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Southern Ontario Winter '13/'14 Discussion


harrisale

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It's early, so no one should be claiming victory/conceding defeat yet, but the winds so far have more of a southerly component than the NAM was indicating, per sfc analysis. An indication of this is that the lake band over Lk Ontario is in the process of clipping the Beaches/Bluffs area of Toronto/Scarborough.

 

Yep, looking good. Hopefully will reduce downsloping effects.

 

aig02.png

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Expect 401 east of about Ajax to be severely impacted by tonight's snow and blowing snow, and this will extend as far north as Peterborough and Hwy 7 east. Eventually the heavy snow squalls will reach Kingston and Brockville regions. Amounts in this squall zone could reach 25 cm locally but 10-20 more widespread. Back across GTA, I think your discussion already nails the range, 3-6 cm west to east. Wind gusts could reach 90 or even 100 km/hr as they did earlier near south end of L Michigan.

 

Sunday night system looks about the same now although with more of a southeast than southwest squall component setting up ahead of 3-6 cm synoiptic scale snows. That one will be followed by intense west to northwest squall bands but given ice cover, only central L Huron is fully exposed now, Ggn Bay may produce some if winds break up the ice cover.

 

Conditions by Saturday afternoon but more intensely on Monday will be highly variable on regional highways and a nightmare for travel as a result with alternating bright sun, ground blizzards, blowing snow, drifts over roads, glare ice.

 

I'm just putting in here hoping it will leak out into media forecasts, not because any of you need this advice, I'm sure it's obvious to you already.

 

The 1-26-1971 case of mega-squalls that I mentioned had a sub-975 mb low tracking similarly to the Sunday low and was followed by -40 wind chills, so these cases are similar but the 2014 case looks a bit less intense and there may be more ice on Ggn Bay now than there was at that stage. From Stayner to Barrie, there was almost a metre of snow from that event and regional highways were closed for days, concession roads on the Dundalk Highlands were closed all through February as plows could not get through the drifts, even though the weather actually became quite bland and not much further snow fell. Just as conditions were improving, we were then whacked with the huge snowstorm on March 4, 1971 in eastern Ontario and Quebec. Good times.

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Winds gusting past 70kph now. Intense blowing/drifting at my place and the snow hasn't even started falling yet.

I was just down at Bluffers park for half an hour and the winds were insane, almost blowing me over. It's hard to believe that some people actually live on the house boats down there year round.

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Expect 401 east of about Ajax to be severely impacted by tonight's snow and blowing snow, and this will extend as far north as Peterborough and Hwy 7 east. Eventually the heavy snow squalls will reach Kingston and Brockville regions. Amounts in this squall zone could reach 25 cm locally but 10-20 more widespread. Back across GTA, I think your discussion already nails the range, 3-6 cm west to east. Wind gusts could reach 90 or even 100 km/hr as they did earlier near south end of L Michigan.

 

Sunday night system looks about the same now although with more of a southeast than southwest squall component setting up ahead of 3-6 cm synoiptic scale snows. That one will be followed by intense west to northwest squall bands but given ice cover, only central L Huron is fully exposed now, Ggn Bay may produce some if winds break up the ice cover.

 

Conditions by Saturday afternoon but more intensely on Monday will be highly variable on regional highways and a nightmare for travel as a result with alternating bright sun, ground blizzards, blowing snow, drifts over roads, glare ice.

 

I'm just putting in here hoping it will leak out into media forecasts, not because any of you need this advice, I'm sure it's obvious to you already.

 

The 1-26-1971 case of mega-squalls that I mentioned had a sub-975 mb low tracking similarly to the Sunday low and was followed by -40 wind chills, so these cases are similar but the 2014 case looks a bit less intense and there may be more ice on Ggn Bay now than there was at that stage. From Stayner to Barrie, there was almost a metre of snow from that event and regional highways were closed for days, concession roads on the Dundalk Highlands were closed all through February as plows could not get through the drifts, even though the weather actually became quite bland and not much further snow fell. Just as conditions were improving, we were then whacked with the huge snowstorm on March 4, 1971 in eastern Ontario and Quebec. Good times.

February 1971 is perhaps the snowiest February on record in Ottawa.

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Most exciting event in a while haha. Going to take a drive up to the open fields north of me. Will try to get some blowing snow/drifting video and post if its any good.

 

BUF mentioning 20:1 ratios and deep DGZ

 

 

OBVIOUSLY THE PRIMARY FOCUS FOR THIS PERIOD WILL BE THE SNOW/BLOWING   
SNOW RAMPING UP LATER THIS EVENING AND CONTINUING THROUGH A GOOD   
PART OF SATURDAY. THE SYSTEM IS NOT OVERLY IMPRESSIVE IN MOISTURE   
CONTENT WITH MODEL CONSENSUS GIVING A TOTAL OF AROUND 0.15 TO MAYBE   
0.30 INCHES OF TOTAL QPF. MODEL PROFILES SHOWING A FAIRLY DEEP LAYER   
OF SATURATION THROUGH THE DENDRITIC GROWTH ZONE WITH NEARLY ALL   
PROFILES SUGGESTING TEMPERATURES WITHIN THIS AREA HOVERING NEAR   
-10C. THIS COMBINED WITH FAVORABLE SNOW RATIOS ON THE ORDER OF AT   
LEAST 20:1 SHOULD PRODUCE A GENERAL SNOWFALL OF 3 TO 6 INCHES
...

 

AS FOR THE STRONG WINDS...AS THE ARCTIC FRONT NEARS THE REGION IT   
WILL RUN UP AGAINST THE EXPANSIVE DOME OF HIGH PRESSURE SPRAWLED  
OUT ACROSS THE SOUTHEAST CONUS CAUSING THE SURFACE PRESSURE GRADIENT   
TO TIGHTEN OVER THE AREA ORIENTATED FROM SOUTHWEST TO NORTHEAST.   
MODELS HAVE HELD FIRM WITH GENERATING A STRONG LOW LEVEL JET AROUND   
65 KNOTS AT 850 MB WITH AROUND 50 KNOTS DOWN TO 925 MB. THE QUESTION   
BECOMES HOW DEEP WILL THE MIXED LAYER BE? BUFR PROFILES ALL SUGGEST   
THAT THERE WILL BE A FAIRLY STRONG INVERSION RIGHT AROUND 900 MB   
UNDER A SLIGHT WARM AIR ADVECTION PATTERN...WHICH MAY ALLOW US TO   
ESCAPE THE STRONGEST WINDS. REGARDLESS...EVEN MIXING TO 900 MB WILL   
STILL TAP INTO WINDS NEAR 45 KNOTS.
THE STRONG WINDS WILL ALMOST   
CERTAINLY PRESENT A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT WITH REGARD TO BLOWING SNOW   
WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR GREATLY REDUCED VISIBILITIES FOR A PROLONGED   
PERIOD OF TIME WITH PROBABLE WHITEOUT OR NEAR WHITEOUT CONDITIONS   
DEVELOPING.   
 

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SEVERE WEATHER BULLETIN
ISSUED BY ENVIRONMENT CANADA

AT 5:16 PM EST FRIDAY 24 JANUARY 2014.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
WATCHES/WARNINGS IN EFFECT FOR SOUTHERN ONTARIO...

WIND WARNING FOR:
=NEW= CITY OF TORONTO
=NEW= PICKERING - OSHAWA - SOUTHERN DURHAM REGION
=NEW= COBOURG - COLBORNE - WESTERN NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY.

      SOUTHWEST WINDS GUSTING TO 100 KM/H NEAR THE LAKESHORE THIS
      EVENING.

      VERY STRONG SOUTHWESTERLY WINDS HAVE DEVELOPED WITH REPORTS
      INDICATING WIND GUSTS OF NEAR 94 KM/H AT TORONTO ISLAND.
      EXPECT VERY STRONG WIND GUSTING TO 100 KM/H TO CONTINUE THIS
      EVENING OVER LOCALES MAINLY ALONG THE LAKE ONTARIO SHORE THIS
      EVENING.

      THESE WINDS ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO CAUSE SOME DAMAGE TO TREES,
      WITH LOCAL POWER OUTAGES ALSO POSSIBLE AS A RESULT.
      DRIVING CONDITIONS WILL ALSO BE DIFFICULT ESPECIALLY ON ROADS
      SUBJECT TO STRONG CROSS WINDS NEAR THE LAKE ONTARIO SHORE.

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There's warnings for the LES potential east of Toronto. That's it.

 

SW winds do not have the same toxicity in WNY that they do for Toronto. So I'm not expecting Toronto to get the same kind of impact that you are.

Yeah, makes sense. SW winds over a frozen Lake Erie with some decent snow on the ground and in piles is going to result in gusts around 60 mph. We have a tad over 6 inches on the ground here, but the piles are still here from the Blizzard. Should be a fun little event. If Erie wasn't nearly frozen I would expect quite a bit from this event, but NWS is calling for 3-6 inches. Here is a pic of the lakes.

 

1523488_281333885352446_644118477_o.jpg

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Just got back from the drive from Pearson Airport to home.  Some drifting on 401 but nothing too serious yet.   East of GTA near Brighton there was a 40 vehicle pileup due to the squalls from the SW winds  - surprised you GTA guys aren't talking about that one.   We came back from Florida today - my son came back Monday nite and had a minor case of frostbite on his fingers  waiting for the shuttle bus at Pearson and this afternoon , my fingers were tingling while I was loading the luggage in the bus.   Good times my ass................

 

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