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February 25th-26th Plains Blizzard


andyhb

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It is pretty reasonable to believe someone will easily crack 2' possibly 2.5' over NW OK. The drifts are going to be gigantic. Be safe should you head up as roads may be fully impassable for a while. The combination of OKDOT having little to no road weather services and the flat expanses means this truly is life threatening. 

 

Snowfall amounts won't be anything I haven't seen in New England, but I have never experienced true blizzard criteria conditions back home or the huge drifting action. That's what I'm really interested in!

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It is pretty reasonable to believe someone will easily crack 2' possibly 2.5' over NW OK. The drifts are going to be gigantic. Be safe should you head up as roads may be fully impassable for a while. The combination of OKDOT having little to no road weather services and the flat expanses means this truly is life threatening. 

 

I believe Buffalo, OK stll holds the single storm record of 36 inches from 1970, they got 25 I think in the March 09 storm.

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Snowfall amounts won't be anything I haven't seen in New England, but I have never experienced true blizzard criteria conditions back home or the huge drifting action. That's what I'm really interested in!

Well that is what I was hitting on...blizzards in the plains are not like anything you have ever seen. It is a different beast. 

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I believe Buffalo, OK stll holds the single storm record of 36 inches from 1970, they got 25 I think in the March 09 storm.

Seems reasonable here that someone will hit 25". Usually hi-res model snowfall accums are grossly overdone, but with these extreme convective snow events (if they have the synoptics/upper levels right), the values they output are actually pretty reasonable sometimes.

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Well that is what I was hitting on...blizzards in the plains are not like anything you have ever seen. It is a different beast. 

You arent kidding, I have lived in a lot of places but the storms out here are just so weird and different! Though the biggest beast I have ever seen was in my late teens living in south jersey where we got 28" of snow and had 7.5 feet drifts, that was the baddest of them all! Then the second best was the blizzard we had in 2011 in feb. out here, got 23" from that monster. But yep storms out this way are really different, I think the openness to the land just makes the winds worst and everything look and feel different

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You need to take the day off and head to NW OK to experience that. 

 

I'm tempted, but on top of having class and work I should be doing, I'm actually concerned about how serious the conditions may get up there. I've been in northeastern cities during lesser snowstorms and the roads were atrocious - I shudder to think what rural NW OK will be like at the height of the storm. I know it would be meteorologically epic but I have my reservations about potentially getting stranded. Eesh. 

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I'm tempted, but on top of having class and work I should be doing, I'm actually concerned about how serious the conditions may get up there. I've been in northeastern cities during lesser snowstorms and the roads were atrocious - I shudder to think what rural NW OK will be like at the height of the storm. I know it would be meteorologically epic but I have my reservations about potentially getting stranded. Eesh. 

 

I'm with you there. True blizzards on the Plains are serious business, and unlike storm chasing, there's no way to selectively avoid their real dangers short of a) arriving at the target ahead of time (i.e., within the next few hours), and B) being prepared to stay holed up in a motel for a couple days if necessary. Also, baro is correct in pointing out that OK is much less equipped to deal with the roads than KS north. It's crushing to pass on seeing powerhouse storms like this so close-by, but unless your calendar is free for several days at just the right time, it's really tough to pull off.

To put our "plowing equipment" into perspective, in the Christmas Eve 2009 blizzard, even main roads in Norman were hairy for 2WD vehicles a week afterward. We're hardly more prepared for huge storms that require constant plowing than FL, it seems. Granted, the interstates will probably get taken care of by sometime Tuesday at the latest, but anything else (even the NW Passage) I'm not so sure.

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Currently thinking 12-18" for the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas where very heavy snow could just sit over this area. 

 

Believe it or not, the best mid level lift really beings to crank just east of there.

 

BUT it looks to be warmer in southeast and south central Kansas, so while the bands may be heavy and there may be isolated thunderstorms, the snow might have problems changing over.

 

Farther northeast into western Missouri and eastern Kansas, the mid level lift looks to be good and the air should be colder. This area I believe could see localized banding with thundernsnow possible. 8-14" in this area, though I'll have to keep a close eye on that as some very localized areas could flirt with that 14" amount.

 

Here is my thundersnow potential map:

thundersnow.jpg

 

I'd like to put the panhandles in a high risk, but well see how much mid level lift can make it there.

 

 

Here is my snowfall totals map:

snow-accumulations.jpg

 

To view more of my analysis and a video I made explaining this event, click here.

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TSSN ongoing from LUB to AMA at this hour. The storm is moving a bit slower than guidance had suggested and continues to deepen with a general 3-5 mb per hour pressure falls. Some locations across the TX/OK Panhandle will likely exceed the 2 FT mark with even higher localized amounts. Winds are gusting to 61 near LUB with a couple of isolated gusts to near 70 from the Texas Tech Mesonet. TXDOT has ceased plowing operations across all of the TX panhandle and virtually all roads/State HWY's and I-40/I-27 are closed. VIS are now 0 across the Region. State Command Operation Center emphasizes no travel ATT.

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TSSN ongoing from LUB to AMA at this hour. The storm is moving a bit slower than guidance had suggested and continues to deepen with a general 3-5 mb per hour pressure falls. Some locations across the TX/OK Panhandle will likely exceed the 2 FT mark with even higher localized amounts. Winds are gusting to 61 near LUB with a couple of isolated gusts to near 70 from the Texas Tech Mesonet.

That whole corridor is just getting pounded right, they even extended the Blizzard Warnings down to Lubbock.

 

Edit: AMA just gusted to 50KT, they are on auto right now though

 

KAMA 251212Z AUTO 36035G50KT 1/4SM R04/2200V3000FT FZFG VV006 M02/M04 A2968 RMK AO2 PK WND 36050/1207 P0002 PWINO FZRANO $

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TSSN ongoing from LUB to AMA at this hour. The storm is moving a bit slower than guidance had suggested and continues to deepen with a general 3-5 mb per hour pressure falls. Some locations across the TX/OK Panhandle will likely exceed the 2 FT mark with even higher localized amounts. Winds are gusting to 61 near LUB with a couple of isolated gusts to near 70 from the Texas Tech Mesonet. TXDOT has ceased plowing operations across all of the TX panhandle and virtually all roads/State HWY's and I-40/I-27 are closed. VIS are now 0 across the Region. State Command Operation Center emphasizes no travel ATT.

So far, this is a very exciting blizzard. It's certainly going to be a highlight storm this winter.

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It's hard to tell on satellite, and the system is moving very slow, but can anyone see if it's starting making it's treck NE yet? Or is it going due east currently? Or dragging south?

 

It still is generally moving E at this time...

post-32-0-34407300-1361806292_thumb.jpg

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MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 0219
   NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
   0925 AM CST MON FEB 25 2013
  
   AREAS AFFECTED...E TX INTO SRN AR/LA/SWRN MS
  
   CONCERNING...SEVERE POTENTIAL...WATCH LIKELY
  
   VALID 251525Z - 251630Z
  
   PROBABILITY OF WATCH ISSUANCE...80 PERCENT
  
   SUMMARY...HAIL POTENTIAL IS FORECAST TO INCREASE ACROSS THE
   DISCUSSION AREA IN THE SHORT TERM...FOLLOWED BY AN INCREASE IN
   DAMAGING WIND/ISOLATED TORNADO POTENTIAL LATER THIS MORNING/EARLY
   AFTERNOON.  WW WILL BECOME LIKELY IN THE NEXT 1-2 HOURS.
  
   DISCUSSION...A VERY STRONG STORM SYSTEM IS ADVANCING EWD ACROSS NWRN
   TX ATTM...WITH THE MID/UPPER LEVEL CENTER OF CIRCULATION INVOF CDS
   /CHILDRESS TX/ AND THE SURFACE LOW NOW JUST N OF ABI /ABILENE TX/.
  
   S OF THE SURFACE LOW...A PACIFIC COLD FRONT CONTINUES SURGING EWD
   THROUGH E TX...WHILE THE WARM FRONT EXTENDS SEWD FROM THE LOW ACROSS
   E TX TO THE VICINITY OF LCH /LAKE CHARLES LA/.
  
   WITH ONLY A SLIVER OF LOW-LEVEL GULF AIR INLAND ATTM -- OVER THE
   HOUSTON METRO AREA AND VICINITY...STRONG LARGE-SCALE ASCENT IS
   FOCUSED ACROSS THE ARKLATEX REGION WHERE STEEP MID-LEVEL LAPSE RATES
   RESIDE ATOP A SURFACE-BASED STABLE LAYER.  SCATTERED STORMS ARE
   ONGOING INVOF THIS AREA...AND SHOULD CONTINUE OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL
   HOURS ALONG WITH ATTENDANT HAIL POTENTIAL.
  
   WITH TIME...AS THE SURFACE LOW SHIFTS EWD ACROSS THE RED RIVER
   VALLEY...NWD RETREAT OF THE WARM FRONT IS EXPECTED AHEAD OF THE
   ADVANCING PACIFIC FRONT.  WITH TIME...EXPECT THE NOW-STABLE LOWER
   TROPOSPHERE OVER LA TO BE REPLACED BY A FAVORABLY MOIST BOUNDARY
   LAYER -- AND GIVEN VEERING/STRENGTHENING FLOW WITH HEIGHT ACROSS THE
   REGION...SHEAR SUPPORTIVE OF SUPERCELLS WILL RESULT IN INCREASING
   POTENTIAL FOR SURFACE-BASED SEVERE WEATHER IN ADDITION TO THE
   ONGOING HAIL THREAT.  ALONG WITH DAMAGING WIND POTENTIAL --
   PARTICULARLY IF A LINE OF STORMS EVOLVES ALONG THE PACIFIC
   FRONT...ISOLATED TORNADOES APPEAR LIKELY WITH PRE-FRONTAL
   SUPERCELLULAR CONVECTION.
  
   ..GOSS/CORFIDI.. 02/25/2013
  
  
   ATTN...WFO...JAN...LIX...LZK...LCH...SHV...HGX...

 

post-32-0-96392800-1361806564_thumb.gif

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