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January Med/Long Range Disco Part 2


WinterWxLuvr

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Between day 7-10, an extremely negative WPO/EPO pattern develops into the split flow (+PNA) over the CONUS. A polar vortex will get displaced into SE Canada. The questions that apply here for early Feb:

1. How strong of a displacement?

2. How long does it last?

3. Will there be enough amplification over the Alantic to slow things down and prevent a quick escape?

The other major piece to the puzzle, which was just further complicated by the huge spread on the 00z ECMWF/EPS, is the southern stream wave. Next week 1 piece will get stuck before ultimately the "Baja Low" comes out.

1. At what speed will it come out and when it will it arrive?

2. Will it get stuck under the huge high?

If it comes out in a reasonable time, not getting squashed, with the PV over Quebec (even if it's exiting as the storm is approaching), there will likely be a legitimate threat for significant snows in the Mid Atlantic. Change 1 of these 2 major players negatively, and there goes any major snow potential; but, it doesn't necessarily mean no snow either.

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Between day 7-10, an extremely negative WPO/EPO pattern develops into the split flow (+PNA) over the CONUS. A polar vortex will get displaced into SE Canada. The questions that apply here for early Feb:

1. How strong of a displacement?

2. How long does it last?

3. Will there be enough amplification over the Alantic to slow things down and prevent a quick escape?

The other major piece to the puzzle, which was just further complicated by the huge spread on the 00z ECMWF/EPS, is the southern stream wave. Next week 1 piece will get stuck before ultimately the "Baja Low" comes out.

1. At what speed will it come out and when it will it arrive?

2. Will it get stuck under the huge high?

If it comes out in a reasonable time, not getting squashed, with the PV over Quebec (even if it's exiting as the storm is approaching), there will likely be a legitimate threat for significant snows in the Mid Atlantic. Change 1 of these 2 major players negatively, and there goes any major snow potential; but, it doesn't necessarily mean no snow either.

Nice summary of what to look for.  With all of the moving parts and model runs ahead,  we will likely see at least some digital snow, if not the real thing. :pimp:

 

MDstorm

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Don't have the climo records in front of me for the metro areas, but in my area Feb 1-4 has been a bad time for getting decent snowfall. With the exception of 1961, and a storm in 1926, daily snowfall records for that period are lower than any other days in January or February. Would love to see those records challenged this year.

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The difference is that now we can get snow with a much more imperfect pattern. Much bigger margin of error....

Exactly. I will gladly take that setup in November again. In fact, this is exactly the same thing that happened then, happening now. The N Pac pressure fields have been ridiculously consistent on a bimonthly return rate. Pretty cool.

The southern stream has come to life, and Arctic Air is expected to make another visit while the southern stream is alive. That's all you can ask for in a winter like this one and climo peak for snow.

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Exactly. I will gladly take that setup in November again. In fact, this is exactly the same thing that happened then, happening now. The N Pac pressure fields have been ridiculously consistent on a bimonthly return rate. Pretty cool.

The southern stream has come to life, and Arctic Air is expected to make another visit while the southern stream is alive. That's all you can ask for in a winter like this one and climo peak for snow.

 

yup...the biggest fear is always wasting that 1/20-2/20 period when we average 50% of our snow....what is your opinion on the NAO going negative the 1st or 2nd week of February?

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Don't have the climo records in front of me for the metro areas, but in my area Feb 1-7 has been a bad week for getting decent snowfall. With the exception of 1961, and a storm in 1926, daily snowfall records for most of that week are lower than any other days in January or February. Would love to see those records challenged this year.

Did you somehow miss out on Feb 5, 2010?

 

:P

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Don't have the climo records in front of me for the metro areas, but in my area Feb 1-4 has been a bad time for getting decent snowfall. With the exception of 1961, and a storm in 1926, daily snowfall records for that period are lower than any other days in January or February. Would love to see those records challenged this year.

Because I'm sure everyone is on pins and needles to know, ;) here are the historical DC snow totals for those four days, dating to the winter of 1884-85: Feb 1, 21.7 inches; Feb 2, 23.5 inches; Feb 3, 27.4 inches; and Feb 4, 29.1 inches.  However, things then pick up dramatically:  Feb 5, 40.1 inches; Feb 6, 40.5 inches; and Feb 7, 52.8 inches.  The latter is the second most snow for any day in DC history, behind only the 73.0 inches recorded on January 28th. The Knickerbocker Storm has quite a lot to do with the record total, as 21.0 inches fell on January 28, 1922. The largest snowfall recorded on February 7th is 14.4 inches in 1936.

 

For perspective, the lowest historical DC snow total for any January or February day (other than February 29th) is 6.4 inches on January 14th, although we did manage 0.2 inches last Wednesday. The lowest total for any February day (other than the 29th) is 9.4 inches on the 18th, although we again managed to defy history recently by recording 0.3 inches last year.  February 29th, by the way, has recorded 3.5 inches, with the biggest storm coming in 1968, when 1.6 inches fell on that day.

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End of Euro has a coastal.. it crushes NC before being a bit too east for us.  

 

I'm not posting this in the other thread because it's pretty absurd to have a storm thread 10 days out. 

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