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March 25-26 Potential Bomb Part III


earthlight

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Ensemble member #46 has 10"+ from DC to Boston.

 

Ensemble member #48 has 10"+ from BWI to Cape Cod

 

Plenty of members have 6"+ over a large area.

 

Hence the WPC map posted earlier.  It is still remotely possible the primary low could form near Cape Hatteras and remain the predominant storm, but it is a long shot.  But the ensembles show it is not impossible.  The low does not even form for another 24 hours.

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When a storm is this close in range, you really don't want to hang your hat on ensembles. You have model after model with higher resolution telling you this is a miss.

Yeah, I've always been cautioned to start weaning off the ensemble systems within 48 hours. I guess you could still justify using ensemble means, but nitpicking the individual members this close in seems like an unholy degree of grasping at straws.

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When a storm is this close in range, you really don't want to hang your hat on ensembles. You have model after model with higher resolution telling you this is a miss.

 

One assumes the op was initialized with data as good as possible, the ensembles account for inherent uncertainty in the intialization.  Possible the ensemble run that bombs your house was perturbed in such a way as to best really represent the initial conditions, if enough of them show it , might mean something is still possible, if 2 or 3 out of 50 show it, implies a 4 or 6% chance, in a way (may not be rigorously correct) at best the op is wrong and the happiest ensemble is correct.  Ensemble forecasting, as is often noted, is best for longer range trends than 2 day before the storm pick a pertuabation you like and run with it forecasting.

 

Said as a NYC phasing/complex Winter storm modelologist, who doesn't have the training or time to get deeper into the actual meteorology involved,  I try harder for severe and tropical, they still require some modelology for forecasting more than a very short time out, but I can actually get a feel for whether even a usually reliable model is missing something.  Not so with complex NW snowstorms.

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What is absolutely critical is what is happening between hrs 33 and 39. There are two jet streaks. The first of which is more vigorous and allows for the development of the first surface cyclone that heads further east. The second low forms as a result of a second jet streak, coming behind, over the Carolinas - this is the one we want to predominate.  The first low, in my opinion is in a less favorable baroclinic zone (the gulf stream in mind), but gets going earlier, and the cold/warm air advections shift the baroclinic zone such that the second low is in a relatively less favorable pressure fall (surface convergence) zone.

 

To be honest, I think the second low overall is the more favorable one, in terms of dynamics, despite the evolution of this setup. It is very close in my opinion, and it's something to watch very carefully.

That wording, carefully done obviously, indicates you think there is an outside chance the models are focuing on the wrong low & that the correct one may very well turn out to be the 1 closer to the coast?

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In December or January, with minimal snow angle and temps not too far above freezing, 0.2 inches in 6 or 12 hours may be an accumulating snow, past the Equinox, that is flakes that melt on contact.  Below freezing, maybe flakes that stick to grassy surfaces, best I can tell.


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to me, and I'm no expert by any means, despite not too many runs showing a significant hit, it seems if we can get that trough to go negative by the slightest amount, we have an entirely different ballgame.  I'm not saying it will happen, nor do I have any evidence to suggest that it might.  Maybe someone who knows more than me can comment as to the probability of that happening. 

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The 12z GFS sends the first low to Bermuda!

Then forms another low but the 1st one steals all the energy. We have to watch out for these lows and see what happens.

 

first of all, you are not seeing a few inches.  second of all, even if that fell, you might see a slushy inch or so on colder surfaces--rates are not heavy enough.

Did the storm even happen?

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