Jump to content
  • Member Statistics

    17,608
    Total Members
    7,904
    Most Online
    NH8550
    Newest Member
    NH8550
    Joined

Texas/New Mexico/Louisiana/Mexico Obs And Discussion Thread Part 8


wxmx
 Share

Recommended Posts

11 hours ago, It's Always Sunny said:

Meh.  If that happens precip will likely get shunted further south so it wouldn't matter.  I think even if your scenario panned out lower levels will still be too warm unless it miraculously wet-bulbs to 0C.

I could see this being a Waxahachie to Texarkana event where someone may get a wet inch with surface temps around 37. There could also be a precursor light event during the early morning NW of DFW with temps around 32 and night time allowing for accumulation even with lighter rates. All speculation until.we.get to after lunch tomorrow and can start looking at hi res models. Key for southern area could be convection. I do love not having to contend with a warm nose.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, cheese007 said:

Hmmmmmmmmmmm 

image3.jpg

NW and W of the Metroplex I think it's certainly possible but as you get further east I think that risk drops off considerably. 12Z GFS give Stephenville and Granbury a brief shot at some wet snow overnight tonight but I wouldn't expect anything more than a coating.  Western Fort Worth I think even has a slim chance to see some mixing for a brief window.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, cheese007 said:

Don't even have any precip here and I'm supposedly right under a snow band

There was some considerable low level dry air associated with this anafront which gobbled up a lot of what little QPF there was to begin with. That, along with a more pronounced warm nose than modeled was the nail in the coffin for any wishful snow chances here. 

  • Like 1
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking back through my records, I have an elaborate "difference in proportions" analog system that tries to match overall conditions in Summer to those that precede snowy conditions in winter, and then score how likely a given outcome.

The things I try to match are these, for Albuquerque, using about 90-years of snow data:

>=3" Snow in March

>=3" Snow in February

>=3" Snow in January

>=3" Snow in December

>=3" Snow 'off-season', i.e. Nov or Apr

>=10" in January-May

>=6" in February-May

Each of eight conditions in Summer is scored as -1, 0, or +1, with +1 ideal for snow overall, and -1 bad. Last year, the observed conditions in the Summer were not a great match for any of >=3" Snow ideals, and they were not a good match for a lot of snow late. This year is completely different. In essence, the scoring can be a total match (~0), or a total miss (~13) to conditions that are ideal historically. Last year, December had a Score=4 for 3"+ of snow, and that did happen, with 3.2" snow (and then we also topped 3" in February). All the other months were worse matches than December though.

This year, Nov/Apr >=3" had a score of 2.5. Real strong match. We had 4.0" in November. This year, January has a score of 4, and there is a strong signal for a wet January at least. More importantly, there is a score of 3 for Jan-May seeing 10" of snow. Conditions in Summer were not a good match to heavy snow years in Dec/Feb/Mar. Will be interesting to see how we'd get to that 10"+ in Jan-May if it were to verify, given that April is somewhat favored too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, It's Always Sunny said:

Probably for the panhandle everywhere else will be rain.

Just depends how suppressed it ends up being. The GFS is a fast and further north outlier right now. very cold upper levels and background temps in the low 40s would likely be some snow for Central through E TX on the backside from dynamic cooling. Big issue though is lack of a SW flow into the low for moisture as the cold will be there this weekend.

Looking ahead, through Christmas and likely through the end of the year the cold and moisture will be west of the Rockies. I could see many mountain locales seeing >2 feet of snow throughout the West over the next couple weeks. This all because of a +EPO/-PNA pattern. Around the beginning of 2020 we look to see a return of -EPO with a continued -PNA which is a snowy pattern for the Plains.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Euro & GFS don't seem to be able to agree on timing or duration for the late week system. The GFS originally had a big snow event for the Rio Grande Valley. Now the Euro does, and the GFS has rain. They don't seem to agree on the backdoor cold-front. Both do show a lot of precipitation coming in though, so someone will get a lot of snow. The GFS also has the storm much earlier, while the Euro is later. I think the ensemble means are in between. This is the 5 am run of the Euro today, from the Pivotal site today at 11 am. This is almost all within ~5 days now if the timing hasn't dramatically changed.

Image

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have four methods for predicting Spring precipitation here:

NDJ + Solar conditions

Closest Precip Patterns July-Dec

Replicate Precip Patterns July-Dec

Statistical Regression

The middle two methods imply a pretty wet Spring. I have a lot more faith in the third method this year compared to the second, as it was very difficult to mimic July-Dec 2019 with historical data this year. Heavily reliant on 1905 & 2004 to do it, with other years in there as 'fix its'. Essentially, you try to match the data in black for July-Dec with the blend. The green is then the forecast from the rolled forward blend. You can see how well the blend did last year, even though I gave up on November.

Image

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like the amazing start to winter will continue for SW ski resorts. Since before Thanksgiving they haven't gone much more than a week without a 6" snow storm with cold in between (-22F right now at Angel Fire). For Texas all that is missing is for the PV to split which usually happens in late Jan. Most -EPO/-ENSO winters are bookend winters.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Albuquerque only has about six degrees of variation from the long-term average high for the past 100-years in winter (DJF) highs. We're deep enough into winter to confidently eliminate about half of that.

Image

With the high at 47.3F for 12/1-1/4, the winter here should finish at 49.6F, +/-3.1F at 90% certainty. The historical range is 49.5F, +/-6.3F essentially. Expecting the high to be right around 47.0F for 12/1-1/10 here, since it does look cold after Sunday.

I'm increasingly concerned that the "E Pac Tropical Pacific Moisture Conveyor Belt" part of the pattern that appeared 11/16-11/30 will return, but is going to be a March thing. I think Jan 3 is roughly Sept 18 in terms of the pattern cycling through. If that pattern does cycle back, it's a major blizzard/heavy snowstorm pattern for the Southwest. I'm hesitant to be optimistic for Albuquerque, since the airport has never reported more than 3.8 inches of snow in March, in a low solar year back to 1931-32. High solar March will see ~30% of years top 3 inches of snow, compared to ~3% in low-solar, and its more like 75% in high solar El Ninos. I'm a little afraid of that March period verifying. The city has not had any snow in March since 2012. It is ridiculously, way way over due. So even though I don't expect it, with March 1975 being the only significant March snow in a low solar year, I wouldn't be shocked if we had some fluke 6-10 inch snow storm or something. The setup in November, an extended cold dry period, ending with an attack of very wet moist air moving over it, is probably our best possible setup for a March snowstorm. I'd imagine the NE gets their two big Nor'easters in March or late February if this part of the pattern is really set to come back.

This is my working theory for timing -

Sept 16-18 = Jan 1-3

Sept 25 = Jan 10

Oct 2 = Jan 17 (should be a big storm for the SW around Jan 19 in this scenario)

Oct 19 = Jan 24

Oct 26 = Jan 31

Oct 31 = Feb 5 (record cold for the SW? - that happened on Halloween. The great Arctic Outbreak of Feb 2011, when ABQ fell to -7F, with a high of 9F, was on Feb 4, 2011)

Nov 11-13 = Feb 16-18. This would be the time frame for the "Mother of Blue Northers" to relapse.

Nov 15 = Feb 20

Nov 20 = Feb 25 (big storm?)

Nov 27-29 = Mar 2-4. This is the time frame the big SW storm that brought big Nov snows to the Rio Grande Valley.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...