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Jan 22-24 blizzard obs, tracking, nowcasting


Ian

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MA Crew, does anyone know why the LWX beam is overshooting back towards the wsw, towards the Luray area? We traveled up from NC for this one, has a solid chance of eclipsing what I saw in DC back in Feb 2010, which is the current benchmark. Started around noon in Sperryville, close to 2" on the farm, removed just east of the Blizzard Warning by a few miles at the base of the mountains.

Don't know the reason why it's there but it always is 24/7. Easy to fill in the blanks. If you see high dbz returns in that zone it means it's crushing. Lol

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Don't know the reason why it's there but it always is 24/7. Easy to fill in the blanks. If you see high dbz returns in that zone it means it's crushing. Lol

Beam blockage from some of the mountains WSW of the radar. It's particularly noticeable in snowstorms because of their shallow nature - the beam has about a 1 degree width, so if the bottom half is blocked, it might miss more of the precip than it would for a deeper system. Satellite-based radar echo tops are in the 3-6 km range:

 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZWBiC-UgAALaKD.png:large

 

Moral of the story is not to get worried when radar returns seem empty or weak at long distances - it could very well be the beam overshooting the bulk of the precip.

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