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March 24-25 Winter Storm Threat


Mitchel Volk

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It's all going to come down to the incredibly frustrating upper level low/gyre north of New England. Several days ago when myself and a few others were talking about the potential for a sharp cutoff on the northern edge, we alluded to something similar to this occurring. These historically strong blocking episodes, and in this case historically negative AO for this time in the season, are notorious for producing events like this. In our case this time around, the gyre to the northeast of New England is very expansive and causes a very compressive circulation that is pressing down on the entire mid level height field. The 12z Euro trended much more favorable with this feature, but it still remains just a hair too overwhelming with the feature. We need to see this continue to shift northeast or become less aggressive. This is why we're seeing some models shunt the surface low off to the east -- it simply cannot advance farther north because it is being compressed by the poor wave spacing between the the vort max over the Mid Atlantic and the large upper level low to the north. 

 

These features are notoriously unpredictable and wreak havoc on forecast models in the medium range. So I wouldn't write anything off yet. 

 

post-6-0-32263900-1363988011_thumb.png

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Through 54 hours the GFS is less compressed with the height field over New England..owing to the upper level low being farther north and the southern most vort in relation to that gyre being weaker. Nice illustration to compare the 12 and 18z runs drawing on the post above. 

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The Euro ensembles are def improved as well...better than 00z. The best thing about the Euro was that it was a marked improvement over the 00z run...and that is an important thing to see at this range. It is very close to showing a big solution...the ensembles don't necessarily add confidence to the fact that the big solution is coming..but it's good to see them improved.

We are running short on time for the Euro to show another big bump to the NW. Usually after around 66-72 hours out whatever changes it makes will be small ticks and variations and nothing major. We need a good run tonight.

Just curious if you or others saw the NWS-Philly discussion, where they said "...the latest 12Z Euro is indicating considerably more snow..." - are they referring to the ensembles and not the actual run?  Just seems like an odd thing to say if several of the other models are showing more precip (unless they're showing more precip, but less snow, due to increased rainfall) than the Euro, as per what I can glean from this thread (although I'll admit I've only skimmed it).  At the very least, having a shot at several inches of snow on 3/25 is pretty damn cool. 

 

.LONG TERM /SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY/...

 

-- Changed Discussion --

THE MAIN FEATURE OF INTEREST FOR THE LONGER TERM IS THE STORM THAT

IS FCST TO DEVELOP ALONG THE MID ATLANTIC COAST AND BRING WINTRY

PRECIP TO THE AREA SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH MONDAY. THIS EVENT IS

STILL THREE DAYS AWAY AND THERE IS CONSIDERABLE UNCERTAINTY

REGARDING QPF AND PRECIP TYPE. GUIDANCE GENLY AGREES THAT AN UPPER

LOW WILL DEVELOP OVER THE CENTRAL US BY SUNDAY AND TRACK EWD TO

CAUSE FAIRLY STRONG CYCLOGENESIS ALONG THE MID-ATLANTIC COAST ON

MONDAY. DIFFS ARISE WRT TIMING, PRECIP AMOUNT AND TYPE.

FOR QPF...WE ARE THINKING IN TERMS OF AROUND 0.5 INCH OVER

DELMARVA AND SRN NJ...WITH .25 TO .33 OVER NRN NJ AND ADJ PA.

HEAVIEST PRECIP SHOULD BE DURING THE DAY ON TUESDAY. PRECIP TYPE

WAS BASED MAINLY ON LOW-LEVEL THICKNESS AND SREF P-TYPE PROBS...

MOSTLY SNOW N AND W OF PHILLY...A RAIN/SNOW TRANSITION ZONE

ROUGHLY ALONG THE NJ TURNPIKE CORRIDOR...AND MOSTLY RAIN OVER

COASTAL SECTIONS OF SRN NJ AND DE. THE RAIN/SNOW WILL TEND TO

SHIFT NWWD DURG THE DAY ON MONDAY AS LOW-LEVEL TEMPS RISE ABOVE

FREEZING. NO SGFNT SLEET OR FREEZING RAIN IS EXPECTED WITH THIS

EVENT.

AT THIS TIME...SNOW AMOUNTS ARE EXPECTED TO BE IN THE 2 TO 4 INCH

RANGE WELL N AND W OF PHILLY...1-2 INCHES LOWER DEL VLY...TO

LITTLE OR NO ACCUM NEAR THE SHORE AND SRN DE. IT SHOULD BE NOTED

THAT SOME GUIDANCE LIKE THE LATEST 12Z ECMWF IS INDICATING

CONSIDERABLY MORE SNOW.

 

http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=NWS&issuedby=PHI&product=AFD&format=CI&version=1&glossary=0&highlight=off

 

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It's amazing how much more latitude this has been able to gain since other runs. As I have said before, over the past several days, we have made slow, gradual trends towards a ULL that is less compressive. At 54 hours, the wind barbs are W to E instead of WNW to ESE in Northern New England. We've also seen a more mature and organized area of vorticity with the main storm a bit to the west of previous runs, since the pattern has trended more amplified, and thus, slower. The storm does not race east and have a corresponding secondary low to the southeast...it's able to slow down, and have a secondary tucked in towards the coast and gain latitude. This is also why the timing of the storm has slowed down from Sunday night to a Monday and Monday night event. 

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I am not that shocked that ths is coming north my argument yeterday was the models were wrong w its strength of the confluence there is plenty of seperation and the error was north. I Looks like ths can start falling overnite sunday with a robust precip field and 850 s at minus 5 the surface should cooperate here

There is some wiggle room here 3 days out but i really like the euro ensembles . As the confluence relaxes i thnk the snowfall is uniform around the area i dont see an unusually sharp gradient

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Earthlight, thanks for your continued excellent analysis but was wondering what the gyre is you refer to?

Never mind, I think you are talking about the close upper level low to the northeast. haven't heard it referred to this way by others.

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nam is off its rockers...its a massive hit for MO/IL with the initial low. the redevelopment looks good and starts to climb straight north. at h5, its very impressive looking.

 

i love seeing the "boat":

 

http://mag.ncep.noaa.gov/Image.php?model=nam&area=namer&param=500_vort_ht&cycle=00ℑ=nam%2F00%2Fnam_namer_057_500_vort_ht.gif

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