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Ice/Wintery Mix Event 3/1


stormtracker

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Cold air is tough to budge

Anyone interested:   please critique my amateur blend of GFS/NAM analysis for NVA/DC/central MD:

 

Light snow 10 am to 1 pm.  Unlikely that anyone will exceed 3 inches of snow east of the Blue Ridge and south of the MD Line.

Sleet mixing from SE to NW from 1 pm to 3 pm.  Sleet will be brief and not accumulate more than 1/4" to 1/3".

Freezing rain mixing from SE to NW with all rain south of the Potomac River.

All freezing rain to plain rain up to the Mason Dixon Line from 4 pm to 6 pm and

then dry slot/drizzle from SW to NE.  Freezing rain is unlikely to create major tree damage and unlikely to create major power outages.

 

Road temperatures could be tricky and patchy.  South and east of the cities should warm above freezing but some bridges and overpasses could retain below freezing temperatures throughout the afternoon even south and east of the cities due to sustained antecedent cold air mass at the surface.  Well traveled road surfaces even north to the MD Line should be only wet/not freezing by sunset if treated.  Smaller roads especially in valleys may have black ice due to the antecedent cold.

 

Some cautious schools will be 2 hours late Monday morning.

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Anyone interested:   please critique my amateur blend of GFS/NAM analysis for NVA/DC/central MD:

 

Light snow 10 am to 1 pm.  Unlikely that anyone will exceed 3 inches of snow east of the Blue Ridge and south of the MD Line.

Sleet mixing from SE to NW from 1 pm to 3 pm.  Sleet will be brief and not accumulate more than 1/4" to 1/3".

Freezing rain mixing from SE to NW with all rain south of the Potomac River.

All freezing rain to plain rain up to the Mason Dixon Line from 4 pm to 6 pm and

then dry slot/drizzle from SW to NE.  Freezing rain is unlikely to create major tree damage and unlikely to create major power outages.

 

Road temperatures could be tricky and patchy.  South and east of the cities should warm above freezing but some bridges and overpasses could retain below freezing temperatures throughout the afternoon even south and east of the cities due to sustained antecedent cold air mass at the surface.  Well traveled road surfaces even north to the MD Line should be only wet/not freezing by sunset if treated.  Smaller roads especially in valleys may have black ice due to the antecedent cold.

 

Some cautious schools will be 2 hours late Monday morning.

Are you sure you want that? :whistle:

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Are you sure you want that? :whistle:

Bring it.  My hunch is that a bazillion similar events have trundled across our region and most behave in a similar fashion.  This is not a "one-off" special.  This looks well-modeled.  The NAM, high rez NAM and GFS all seem to be converging with

the thickness charts, start time of precip and tapering of precip.  This is short lead time forecasting.

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Anyone interested: please critique my amateur blend of GFS/NAM analysis for NVA/DC/central MD:

Light snow 10 am to 1 pm. Unlikely that anyone will exceed 3 inches of snow east of the Blue Ridge and south of the MD Line.

Sleet mixing from SE to NW from 1 pm to 3 pm. Sleet will be brief and not accumulate more than 1/4" to 1/3".

Freezing rain mixing from SE to NW with all rain south of the Potomac River.

All freezing rain to plain rain up to the Mason Dixon Line from 4 pm to 6 pm and

then dry slot/drizzle from SW to NE. Freezing rain is unlikely to create major tree damage and unlikely to create major power outages.

Road temperatures could be tricky and patchy. South and east of the cities should warm above freezing but some bridges and overpasses could retain below freezing temperatures throughout the afternoon even south and east of the cities due to sustained antecedent cold air mass at the surface. Well traveled road surfaces even north to the MD Line should be only wet/not freezing by sunset if treated. Smaller roads especially in valleys may have black ice due to the antecedent cold.

Some cautious schools will be 2 hours late Monday morning.

Not bad. I think the colder air will hang in longer but March sun angle will play a role.

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Bring it.  My hunch is that a bazillion similar events have trundled across our region and most behave in a similar fashion.  This is not a "one-off" special.  This looks well-modeled.  The NAM, high rez NAM and GFS all seem to be converging with

the thickness charts, start time of precip and tapering of precip.  This is short lead time forecasting.

good summary thanks told my minister.

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Anyone interested:   please critique my amateur blend of GFS/NAM analysis for NVA/DC/central MD:

 

Light snow 10 am to 1 pm.  Unlikely that anyone will exceed 3 inches of snow east of the Blue Ridge and south of the MD Line.

Sleet mixing from SE to NW from 1 pm to 3 pm.  Sleet will be brief and not accumulate more than 1/4" to 1/3".

Freezing rain mixing from SE to NW with all rain south of the Potomac River.

All freezing rain to plain rain up to the Mason Dixon Line from 4 pm to 6 pm and

then dry slot/drizzle from SW to NE.  Freezing rain is unlikely to create major tree damage and unlikely to create major power outages.

 

Road temperatures could be tricky and patchy.  South and east of the cities should warm above freezing but some bridges and overpasses could retain below freezing temperatures throughout the afternoon even south and east of the cities due to sustained antecedent cold air mass at the surface.  Well traveled road surfaces even north to the MD Line should be only wet/not freezing by sunset if treated.  Smaller roads especially in valleys may have black ice due to the antecedent cold.

 

Some cautious schools will be 2 hours late Monday morning.

I'm by far not the best person to do this, but since you requested some insight I'll share what I think. As an amateur myself, I don't like giving specific hours of the day for when I expect things to change. Instead I'd reference "mid-late morning" as an example. Those comments are what I mostly highlighted in red with timing details. I highlighted in green where I think you nailed the context of your text. I know it takes a lot of effort to put this stuff together and I think you're on the right track overall. My best suggestion would be not to be so specific/certain with most of the content. Thanks for sharing your ideas about tomorrow!

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It's cold but it's not as cold as it was before the event last weekend going in. We came off that stretch of crazy days and into that. Freezing rain risk is poorly timed to make its biggest possible impact plus I doubt the highest QPF totals via earlier NAM etc end up right... if they did it's partly rate driven so it's not all going to accrete. No doubt there will be icy spots and some droopy pine trees if it comes together right. Spots that don't get much sun that are paved too.. notable for March, not too exciting tho.. expect for the stats padding snow (hopefully) that comes first at least.

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It's cold but it's not as cold as it was before the event last weekend going in. We came off that stretch of crazy days and into that. Freezing rain risk is poorly timed to make its biggest possible impact plus I doubt the highest QPF totals via earlier NAM etc end up right... if they did it's partly rate driven so it's not all going to accrete. No doubt there will be icy spots and some droopy pine trees if it comes together right. Spots that don't get much sun that are paved too.. notable for March, not too exciting tho.. expect for the stats padding snow (hopefully) that comes first at least.

Another difference to last weekend is we should have less *pure* liquid to deal with.

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It's cold but it's not as cold as it was before the event last weekend going in. We came off that stretch of crazy days and into that. Freezing rain risk is poorly timed to make its biggest possible impact plus I doubt the highest QPF totals via earlier NAM etc end up right... if they did it's partly rate driven so it's not all going to accrete. No doubt there will be icy spots and some droopy pine trees if it comes together right. Spots that don't get much sun that are paved too.. notable for March, not too exciting tho.. expect for the stats padding snow (hopefully) that comes first at least.

I agree but it looks to be plenty cold for this type of event...at least at the start. But time of day is a killer for this as far as travel impacts go. Trees and by extension power lines is another matter.

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I agree but it looks to be plenty cold for this type of event...at least at the start. But time of day is a killer for this as far as travel impacts go. Trees and by extension power lines is another matter.

Would less precip correlate with less waa?

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Another difference here vs the last event (and I think this could be the breadwinner) is the LLJ is actually weaker w/ a more westerly component this time, vs last weekend where we had a 70kt LLJ just a few thousand feet off the ground..nothing like that now. Less kinematic forcing could make the cold air harder to erode.

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Another difference here vs the last event is the LLJ is actually weaker w/ a more westerly component than the last one. Less kinematic forcing could make the cold air harder to erode. We had a 70kt LLJ just a few feet off the ground last weekend..nothing like that now.

Wouldn't this explain the difference in lower precip rates expected?

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Wouldn't this explain the difference in lower precip rates expected?

This airmass is also more "wedged in" w/ the high closer to us (if the crazy high pressures today weren't evidence enough). I believe everyone N/W of the fall line & east of the Blue Ridge stays below freezing for the entirety of the event, or close to it.

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This airmass is also more "wedged in" w/ the high closer to us (if the crazy high pressures today weren't evidence enough). I believe everyone N/W of the fall line & east of the Blue Ridge stays below freezing for the entirety of the event, or close to it.

My weather station beeped at me this morning, just realized it was the highest pressure on record. Things are getting pretty fooked up eh SOC?

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I agree but it looks to be plenty cold for this type of event...at least at the start. But time of day is a killer for this as far as travel impacts go. Trees and by extension power lines is another matter.

it is.. plenty cold. how much snow/sleet is put down and not removed first may be a factor too. it's definitely an event of note for this time of year if it comes together as it appears.

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it is.. plenty cold. how much snow/sleet is put down and not removed first may be a factor too. it's definitely an event of note for this time of year if it comes together as it appears.

a key player

http://weather.unisys.com/surface/sfc_con.php?image=de&inv=0&t=cur

 

tonight's soundings will be interesting

the reason why the south had snow this week were their crazy dp's aloft and down low which still allowed them to get decent snow after reaching mid-40's during the day

Thursday night ROA had a dp is -48.5C at the 850 level as 1 example

now, it ain't that dry tonight, but I'm sure soundings will show some pretty dry air down the east coast

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