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Dec 10 Morning Crusher (obs/nowcasting)


yoda

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Pretty nice finish for here....steady light snow trees are gorgeous...I'm guessing close to 3"? That might be high but close...add that to the 4" from Sunday and hat is a way above average start. If the cold tonight delivers then I should have solid snow cover till Saturdays rains? Good stuff...lived in Woodbridge for 8 years....moved NW for a reason

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You know what sad, if you had showed me the surface map being forecast and the RH without the model precipitation forecast I would have said and inch or two at best, there was no real warm advection at 850 and the forcing was mostly from the entrance region of an upper level jet but it's curvature was not even optimal.  The NAM and GFS being so consistent was tough to get away from especially for a rush hour event with the models having the surface temp below freezing. Dan Stillmand had a better feel for it than me. 

 

At least I'm seeing a few flakes again

 

I noted this yesterday that we had conflicting signals for lift that weren't quite overlapped. Still, the shield, more or less, behaved as modeled across NW areas especially. The stuff now is general CVA and frontogen. The isentrop./weak WAA that came through this morning has already left.

 

I think you regulars here did a great job and keeping things real, IMO. You didn't go too high, warned of the issues and noted the climo banding positions NW.

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I keep wondering if we all are relying too much on models these days as they get better. Not that we shouldn't use them or anything but maybe we tend to ignore more bad signs when the models are good.  That said, if you just forecast off the Euro you're probably doing pretty well. IT took it a while to catch up this go but once it got there it probably had the best forecast. 

It certainly was the winner once it caught up.  So much for it not being good inside of 24 hrs.  I always cringe a bit when CWG pokes the NWS as they have a tough job.  As a reporter that's Jason's job but as an ex-NWS guy I know how hard most of us agonize about forecasts.   I'm not sure what I would have done concerning a warning given the expected timing of the storm.     2 to 5 with a big burst at rush hour could have really messed things up.  The twitter statement criticizing offering scenarios is kind of lame. You need to somehow convey which parts of the forecast you are most certain about. 

 

I will say the high resolution model stuff while pretty offered little.  

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I honestly don't think this is a storm bust...It is a model bust..what was supposed to happen, happened...we  are in a bad pattern and climo isn't very good....Models created expectations....the storm performed like a storm often does in early December when our climo is bad, temps are marginal, pattern sucks, and rates aren't very good.....

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Pretty nice finish for here....steady light snow trees are gorgeous...I'm guessing close to 3"? That might be high but close...add that to the 4" from Sunday and hat is a way above average start. If the cold tonight delivers then I should have solid snow cover till Saturdays rains? Good stuff...lived in Woodbridge for 8 years....moved NW for a reason

I know exactly what you mean.

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It certainly was the winner once it caught up.  So much for it not being good inside of 24 hrs.  I always cringe a bit when CWG pokes the NWS as they have a tough job.  As a reporter that's Jason's job but as an ex-NWS guy I know how hard most of us agonize about forecasts.   I'm not sure what I would have done concerning a warning given the expected timing of the storm.     2 to 5 with a big burst at rush hour could have really messed things up.  The twitter statement criticizing offering scenarios is kind of lame. You need to somehow convey which parts of the forecast you are most certain about. 

 

I will say the high resolution model stuff while pretty offered little.  

 

Good post wes.  CWG needs to get off their high arrogant horse and leave NWS alone.

 

I also think it's easy for CWG to claim victory when they post such huge nuanced forecast.

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Trying to get over an inch with this last band of snow. Pretty to look at. 

 

Still amazed at how warm (relatively) it has remained for me. Ian's note on losing it at the margins sure seems on point for me as a city dweller not too far from I-95. 

 

Given that, I probably go back to rooting like hell for "the big ones" almost exclusively, these marginal 2-4 inch events just have such a hard time right now where I live. 

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We were saying 1-3/2-4 for a long time. Only at the end did we start throwing around 3-5 and 8" lolli crazy talk.

We would have ended up with 2-4 widespread if temps didn't bust. I was at 32 when the storm started. I was supposed to be 29-30. I shrugged that off. Big mistake. Best rates fell above freezing. That wasn't really in the cards last night.

I'm willing to be most places will report .3 - .5 liquid. That part of the forecast will verify. We wouldn't even have needed sick rates if we were all below freezing to have a solid event.

Another lesson learned for me.

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I honestly don't think this is a storm bust...It is a model bust..what was supposed to happen, happened...we  are in a bad pattern and climo isn't very good....Models created expectations....the storm performed like a storm often does in early December when our climo is bad, temps are marginal, pattern sucks, and rates aren't very good.....

It is from a meteorological public relations standpoint.  People here who follow systems closely and have for years knew of the risks of a bust.  I tried to convey how we might bust in my article but I think to the general public, they hear the NWS, TV or CWG forecasts and will consider it a bust.  It's now snowing pretty hard. At least I'll have white ground. 

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