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March 19/20 Potential Winter Event


stormtracker

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It is an interesting looking map :-)

All the locals are being uber bearish so far it seems. I guess it makes sense given this area and given late March.. but Euro also tends to lock in around here so it seems it should be given at least a little weight.

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Well aside from the obvious 3/6/13 debacle in the back of our minds, perhaps another storm to look at with regard to surface temps and accumulations would be 3/14/99: IAD recorded 0.99" liquid for 4" of snow. Temps bounced between 33 and 34 F during the entire day once precip started except for the first two hours of the storm (36 F at the start). There were a couple of periods of SN+ reported. 

Snow started at around 8 am. 

 

There was 1.4" more snow the next morning but after a break in precip. DCA reported minimal accumulation, and was of course warmer.

 

I was focusing on IAD since the temps were in that 33/34 F zone. 

In contrast, in both the 3/24/90 and 3/25/14 daytime snow events, the temp fell below 32 F at IAD during a part of the snow (in the case of 3/25/14, all the way down to 28 F). As a result, there was a much better ratio of liquid to snowboard accumulation--- 0.31" liquid for 3.0" of snow on 3/24/90 and 0.41" liquid for 3.8" of snow on 3/25/14. 

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All the locals are being uber bearish so far it seems. I guess it makes sense given this area and given late March.. but Euro also tends to lock in around here so it seems it should be given at least a little weight.

TV Mets are downplaying it big time. I think that is the wrong approach. Timing will be everything. We definitely need a night time start for this. Some may be banking on warm ground but in looking at the maps I see evidence of a classic winter storm. Cold high to the north funneling in drier and colder dew points.

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TV Mets are downplaying it big time. I think that is the wrong approach. Timing will be everything. We definitely need a night time start for this. Some may be banking on warm ground but in looking at the maps I see evidence of a classic winter storm. Cold high to the north funneling in drier and colder dew points.

Think it's partly banking on the situation being even if we get thumped the roads won't be super awful.. which is probably right in general. Though if we manage 1-2"/hr rates for a while as the Euro suggests is possible at least here and there... we'll see. I mean it's not an easy one -- they rarely are! -- but still. Doug K said it would be like the snow event early month. That's certainly not what the Euro shows...

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Think it's partly banking on the situation being even if we get thumped the roads won't be super awful.. which is probably right in general. Though if we manage 1-2"/hr rates for a while as the Euro suggests is possible at least here and there... we'll see. I mean it's not an easy one -- they rarely are! -- but still. Doug K said it would be like the snow event early month. That's certainly not what the Euro shows...

I think if the temps from the 0Z Euro run verified, it would definitely be a legit snowstorm. The 12Z Euro run-- let's just hope it's a tad warm at the surface. I really never want to see a "35F" forecast for DCA in the middle of a snowstorm. Even with the best rates. 

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Think it's partly banking on the situation being even if we get thumped the roads won't be super awful.. which is probably right in general. Though if we manage 1-2"/hr rates for a while as the Euro suggests is possible at least here and there... we'll see. I mean it's not an easy one -- they rarely are! -- but still. Doug K said it would be like the snow event early month. That's certainly not what the Euro shows...

They are all likely going with the GFS as the most likely scenario but are mentioning in so many words that it could be worse. Euro likely has a better handle especially at H5. Another euro lock and load run tonight and it's pretty well settled.

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If it were reversed I wonder if there would be more hype. I mean we know the Euro is king but that may not be the consensus with all mets. I guess if both models are not on board the event is downplayed.

 

It sounds like the temps on the Euro are borderline near the cities.  They might be taking that into account as well.  It would be nice to see it get more support from the other models.  Maybe the Ukie will come through tonight.

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It sounds like the temps on the Euro are borderline near the cities. They might be taking that into account as well. It would be nice to see it get more support from the other models. Maybe the Ukie will come through tonight.

The 12z UKIE looked impressive from what I saw

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It sounds like the temps on the Euro are borderline near the cities.  They might be taking that into account as well.  It would be nice to see it get more support from the other models.  Maybe the Ukie will come through tonight.

 

Um, the UKIE has been coming through with the EURO

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I think if the temps from the 0Z Euro run verified, it would definitely be a legit snowstorm. The 12Z Euro run-- let's just hope it's a tad warm at the surface. I really never want to see a "35F" forecast for DCA in the middle of a snowstorm. Even with the best rates. 

Yeah it's definitely marginal tempwise even with rates. And temps are pretty uniform so it doesn't necessarily look like a case where DCA is 35 and I'm 33.  35s all over at 18z.. tho really that's about what last night showed. Last night was maybe a hair cooler at 12z and 0z but 18z was very similar.

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They are all likely going with the GFS as the most likely scenario but are mentioning in so many words that it could be worse. Euro likely has a better handle especially at H5. Another euro lock and load run tonight and it's pretty well settled.

Yeah if Euro still shows similar tonight it's probably locked in for the most part. Even 3 runs in a row with a wetter product today argues for that but it also over qpfs then backs down a bit. Rates are huge obviously. Any time we're not getting rates it's going to be a meltfest unless we magically lose 3-5 degrees, which I still have to think will be somewhat tough as 35 is already close to the bottom for a midday temp so late.

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Um, the UKIE has been coming through with the EURO

 

That's good to hear.  It's hard to tell from the data on meteocentre.  At 72 hours, the UKIE has 0.4" in DC with surface temps above freezing the whole time and 850s very close.  If that's what local mets are going by, I can understand why they'd be cautious.

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