confirms on confirms ... Notice again the typical "trapped" cold air layer in Po valley/northern Italy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ender Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Matteo, That's some pretty amazing cold air entrapment, the Po Valley must have some fairly high mountains on practically all, or at least most sides all except the east or northeast? I have to admit I don't know the geography well, but based on that GFS T85 map I'm guessing it's a deep, flat valley surrounded on many sides. Occasionally supplied with cold air from the Siberian cold reservoir, that moderates slowly due low insulation resulting from the low winter sun angle, and high mountains to all along the southwest, south and southeast? If so, your inversions must be a nightmare some times. Not to mention a hellacious foehn in the summers, do you experience foehn much there? Anyhow, good luck with the snow! I assume it's rare to have much high wind with snow there, otherwise all your cold air would get ruined, but that just makes it easier to measure the snow! Please take pictures, I've always enjoyed your excellent photography. --Shane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew-Northern Italy Posted February 9, 2013 Author Share Posted February 9, 2013 Matteo, That's some pretty amazing cold air entrapment, the Po Valley must have some fairly high mountains on practically all, or at least most sides all except the east or northeast? I have to admit I don't know the geography well, but based on that GFS T85 map I'm guessing it's a deep, flat valley surrounded on many sides. Occasionally supplied with cold air from the Siberian cold reservoir, that moderates slowly due low insulation resulting from the low winter sun angle, and high mountains to all along the southwest, south and southeast? If so, your inversions must be a nightmare some times. Not to mention a hellacious foehn in the summers, do you experience foehn much there? Anyhow, good luck with the snow! I assume it's rare to have much high wind with snow there, otherwise all your cold air would get ruined, but that just makes it easier to measure the snow! Please take pictures, I've always enjoyed your excellent photography. --Shane Hi Shane Yea, Po valley is surrounded on the N-NW-W-SW side from the Alps, while on the S side there are the Appenines; the only "open" side is the E-SE on the (flat) Adriatic sea and to the Balcans. As you said, during winter the Po valley experience lot of inversion (= the "famous" fog of Milan) and this bring (along with pollution), also pretty good episodes of snow while, in example, outside of it it rains (Marseille, Geneva, Florence etc). You said well: except the Veneto (Venice/Padua), during this kind of front Po valley experience very few wind ... for this our snowfalls are usually "quiet" and rarely of the blizzard-like kind ... Only the easter-most area (Venice, Padua etc) experience some E-SE wind and in fact there the annual amount of snow is quite lower than the central-western Po valley. This map is quite explicative Po valley/northern Italy climate is quite unique in Europe, even Koppen talked about it. Here a good article about snowfalls in Po valley http://marcopifferetti.altervista.org/situazioni.htm To bad right now I've no time for a good translation, so sorry for the automatic translator :-) http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=it&to=en&a=http://marcopifferetti.altervista.org/situazioni.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew-Northern Italy Posted February 10, 2013 Author Share Posted February 10, 2013 And here we go. Right now it's 3:20pm and still clear; this night it'll be gradually cloudier and tomorrow morning it'll start to snow. Public winter service and private snowblowers are ready Here a good link to locals webcams in and around Lombardy (from the private Lombardy's weather center) http://www.centrometeolombardo.com/content.asp?CatId=319&ContentType=NowCasting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew-Northern Italy Posted February 10, 2013 Author Share Posted February 10, 2013 Getting cloudier by 28°F and rH 66% :-) First light snow in southern Lombardy/Piemont. Tomorrow is going to be a mess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PottercountyWXobserver Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Getting cloudier by 28°F and rH 66% :-) First light snow in southern Lombardy/Piemont. Tomorrow is going to be a mess Have anymore total snowfall forecast maps? How much are you still expecting? Good luck and post lots of pictures! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew-Northern Italy Posted February 11, 2013 Author Share Posted February 11, 2013 Hi guys !Here's early morning and the first flackes are falling from the sky by 30°F and rH 60% The last maps are just "porny" lol 20-30 mm in the 30s ... 12-15 inches on the way !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew-Northern Italy Posted February 11, 2013 Author Share Posted February 11, 2013 It's 12:40pm and it's starting to snow seriously Milan already well snowed http://81.208.113.131:83/view/viewer_index.shtml?id=725 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunny and Warm Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 It's 12:40pm and it's starting to snow seriously Milan already well snowed http://81.208.113.131:83/view/viewer_index.shtml?id=725 Now that you are removed from the maximum effects of the sun, snow should start to really accumulate. Good luck and congrats! Your posts are always interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PottercountyWXobserver Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 Well how did it go? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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