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2014/15 Winter Banter and General Observations


Baroclinic Zone

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Ryan and Shabbs melted down completely, great laughs

 

Reading through some of the obs thread, it seems as though the fact that it was the first big MECS and possible HECS in years (maybe back to Jan 2005), the expectations and emotions were running sky high.  Especially after watching the mid-atlantic succeed in their big storms the year before.  There are a lot of normally even-keeled posters in that thread losing it over 8-12" of snow.  Folks that usually don't lose it over a 6-12" snowstorm.  But you can see there were forecasts for up to 30" and stuff like that...the usual hyped up and jacked up storm mentality so that even a foot feels like a total shaft-job.

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Reading through some of the obs thread, it seems as though the fact that it was the first big MECS and possible HECS in years (maybe back to Jan 2005), the expectations and emotions were running sky high.  Especially after watching the mid-atlantic succeed in their big storms the year before.  There are a lot of normally even-keeled posters in that thread losing it over 8-12" of snow.  Folks that usually don't lose it over a 6-12" snowstorm.  But you can see there were forecasts for up to 30" and stuff like that...the usual hyped up and jacked up storm mentality so that even a foot feels like a total shaft-job.

 

That was the winter where everything worked out for me. Boy did I pay dearly for about a season and a half. And then, an epic run.  Climo works in mysterious ways.

 

I didn't really want to say anything because people constitute it as being a Debbie, but my biggest concern this winter is that it's very difficult to string three good winters in a row. That trumps any Siberian snow cover correlation. I do agree that getting 120-150% of climo seems reasonable given the factors, but that stat always is in the back of my mind. I'm speaking more for my area as the last two seasons have been well above. We'll see what January brings.

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That was the winter where everything worked out for me. Boy did I pay dearly for about a season and a half. And then, an epic run.  Climo works in mysterious ways.

 

I didn't really want to say anything because people constitute it as being a Debbie, but my biggest concern this winter is that it's very difficult to string three good winters in a row. That trumps any Siberian snow cover correlation. I do agree that getting 120-150% of climo seems reasonable given the factors, but that stat always is in the back of my mind. I'm speaking more for my area as the last two seasons have been well above. We'll see what January brings.

 

Oh I totally agree with you.  That's actually why I'm more optimistic this winter, haha.  The more below average winters you string together, the more likely it seems the next one might be above average.  Sort of like the balancing of climo factor in the back of your head, although I know some scoff at that type of stuff. 

 

Speaking of climo, I'm most curious about January personally.  That month up here has been really low every year I've lived in Stowe except for 2010-2011.  J.Spin could post some of his stats, but January has been running much lower than any other winter month up here on average for the past 5 years... I don't think its even close too.  I'm curious if its more climo for January to be suppressed up here, or if its been more of a recent fluke.

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Reading through some of the obs thread, it seems as though the fact that it was the first big MECS and possible HECS in years (maybe back to Jan 2005), the expectations and emotions were running sky high.  Especially after watching the mid-atlantic succeed in their big storms the year before.  There are a lot of normally even-keeled posters in that thread losing it over 8-12" of snow.  Folks that usually don't lose it over a 6-12" snowstorm.  But you can see there were forecasts for up to 30" and stuff like that...the usual hyped up and jacked up storm mentality so that even a foot feels like a total shaft-job.

 

Most models had bulls-eyed this area in the immediate run-up to the storm as well, so that combined with the "drought" of big storms caused a lot of hair-pulling and angst. The funny thing about that storm is that IIRC, modeling really had a miss of an event until 72 hours out. As always, the lesson is QPF forecasts are non the end-all be-all.

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PF logically cold HP usually dominates Jan

Yeah that would make sense. I figure just following the seasonal jet transition would mean Jan would be our least snowiest month as everything should be suppressed, then snow returns later in FEB/MAR as the jet stream lifts back north in the means.

I figure if we have a real good January that might spell trouble in a lot of places to the south where January is often the best chance of good snow (like way south in mid-Atlantic).

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Yeah that would make sense. I figure just following the seasonal jet transition would mean Jan would be our least snowiest month as everything should be suppressed, then snow returns later in FEB/MAR as the jet stream lifts back north in the means.

I figure if we have a real good January that might spell trouble in a lot of places to the south where January is often the best chance of good snow (like way south in mid-Atlantic).

even down here QPF is hard to come by most Jans
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It's our snowiest month.

What's the driest month of the year down there?

Now that I'm looking it may be Feb is the most QPF challenged month up here, not January.

Mansfield averages 5.73" in Jan and 5.21" in Feb. BTV averages 2.06" in Jan and 1.76" in Feb.

Pretty large QPF difference for being mostly in the same county haha.

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What's the driest month of the year down there?

Now that I'm looking it may be Feb is the most QPF challenged month up here, not January.

yep I was wrong, guess those climo snowiest first two weeks of Feb threw me off

January 4.28

February 3.96

March 5.45

April 4.70

May 3.92

June 4.58

July 3.82

August 4.33

September 4.09

October 4.77

November 4.96

December 4.84

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Looking at the amounts now, it was definitely a little more drastic than 12" vs 20".

Taunton is officially listed at about 18" give or take, that seems about right and attleboro not to far away had 6"

Definitely some legitimate screwjobs in there.

I think I got pretty lucky. Southern bristol county got hosed by the looks of it.

Up in Norfolk county did really well.

Weird storm looking at the distribution. Definitely would be some serious meltdowns if that occurred again

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yep I was wrong, guess those climo snowiest first two weeks of Feb threw me off

January 4.28

February 3.96

March 5.45

April 4.70

May 3.92

June 4.58

July 3.82

August 4.33

September 4.09

October 4.77

November 4.96

December 4.84

I'm surprised March is your wettest month and not like July/August/Sept or something when we get t-storms and tropical rains sometimes.

Also for snow I'm surprised Dec eeks out Feb.

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