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Pittsburgh, PA Thread: Winter 2015-2016


meatwad

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It really is a shame that confluence can't be a bit weaker. That is what is really killing this for us. AGC is like the battle zone between a nice moderate snowfall and nothing. Living in NW Westmoreland county I'm pretty well on the fringe too.

Well, it isn't going to take much. If confluence is slightly weaker, we will likely see a warning level event. Even 25 miles right now in expanding the precip field would be huge .

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Well, it isn't going to take much. If confluence is slightly weaker, we will likely see a warning level event. Even 25 miles right now in expanding the precip field would be huge .

Agree, this storm has the possibility to really make NWS \ Mets look bad in the eyes of the public. If we see a 25-50 mile NW expansion of the precipitation given that gradient someone without even an advisory could hit warning criteria, on the flip side if it slides another 25-50 miles SE people in the current advisory \ warning area will be saying why did we even have an advisory for flurries.

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Well, it isn't going to take much. If confluence is slightly weaker, we will likely see a warning level event. Even 25 miles right now in expanding the precip field would be huge .

Wouldn't take much...? well with the NAM significantly south as you say wouldn't it take significant changes?

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I just realized I probably have more time per inches of snow invested in this than I would ever care to admit....

Me too. I was almost to the point yesterday afternoon where I completely threw in the towel.. Then the 0z runs happened and sucked me back in lol. These last 5 days were fun tracking but the end result looks like it is not gonna pay off. 

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Me too. I was almost to the point yesterday afternoon where I completely threw in the towel.. Then the 0z runs happened and sucked me back in lol. These last 5 days were fun tracking but the end result looks like it is not gonna pay off. 

I think many of us got NAMed last night..  The reason I got so excited about the NAM was due to all of the new info into it and I thought it was onto something and was expecting other guidance to do the same.  When the GFS wasn't that great I thought well the big change with it may come at later runs, too bad I was wrong....At this point 1-3 north of city 2-6 south looks about it.

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I think many of us got NAMed last night..  The reason I got so excited about the NAM was due to all of the new info into it and I thought it was onto something and was expecting other guidance to do the same.  When the GFS wasn't that great I thought well the big change with it may come at later runs, too bad I was wrong....At this point 1-3 north of city 2-6 south looks about it.

GooFuS is being GooFuS, even Bernie Rayno said storm straight east is not a track he has seen very much. Bernie is a Big Euro fan & it is doing same thing with low straight east. listen the places that have been in bullseye for days now are going to get it. everyone else is basically waiting to see what storm "actually" does

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I just can't wrap my head around the gradient, I mean I know 2010 had it, but was even that this sharp? We've "lost" more snowstorms to poorly modeled confluence than I'd even like to remember. When we need less of it, it comes in stronger, when we need more its weaker lol The piece of energy swinging around is just the worst timing. Usually when a storm falls apart you don't miss 10+ totals by 50 miles and end up 1 inch which I think is the part that irritates me the most should that end up verifying.

 

Probably going to be a lot of radar hallucinations tomorrow night as we see high dbz returns heading for us only to see them dry out on arrival. 

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I just can't wrap my head around the gradient, I mean I know 2010 had it, but was even that this sharp? We've "lost" more snowstorms to poorly modeled confluence than I'd even like to remember. When we need less of it, it comes in stronger, when we need more its weaker lol The piece of energy swinging around is just the worst timing. Usually when a storm falls apart you don't miss 10+ totals by 50 miles and end up 1 inch which I think is the part that irritates me the most should that end up verifying.

 

Probably going to be a lot of radar hallucinations tomorrow night as we see high dbz returns heading for us only to see them dry out on arrival. 

I think that is the most frustrating part for me. Are we still in that crazy of a blocking regime? Like you said, countless times when a storm starts trending north it just keeps going. This time, even if we get a slight shift north it seems go right back south a bit on the next run. 

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.SHORT TERM /FRIDAY THROUGH SATURDAY NIGHT/...

A CONTINUATION OF THE TREND OF PREVIOUS DAYS' MODEL RUNS

RAISES CONFIDENCE IN A HEAVY SNOW EVENT ACROSS PORTIONS OF THE

AREA LATE FRIDAY THROUGH THE DAY SATURDAY. THE MOST CONSISTENT

GUIDANCE CONTINUES TO BE THE CANADIAN...WHICH FALLS NICELY IN LINE

WITH THE SREF AND GEFS IN THE PLACEMENT OF THE STRONGEST

DEFORMATION THROUGH THE EVENT. THE OPERATIONAL GFS IS WITHIN

REASONABLE AGREEMENT WITH THESE SOLUTIONS AS WELL...SO THE

FORECAST WAS GENERALLY BUILT AROUND A CONSENSUS OF THE

CANADIAN/GEFS/SREF/GFS.

OF OTHER NOTE WOULD BE THE OUTLYING NAM SOLUTION...WHICH

ERRONEOUSLY OVER DEVELOPS DEFORMATION ASCENT AND MOISTURE

FEED...INCLUDING A TRACK THAT VARIES WELL NORTH OF THE TRACK OF

THE CONSENSUS. ADDITIONALLY...THE 00Z ECMWF DID FINALLY START TO

EDGE TOWARD THE CONSENSUS PACK WITH A MUCH MORE NORTHERLY TRACK

THAN ITS PREVIOUS RUNS. THIS HAS RAISED CONFIDENCE IN MUCH OF THE

SOUTHERN HALF OF THE AREA SUCH THAT ALL WINTER STORM WATCHES WERE

UPGRADED TO WARNINGS. ADVISORIES WERE ISSUED JUST TO THE NORTH OF

THIS AND INCLUDE THE MAJORITY OF THE PITTSBURGH METRO AREA.

THE UPPER LEVEL SYSTEM RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS IS CURRENTLY EMERGING

INTO THE CENTRAL PLAINS WITH GULF MOISTURE BEGINNING TO STREAM OUT

AHEAD OF IT. THIS IS SET TO TRAVERSE THE SOUTHERN TIER OF THE

COUNTRY BEFORE EJECTING UP THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC COAST ON SATURDAY

NIGHT. WE REMAIN WELL TO THE NORTH OF THE LOW LEVEL SYSTEM...WHICH

MEANS ALL PRECIPITATION SHOULD FALL AS SNOW.

MOST SYNOPTIC DATA CONTINUES TO FAVOR 800-600 MB DEFORMATION

LIFTING TOWARD NORTHERN WV AND SOUTHWEST PA LATE FRIDAY AND

LINGERING OVER THE AREA INTO SATURDAY...WHICH YIELDS A FAIRLY LONG

RESIDENCE TIME OVER THE SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF THE AREA. ATLANTIC

MOISTURE FEEDS BACK INTO THE ATTENDANT TROWAL AIRSTREAM WHERE

STRONG 285-295K ISENTROPIC ASCENT IS MAXIMIZED. THIS IS ALL

OCCURRING IN A HIGHLY CURVED RIGHT ENTRANCE REGION OF AN UPPER

JET. ALL OF THIS WILL WORK TO FOCUS BOTH LARGE SCALE AND MESOSCALE

LIFT GENERALLY IN NORTHERN WV AND SOUTHWESTERN PA.

QPF VALUES WERE BUILT AROUND CONSENSUS OF WPC/CANADIAN/ECMWF/GFS

NUMBERS WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION PAID TO THE MOST LIKELY LOCATION OF

THE DEFORMATION FIELD. ADDITIONALLY...SNOW-TO-LIQUID RATIOS FAVOR

A MUCH MORE DENSE SNOW THAN RECENT SNOWS. AS SUCH...SLRS IN THE

RIDGES WERE GENERALLY BUILT AROUND 12:1...TAPERING TO AROUND 10:1

IN THE LOWER ELEVATIONS OF NORTHERN WEST VIRGINIA. THIS APPROACH

FAVORS AMOUNTS WELL IN EXCESS OF A FOOT...WITH OVER TWO FEET

POSSIBLE IN THE RIDGES...AND AMOUNTS GENERALLY JUST BELOW A FOOT

IN THE REST OF THE WINTER STORM WARNING AREA.

UNFORTUNATELY...THESE SOLUTIONS CONTINUE TO PLACE THE CORRIDOR

FROM JUST SOUTH OF ZANESVILLE THROUGH WHEELING...PITTSBURGH...AND

INDIANA IN A STRONG GRADIENT OF SNOW ACCUMULATION. IN PARTICULAR

AROUND PITTSBURGH...THE VERY CONSISTENT FORECAST OF AROUND 3

INCHES IN NORTHERN ALLEGHENY COUNTY AND AROUND 6 IN FAR SOUTHERN

ALLEGHENY COUNTY STILL SEEMS THE MOST PLAUSIBLE. THE SAME CAN BE

SAID FOR MOST OTHER COUNTIES INCLUDED IN THE WINTER WEATHER

ADVISORY.

MUCH DRIER AIR WILL RAPIDLY FILL IN BEHIND THE SYSTEM AS IT SLOWLY

PULLS AWAY ON SATURDAY NIGHT. THIS WILL ALLOW FOR VERY STRONG

DIURNAL TEMPERATURE FALLS GOING INTO THE NIGHT AS SKIES CLEAR OVER

THE NEW SNOW. FRIES

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