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Post-Super Bowl Storm chance discussion


rossi

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I think WSO Upton has an average February snowfall (for the month) of just over a foot the last 14 years..previously, it was closer to 9 or 10 inches. 

 

February is the snowiest month of the year nationwide...despite it being the shortest month. 

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I would narrow it just a tad but yes. I can tell you from my history . I go back to the early sixties. Just my experience

 

Narrowed it would be Feb 3 - Feb 13.

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Lots of people could get burned thinking the thermal boundary with this couldn't set up further north.  Of course it could.  A stronger mid-level shortwave over the central US would do the trick.

 

Confluence is a correlated not causal factor.  It cannot "force" a southerly storm track.  And a forecasted future "pattern" cannot prevent changes in future model progs.  The "pattern doesn't support it" theory is illogical.  The future "pattern" and the modeled outcome are interrelated - they are essentially the same thing.

 

Modeled highs and lows will form below upper level convergence and divergence respectively.  Where those features set up is as yet unresolved, and we therefore cannot say, for example, how much confluence there will be on Sun/Mon.

 

The recent trends have clearly been to inch this thing north.  But the good news is that there is an arctic airmass in place over the entire northeast and the baroclinicity will be very strong.  That likely means places just north of the 850mb low will get a period of impressively heavy snow... even places that eventually mix or change over.

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Lots of people could get burned thinking the thermal boundary with this couldn't set up further north.  Of course it could.  A stronger mid-level shortwave over the central US would do the trick.

 

Confluence is a correlated not causal factor.  It cannot "force" a southerly storm track.  And a forecasted future "pattern" cannot prevent changes in future model progs.  The "pattern doesn't support it" theory is illogical.  The future "pattern" and the modeled outcome are interrelated - they are essentially the same thing.

 

Modeled highs and lows will form below upper level convergence and divergence respectively.  Where those features set up is as yet unresolved, and we therefore cannot say, for example, how much confluence there will be on Sun/Mon.

 

The recent trends have clearly been to inch this thing north.  But the good news is that there is an arctic airmass in place over the entire northeast and the baroclinicity will be very strong.  That likely means places just north of the 850mb low will get a period of impressively heavy snow... even places that eventually mix or change over.

Could you please explain baroclinicity in detail?

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Lots of people could get burned thinking the thermal boundary with this couldn't set up further north.  Of course it could.  A stronger mid-level shortwave over the central US would do the trick.

 

Confluence is a correlated not causal factor.  It cannot "force" a southerly storm track.  And a forecasted future "pattern" cannot prevent changes in future model progs.  The "pattern doesn't support it" theory is illogical.  The future "pattern" and the modeled outcome are interrelated - they are essentially the same thing.

 

Modeled highs and lows will form below upper level convergence and divergence respectively.  Where those features set up is as yet unresolved, and we therefore cannot say, for example, how much confluence there will be on Sun/Mon.

 

The recent trends have clearly been to inch this thing north.  But the good news is that there is an arctic airmass in place over the entire northeast and the baroclinicity will be very strong.  That likely means places just north of the 850mb low will get a period of impressively heavy snow... even places that eventually mix or change over.

I agree there will be a very nice front end before a changeover, and I don't see it being as extremely north/warm as the NAM, but I can't think of many of these SWFE type storms that end well around NYC. The last I can think of may be the 12/19/95 storm. NYC cashes in when it can on the front end, like in Feb 2008, and hoping the dry slot can end precip after it warms up. The vast majority of the time these inch north at the end before settling on heavy snow for I-90 in NYS and SNE/NNE and mixing/rain from NYC and south. 

 

Another problem with SWFE's is that warm mid-level air is often under-modeled. If you're on or south of the 850 low's track and the mid level temps look to cooperate, don't believe it. Only places north of the 850 low will stay all snow. It's an issue that central PA will likely face, as the 850 low looks to head down I-80 roughly. That also suggests that the I-90 corridor from Buffalo to Boston may have the highest snow totals. Strong enough confluence can keep the flow zonal enough to force the low east at some point, but to me it doesn't look overwhelmingly strong enough and stout enough to keep it all/mostly snow for the I-80 corridor and south.

 

This type of storm and the bomb-out clipper from Monday are often Boston's best snow producers and ones that leave NYC on the edge. 

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Are you speaking of general snowstorms? Or KU events? The PD I & II storms occurred in the 15-20 range, no?

 

Probably both.

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I agree there will be a very nice front end before a changeover, and I don't see it being as extremely north/warm as the NAM, but I can't think of many of these SWFE type storms that end well around NYC. The last I can think of may be the 12/19/95 storm. NYC cashes in when it can on the front end, like in Feb 2008, and hoping the dry slot can end precip after it warms up. The vast majority of the time these inch north at the end before settling on heavy snow for I-90 in NYS and SNE/NNE and mixing/rain from NYC and south. 

 

Another problem with SWFE's is that warm mid-level air is often under-modeled. If you're on or south of the 850 low's track and the mid level temps look to cooperate, don't believe it. Only places north of the 850 low will stay all snow. It's an issue that central PA will likely face, as the 850 low looks to head down I-80 roughly. That also suggests that the I-90 corridor from Buffalo to Boston may have the highest snow totals. Strong enough confluence can keep the flow zonal enough to force the low east at some point, but to me it doesn't look overwhelmingly strong enough and stout enough to keep it all/mostly snow for the I-80 corridor and south.

 

This type of storm and the bomb-out clipper from Monday are often Boston's best snow producers and ones that leave NYC on the edge. 

 

This kind of pattern is not going to yield some type of warm surge north of 41 N or even 40.5 N...I mean anything is possible...but this is not the event to do it. 

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Yes it is about a 30 shift north. I had a feeling the northward trend was too much too fast. There is a good chance that the track of the low will even go north of the city. Of course things can change, but the odds are for a shift further north. I even put it in my official forceast for DSNY yesterday and keep a possible change over in today's forecast.

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And 2 more days to keep trending north. Maybe even SNE will have to worry about mixing. Forky might be right this time.

Snowgoose a met in this thread mentioned that this is more of a hybrid coastal/swfe event, which makes me wonder if we could cool down again before the end of the storm as the coastal gets cranking especially the farther north you are

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Upton has a pretty good discussion tn about why they are waiting on Watches. They note the north trend and higher confidence in snow amounts inland rather than coast. Also want to wait until tn for the energy to come on land to be sampled. ..would have posted it but its a pain from the phone.

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Yes it is about a 30 shift north. I had a feeling the northward trend was too much too fast. There is a good chance that the track of the low will even go north of the city. Of course things can change, but the odds are for a shift further north. I even put it in my official forceast for DSNY yesterday and keep a possible change over in today's forecast.

the one thing i do disagree with though is this becoming primarily a rain event, i think no matter what there is a nice period of snow for pretty much the entire area to start, at the very least

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SREF's are the most useless models out there...they are not called "experimental" for nothing. If they were any good they would no longer be deemed as such...

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Maybe we should wsit till the major 0z globals come out before making such statements?

I agree - this north shift stuff that even southern new england has mixing and change over issues is ridiculous and premature IMO there will be no rain in southern new england thats for sure with such a cold environment and very deep snowcover on Feb 1

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