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Central PA and The Fringes - February 2014 Part II


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So do you see 100% of Lancaster County losing power?

Absolutely not.  Total power loss will be less than 8% countywide.  This number is based on the fact that Lancaster County has a population of approximately 500,000 people, and the SPIA index is currently a 1.  Storms of that magnitude do not exceed 6% - 8% outages at a given time.

 

Seriously. Mid Atlantic Weather, Storms, and Anomalies first raised this possibility a couple days ago wh he said he would not be surprised if there wasn't a "single tree left standing or person with power."

:facepalm:

 

That's a bit sensationalist. It will be ugly tomorrow morning, with power outages in areas. But a total Lancaster County (or anywhere for that matter) tree-collapser - this storm is not.

A bit is the understatement of the year.

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Here is outage summary as of right now in KY.

 

 

Active Outages: 100 Affected Customers: 11,163

 

Only getting worse.

a good bit of that area also has had winds around 15-20mph sustained for hours...

 

NAM, RAP, HRRR all have lower winds and heavier rates for a shorter time period for around here...

 

that is why I think KY situation is worst case and we likely wont be quite as bad as that... but still likely bad

 

I dont disagree that there will be some trees down and some power outages but we will have a different situation than them

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Ok. So Eric Horst (the Millersville University meteorologist) is going with up to 0.5" tonightband tomorrow. Do you agree with his forecast?

 

Yes I think .4-.6" is a good possibility. I was just talking with him earlier on Facebook. Says seeing high amounts to west already, higher amounts have a good chance of happening here. 

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a good bit of that area also has had winds around 15-20mph sustained for hours...

 

NAM, RAP, HRRR all have lower winds and heavier rates for a shorter time period for around here...

 

that is why I think KY situation is worst case and we likely wont be quite as bad as that... but still likely bad

 

I dont disagree that there will be some trees down and some power outages but we will have a different situation than them

 

8-10kts here will not help the cause.

 

wind7.gif

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The rates at the beginning of the storm look light to moderate now according SR model depiction. As the storm begins to ramp up, precip shield looks to blossom to our south as secondary takes over. Rates by then could be steady moderate to heavy until storm pulls away and finishes with a drizzle. The best timing for accretion might actually be the first 3 hours and last 2 hours of storm as a whole. Sure there will be accretion during heavy stuff, but a majority will be run off. I think the worst hit areas could see upwards of 0.5" accretion if everything aligns perfectly involving steady light-moderate rates, but the majority will be around 0.2-0.4" accretion. My main problem with this is in combination with the cement we got yesterday can cause tree branch issues and some power lines. Also, for those cars surrounded by the snow that froze up, this could help further cement that area and act as an anchor to your car.

This will not be cataclysmic, world ending, day after tomorrow Canada '98 type deal. If we had any strong winds with this system, this would be incredibly bad. Anyone touring the notion that this event is potentially crippling is being recklessly irresponsible.

Edit: This is my opinion for LNS and southern tier only. Out east by Zak, it could be worse based on NWS ice forecast products. Stay safe everyone

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They really need to update the warning. Been almost 6 hrs and seems like they're really downplaying the whole storm.

 

I think it is funny locations got a .50" ice storm in November in like the worst setup ever and now people think .50" is not possible in almost a perfect ice setup? um ok. 

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Horst told me CTP is low balling on ice. 

 

This seems like an accurate statement. In all honesty, the HRRR has most of Lan Co. staying around 28 with moderate precip rates until precip tapers off. 

 

Doesn't look textbook for .5" ice accretion, but I think the warning could be upped to .25"-.5" 

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This seems like an accurate statement. In all honesty, the HRRR has most of Lan Co. staying around 28 moderate precip rates until precip tapers off.

Doesn't look textbook for .5" ice accretion, but I think the warning could be upped to .25"-.5"

This I agree with 100%. A lot of people around campus I talked to that aren't already met majors had no idea of the ice situation. They thought it was supposed to be snow to rain. They didn't hear about too much ice. Sigh. The public can be so misinformed in many ways whether be under forecasting or gross over forecasting
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mcd0071.gif

 

SUMMARY...FREEZING RAIN WILL DEVELOP EAST OF THE APPALACHIANS INTO
THE NRN DELMARVA OVER THE NEXT FEW HOURS. RAIN RATES WILL LIKELY
EXCEED 0.05 IN/HR. SLEET WILL BE COMMON ACROSS SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF
PA THROUGH MIDNIGHT.

DISCUSSION...MATURING WARM CONVEYOR WITH AN EXPANSIVE ZONE OF
PRECIPITATION IS SPREADING ACROSS THE OH/TN VALLEY AND WILL SOON
SPREAD ACROSS HIGHER TERRAIN OF WRN PA/WV INTO WRN VA/MD AREA.
ADDITIONALLY...WARM ADVECTION ACROSS THE DELMARVA APPEARS TO BE
PRIMARILY RESPONSIBLE FOR RECENT RASH OF SHOWERS THAT HAVE DEVELOPED
ACROSS THIS REGION. WEDGE OF COOL AIR WEST OF THE BLUE RIDGE IS
SEVERAL DEGREES BELOW FREEZING AT 02Z AND IS LIKELY ON THE ORDER OF
1KM DEEP. THIS WILL GRADUALLY SHALLOW WITH TIME BUT SHOULD NOT WARM
ABOVE FREEZING IN MANY PLACES PRIOR TO 06Z.

FARTHER NORTH...INITIAL PRECIPITATION WILL FALL IN THE FORM OF
SLEET...OR PERHAPS EVEN SOME SNOW...ACROSS SRN PA. WITH TIME MUCH
WARMER TEMPERATURES AROUND 2KM WILL SPREAD ATOP COOL BOUNDARY LAYER
RESULTING IN SUFFICIENT MELTING FOR A SWITCH TO FREEZING RAIN AFTER
06Z. PRECIPITATION RATES WILL INCREASE TO NEAR 0.10 INCH PER HOUR
IN PLACES AS WARM ADVECTION CREATES A FAVORABLE PROFILE FOR
SIGNIFICANT ICING.
WBZ LEVELS REMAIN BELOW FREEZING ALONG THE I-95
CORRIDOR FROM DC THROUGH BWI TO PHL. WHILE WARMING WILL EVENTUALLY
DRIVE SFC TEMPERATURES ABOVE FREEZING...THIS MAY NOT OCCUR UNTIL
AFTER 10Z.

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