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Saint Patrick's Day Snow Event


stormtracker

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Thank you!  Apologies myself for getting off topic with my particular mini-rant.

 

 me too...I know everyone here loves weather and snow and that is what is the most important

 

anyway.....Don't pay much attention to the thermal profiles on the NAM right now (addressed to all)...it is still at a range when it lacks skill...and will often show goofy solutions..

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 me too...I know everyone here loves weather and snow and that is what is the most important

 

anyway.....Don't pay much attention to the thermal profiles on the NAM right now (addressed to all)...it is still at a range when it lacks skill...and will often show goofy solutions..

 

Yes, the NAM had some funky a** looking mid-level profiles along with the surface below freezing.  Last night's 00Z would have given us ice/sleet.

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It did the best with the March 3rd storm

 

It depends on what you mean by "best".  It did have the system further south than the other models, but over-did it and came back north at the last minute.  Before becoming the southern-most solution, it started off as the northern-most solution. Not to say that it's a bad model -- like every other model, it has its strengths and weaknesses.

 

While we're in a bit of a lull, I hope nobody minds if I ask a question.  It seems like the NAM and GFS jump around a bit more than their foreign counterparts, even when they end up fairly accurate.  Is this at least in part because they don't use 4D-VAR initialization?

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With all the climo naysaying, I do think that it is reasonable to point out that the 2 biggest snow storms ever recorded in DC in March were both at the very end of the month (3/27/1891(12") and 3/28/42 (11.5")). Mind you, these storms took place around over 70 and over 120 years ago respectively, so climo has obviously changed quite a bit. However, am I wrong to point out that sun angle issues presumably have not? Didn't those historic mega-storms have to fight sun angle too? We know there is serious cold air to draw from. Whether this storm pans out seems to be about track, timing, phasing, dynamics, rates, trough evolution, etc. Climo has and will be overcame.

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For comparison to the 12z NAM at 48 hrs, here is the 12z RGEM:

 

 

post-397-0-23979600-1394811466_thumb.gif

 

 

At 48hrs, 12z NAM has a 997 L in extreme NE Arkansas... while 12z RGEM is in S Arkansas at 999mb.  RGEM is also a bit faster with the movement of the high (as in its further east than the 12z NAM position) and is also stronger by 2-3mb.  This, for now, would lead me to believe that we would be better on the 12z RGEM

 

EDIT:  12z GFS just came out to 48.  GFS has a 1001 L in W Arkansas and a 1037 H just northwest of Lake Superior

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Why do we spend so much time on the NAM every event? Timing is the only possible reason: every six hours, and it's the first of each suite. On the flipside, we spend far too little time on the GGEM, which has a higher verification score this winter than anything but the EURO.

The NAM isnt complete junk...its obviously better under 48 hrs but it can still be looked at..the problem is not enough people know or take into account its biases...This forum is all about expectations...some people raise them too high and some people have them overly low on every event..for me Im at over/under 2 inches in Baltimore for this event.

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This is not a valid enough argument, as historically Baltimore has gotten significant snow events all the way into the first half of April.

 

That's incorrect. Baltimore has not received more than an inch of snowfall in the entire month of April since 1943-44, nor more than 2 inches since 1923-24. 

 

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/lwx/climate/bwi/bwisnow.txt

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That's incorrect. Baltimore has not received more than an inch of snowfall in the entire month of April since 1943-44, nor more than 2 inches since 1923-24.

Not sure what your point is- so you're saying we should discard all records before the 1920's? That requires an additional argument, such as you believing climate change has taken away the possibility of it, the records aren't accurate, etc.

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