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Pittsburgh PA Winter 2016-2017


north pgh

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This is the winter to ditch long-range model watching.  There's no consistency, it seems because the teleconnections are pulling in many different ways.  I say pick the strongest or most volatile index and let that be your major determiner.  I'm also not a professional so it's more than possible I'm not adept enough at synthesizing why the long range this winter has been all over the map, flip-flopping, etc, but almost nothing has been good for us.

At this point I think if we do get a storm of any significance we won't know until we're 36 hours or less from the start.  I'm ignoring anything beyond four days outside of the overall forcing by the various indices.

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1 hour ago, jwilson said:

This is the winter to ditch long-range model watching.  There's no consistency, it seems because the teleconnections are pulling in many different ways.  I say pick the strongest or most volatile index and let that be your major determiner.  I'm also not a professional so it's more than possible I'm not adept enough at synthesizing why the long range this winter has been all over the map, flip-flopping, etc, but almost nothing has been good for us.

At this point I think if we do get a storm of any significance we won't know until we're 36 hours or less from the start.  I'm ignoring anything beyond four days outside of the overall forcing by the various indices.

Triple Phaser!!!! It's in Kansas though. 

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1 hour ago, jwilson said:

This is the winter to ditch long-range model watching.  There's no consistency, it seems because the teleconnections are pulling in many different ways.  I say pick the strongest or most volatile index and let that be your major determiner.  I'm also not a professional so it's more than possible I'm not adept enough at synthesizing why the long range this winter has been all over the map, flip-flopping, etc, but almost nothing has been good for us.

At this point I think if we do get a storm of any significance we won't know until we're 36 hours or less from the start.  I'm ignoring anything beyond four days outside of the overall forcing by the various indices.

I still think with all of the indictors, between the stratospheric polar warming, the MJO moving into correct phasing, we are still in good shape for February. I am not saying anything will verify, but im holding out hope for the pattern we have been waiting for to finally happen.

 

Just for fun, here is the GEFS. Nice trough with some blocking. Good patterngfs-ens_z500a_namer_65.png

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7 hours ago, Ryd10 said:

Triple Phaser!!!! It's in Kansas though. 

So a '93 repeat is on the table? Ha!  Too bad we'd end up on the warm side in that scenario.

 

7 hours ago, MikeB_01 said:

I still think with all of the indictors, between the stratospheric polar warming, the MJO moving into correct phasing, we are still in good shape for February. I am not saying anything will verify, but im holding out hope for the pattern we have been waiting for to finally happen.

*snip*

I do agree with you with a huge caveat.  With the MJO possibly heading toward Phase 8 and likewise a possible -AO, which would be a first since November, we might have a shot.  I'm still hesitant to believe these predictions just yet because we've seen the flip-flipping that goes on long range.  If these things end up aligning who knows, but that seems to be a big if this year.

I think we have about 10 days for these things to sort themselves out.  Late February (20th+) isn't a typical "event" timeframe, while March is a big wildcard.

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21 minutes ago, Ryd10 said:

Well we may not get snow from it but mid February until March looks like it's setting up for a good pattern. Only thing that's hostile is the EPO but we at least get some blocking it looks like. 

If things play out right we might get at least a good 2 week period end of Feb. MJO is projected to go into phase 8 in a pretty robust state by both Euro and GFS:

ECMF_phase_51m_small.gif

Here are how the phases correlate to sensible weather:

IMG_1781.PNG

If the warming in the strat can continue maybe that lends a hand in helping to get some blocking around the same time.

Keep in mind though, models aren't great with MJO forecasts, which is partially why the good look we had sorta dissipated as the MJO was originally forecast to be closer to the COD during the warm phases but that changed and thus the pattern isn't looking as good for the next 10 days.

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1 hour ago, north pgh said:

I know it is 10 days away but could you imagine Virginia Beach getting a second snowstorm this year to our zero? 

 

gfs_mslp_pcpn_frzn_us_31.png

 

It's actually 7-8 days away!  Haha. The trend seems to be going in our favor for the last couple of runs on the GFS.  Euro shows no storm for that period, I do believe.

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31 minutes ago, Mailman said:

It's actually 7-8 days away!  Haha. The trend seems to be going in our favor for the last couple of runs on the GFS.  Euro shows no storm for that period, I do believe.

Yeah until it disappears at day 4. We have seen this far too many times these past few years. 

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Fear not! Our fortunes are about to take a turn for the better, Dennis Bowman has been brought out of retirement to fill in for Jeff V. Some old school Met mojo to bring back some luck from the early / mid 90s. What a stretch 92-96 was, all 3 season in a row with 70+ inches.

Most everything just looks awful for the next 10 days... pretty soon we are going to be running out of time. I really hope we don't end up with a miserable March and April... Currently 5th lowest snowfall in recorded history with 15.6 inches total thus far, although I doubt we make it through all of Feb and March without scoring at least another 6-8 inches, which would still be lousy but there are plenty of seasons with totals in the 20 inch range. I guess at some point we have to pay the price for the 77.6 inches in 09-10, regression to the mean as they say in statistics..

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2 hours ago, RitualOfTheTrout said:

Most everything just looks awful for the next 10 days... pretty soon we are going to be running out of time. I really hope we don't end up with a miserable March and April... Currently 5th lowest snowfall in recorded history with 15.6 inches total thus far, although I doubt we make it through all of Feb and March without scoring at least another 6-8 inches, which would still be lousy but there are plenty of seasons with totals in the 20 inch range. I guess at some point we have to pay the price for the 77.6 inches in 09-10, regression to the mean as they say in statistics..

 Barring a major storm, I'd say we'll most likely hit at least 25" for the whole season. That's relatively easy to accomplish in late winter (another ten inches) from all of the little nickle and dime events that inevitably occur, though it won't feel like anything because it will melt so quickly. I think the idea of any prolonged cold/snowy conditions can pretty much be tossed at this point though. The stratospheric warming isn't gonna portend to a favorable setup in the east for snow and cold. At least not for any tangible length of time. There's really nothing left to hold onto at this point if you're looking for any anomalous, long-term cold or snowy spells in our neck of the woods. 

 As for the road ahead though, I certainly wouldn't rule out one or two moderately heavy, wet snowstorms between now and St. Patrick's day. That's more than a possibility, and quite frankly I'd be surprised if this pattern didn't lead to at least one. I'm not a fan of winter weather, but I really don't mind those late-season 4-6 inch events. They're nice to look at, and the snow melts in a couple of days before it has a chance to get all discolored and nasty. As for March, I'm expecting to see pretty much the same type of pattern we're seeing now: Ups and downs, with plenty of chances for snow up until about St. Patrick's day. Then maybe one or two typical short-lived cold snaps in April, but by all accounts a pretty textbook climb out of winter. There's really nothing at this point suggests we're gonna have a march like 2013, 2008, etc.   

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28 minutes ago, RitualOfTheTrout said:

Under a decent snow band right now, wasn't expecting that tonight. Getting a nice coating. I love snow with temps in the 20s... such a tease, I wish we could get one good storm.

I dont have any guidance anymore but I hear the GEFS popped a storm after the cutter next week. Doesn't matter it will be gone in 4 days. 

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1 hour ago, psunate1977 said:

First 14 days of Feb looks blah. Hopefully we get something the last 2 weeks of the month cause we spring ahead early March and I usually start      wanting warmer weather when days get longer. 

Ever since they changed the time switch in March to earlier in the month, it feels weird when it's below normal and snowy,  and it's still daylight at 7pm.

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06z GFS throws a bone.....on Thursday after the Lakes storm moves up into Canada energy from the plains combines with moisture over Virginia to form a low which rides up the coast.  Southern PA, more likely SE PA gets something....one model run so I doubt it will hold.

The last few model runs have deminished the strength of the storm on Tuesday.  Earlier it looked like it was going to be a howling windstorm for the Lakes and NE, now not so much.

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2 hours ago, TeaysValleyWV said:

06z GFS throws a bone.....on Thursday after the Lakes storm moves up into Canada energy from the plains combines with moisture over Virginia to form a low which rides up the coast.  Southern PA, more likely SE PA gets something....one model run so I doubt it will hold.

The last few model runs have deminished the strength of the storm on Tuesday.  Earlier it looked like it was going to be a howling windstorm for the Lakes and NE, now not so much.

Nice to see snow over our area, but like you said we all know it will be gone at 12z. Models have been hinting at the possibility of a follow up wave but this is the furthers NW I have seen it. CMC didn't seem to have anything for it.

gfs_mslp_pcpn_frzn_us_16.png

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