January Medium/Long Range Discussion Part 2

[showmethesnow]

8 minutes ago, mitchnick said:

Starting with the period after the blizzard last year and continuing with the period before last weekend's storm, I've lost any hope with what they show. Not saying they are useless,  just that using the operational models as a group seems to make better sense to me; not that they aren't equally as troubling.  Lol

Turn to the Darkside Mitch, turn to the Darkside. Repeat after me. Mean snowfall maps are good. Mean snowfall maps are good. ..... 

[osfan24]

JB thinks February is going to be very cold and snowy. Compared it to PSU this year after halftime. So if we completely fail, we will always be able to point to how terrible JB did.

[mdsnowlover]

6 minutes ago, osfan24 said:

JB thinks February is going to be very cold and snowy. Compared it to PSU this year after halftime. So if we completely fail, we will always be able to point to how terrible JB did.

he's basing that statement  on their forecast which the euro weeklies support. I only follow him occassionally now. 

[Yeoman]

Starting with the period after the blizzard last year and continuing with the period before last weekend's storm, I've lost any hope with what they show. Not saying they are useless,  just that using the operational models as a group seems to make better sense to me; not that they aren't equally as troubling.  Lol

At least we have the CFS

[Ender]

3 hours ago, BristowWx said:

Running the 6z GEFS 2m temp loop through 384 shows nothing promising right to 31 Jan.  Even Western Canada looks fairly warm.  And our region is mostly mild.  But then I read LC from last night and it was encouraging.  

The 6Z GFS is encouraging on multiple fronts. Most notably: positive height anomalies over the pole...ridging extending up from the Caspian to the pole...positive anomaly over Greenland...the beginnings of what looks like it might become a very impressive ridge up through the GOA, and then eventual connection to the Caspian ridge for cross-polar flow.

[Ender]

1 hour ago, C.A.P.E. said:

The last few runs of the GEFS have shifted in that direction. Not so on the EPS or the GEPS. Will have to watch it, but for now we still seem to be on track for a more favorable east coast pattern by early Feb.

I'm curious to see what Jan 27th - 30th yeilds, but I suspect you're right; we have to wait until February. It's better than waiting until December, though. 

[showmethesnow]

5 minutes ago, Ender said:

The 6Z GFS is encouraging on multiple fronts. Most notably: positive height anomalies over the pole...ridging extending up from the Caspian to the pole...positive anomaly over Greenland...the beginnings of what looks like it might become a very impressive ridge up through the GOA, and then eventual connection to the Caspian ridge for cross-polar flow.

Didn't like the GEFS but yeah the Op opened my eyes. Looked like a nice -AO and was that the PV diving down towards the lakes?

[BristowWx]

7 minutes ago, Ender said:

The 6Z GFS is encouraging on multiple fronts. Most notably: positive height anomalies over the pole...ridging extending up from the Caspian to the pole...positive anomaly over Greenland...the beginnings of what looks like it might become a very impressive ridge up through the GOA, and then eventual connection to the Caspian ridge for cross-polar flow.

Excellent.  I looked at it again. It was early this morning.  Something will pop

[mitchnick]

11 minutes ago, Yeoman said:

At least we have the CFS

Idk. Do we? 

[aldie 22]

8 minutes ago, mitchnick said:

Idk. Do we? 

We have some dudes in this forum 

[psuhoffman]

24 minutes ago, mdsnowlover said:

he's basing that statement  on their forecast which the euro weeklies support. I only follow him occassionally now. 

Which forecast?  The one for a front loaded winter fading after dec?  Oh wait the one they edited to cold and snow coming in January. Oh wait or the one saying Jan 20. Now it's feb. I guess if you just keep saying it's coming you will be right eventually. I happen to agree with him this time but him saying that doesn't add any confidence to my expectations. 

[mdsnowlover]

2 minutes ago, psuhoffman said:

Which forecast?  The one for a front loaded winter fading after dec?  Oh wait the one they edited to cold and snow coming in January. Oh wait or the one saying Jan 20. Now it's feb. I guess if you just keep saying it's coming you will be right eventually. I happen to agree with him this time but him saying that doesn't add any confidence to my expectations. 

i really dont care which one, I just repeated what he said. I dont rip people here. 

[psuhoffman]

4 minutes ago, mdsnowlover said:

i really dont care which one, I just repeated what he said. I dont rip people here. 

No you just complain constantly about every pattern discussion unless you have snow on the ground. 

[mdsnowlover]

2 minutes ago, psuhoffman said:

No you just complain constantly about every pattern discussion unless you have snow on the ground. 

show me where i have complained about a patterm, !!! I believe I have posted, maybe 3 times this past week about the past snow event. 

[WinterWxLuvr]

Somebody post the It's Happening gif

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

35 minutes ago, Ender said:

The 6Z GFS is encouraging on multiple fronts. Most notably: positive height anomalies over the pole...ridging extending up from the Caspian to the pole...positive anomaly over Greenland...the beginnings of what looks like it might become a very impressive ridge up through the GOA, and then eventual connection to the Caspian ridge for cross-polar flow.

Though it's a deterministic GFS run out there in time, that is a very nice look.

[kurtstack]

january looks to be done - february pattern might be good but we will have to wait another 10 days or so to see if that has any legs. Best to just enjoy the next two weeks of spring and check back toward the end of the month


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[psuhoffman]

Well we have a pretty good model war for day 10-15. The EPS if anything doubled down on a healthy pna ridge and eastern trough. Geps supports it. Gefs otoh is getting the trough stuck in the inter mountain west and just leaving it there. That seems suspect to me.  I'm not sure gefs is all that bad as it could still evolve to a decent look after. 

More troubling is the dry look to the long range. Very little snow signal showing up anywhere. Even to our north. Storms aren't missing us on the EPS after day 10 as much as there just aren't any.  Op gfs looked promising day 10 though. I think we need to get that look going into feb then hope the AO/nao come around in response to the swe for at least some period. 

[CAPE]

17 minutes ago, psuhoffman said:

Well we have a pretty good model war for day 10-15. The EPS if anything doubled down on a healthy pna ridge and eastern trough. Geps supports it. Gefs otoh is getting the trough stuck in the inter mountain west and just leaving it there. That seems suspect to me.  I'm not sure gefs is all that bad as it could still evolve to a decent look after. 

More troubling is the dry look to the long range. Very little snow signal showing up anywhere. Even to our north. Storms aren't missing us on the EPS after day 10 as much as there just aren't any.  Op gfs looked promising day 10 though. I think we need to get that look going into feb then hope the AO/nao come around in response to the swe for at least some period. 

Was literally just going to post about this. You beat me to it. Not sure whats going on with the GEFS. Recent op runs have looked decent day 10+.

I am not too worried about the dry look at this point. It may be that initially our chances will have to come from ns impulses, and if thats the case there probably wouldn't be a signal until closer in.

[psuhoffman]

1 hour ago, C.A.P.E. said:

Was literally just going to post about this. You beat me to it. Not sure whats going on with the GEFS. Recent op runs have looked decent day 10+.

I am not too worried about the dry look at this point. It may be that initially our chances will have to come from ns impulses, and if thats the case there probably wouldn't be a signal until closer in.

Not worried it's just the one negative. But I'm pleased the pattern looks fairly stable and not about to quickly flip back. 

[PhineasC]

1 hour ago, C.A.P.E. said:

Was literally just going to post about this. You beat me to it. Not sure whats going on with the GEFS. Recent op runs have looked decent day 10+.

I am not too worried about the dry look at this point. It may be that initially our chances will have to come from ns impulses, and if thats the case there probably wouldn't be a signal until closer in.

Some cold air and a few clippers through the middle of Feb would lift spirits while we wait for a southern jet storm in late February. It would fit our pattern.

[psuhoffman]

It's amazing the difference between the EPS and gefs right now and it starts pretty early. They diverge around day 8. Gefs is rebooting the December pattern. 18z even more adamant. One of them is going to take a bad defeat. 

[SnowGoose69]

6 minutes ago, psuhoffman said:

It's amazing the difference between the EPS and gefs right now and it starts pretty early. They diverge around day 8. Gefs is rebooting the December pattern. 18z even more adamant. One of them is going to take a bad defeat. 

I thought today the OP Euro and EPS too a slight step towards the GFS in the day 10-12 range at least.  Meanwhile I thought  the GFS/GEFS took a step towards the Euro at 18Z in the Day 13-16 period.  The GFS was the first to catch onto the rebooted southeast ridge briefly behind the day 9-10 bowling ball and it seemed the euro moved that way today.  It may just end up being delayed by 3-5 days.  Whether or not we can give the GFS credit for seeing that delay of just sucking and backing it's way into a correct forecast is always a question 

[Ji]

It's amazing the difference between the EPS and gefs right now and it starts pretty early. They diverge around day 8. Gefs is rebooting the December pattern. 18z even more adamant. One of them is going to take a bad defeat. 

I'll take the gfs to easily beat the euro. In this winter...take the worst outcome

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[psuhoffman]

12 minutes ago, SnowGoose69 said:

I thought today the OP Euro and EPS too a slight step towards the GFS in the day 10-12 range at least.  Meanwhile I thought  the GFS/GEFS took a step towards the Euro at 18Z in the Day 13-16 period.  The GFS was the first to catch onto the rebooted southeast ridge briefly behind the day 9-10 bowling ball and it seemed the euro moved that way today.  It may just end up being delayed by 3-5 days.  Whether or not we can give the GFS credit for seeing that delay of just sucking and backing it's way into a correct forecast is always a question 

I don't know looking at the 18z gefs it seemed to go even harder towards the western trough idea. I'm using the geps frame that most closely matches the EPS day 15 since I can't post it even though the times don't match. These looks can't be more night and day to me. 

[BristowWx]

17 minutes ago, psuhoffman said:

It's amazing the difference between the EPS and gefs right now and it starts pretty early. They diverge around day 8. Gefs is rebooting the December pattern. 18z even more adamant. One of them is going to take a bad defeat. 

I think if we move toward a December like pattern in Feb I will need therapy.  I mean real therapy...couch and guy with a clip board. 

[psuhoffman]

3 minutes ago, BristowWx said:

I think if we move toward a December like pattern in Feb I will need therapy.  I mean real therapy...couch and guy with a clip board. 

Even with my pessimism I'm leaning towards the geps EPS solution. Gefs evolution seems out of touch with the soi mjo and seasonal progression. It's developing the same pattern but with opposite forcing from earlier. 

[WinterWxLuvr]

38 minutes ago, psuhoffman said:

I don't know looking at the 18z gefs it seemed to go even harder towards the western trough idea. I'm using the geps frame that most closely matches the EPS day 15 since I can't post it even though the times don't match. These looks can't be more night and day to me. 

Not so sure we couldn't get a better snow out of the gfs look than the eps look though.

Thats not really much of a ridge in the east.  Those heights could support snow and we'd be more likely to get a wet system .  That eps pattern screams cold , dry, suppressed IMO.

[kurtstack]

very possible both models are wrong and we end up with a pattern somewhere in between with no consensus at this point


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[Ender]

So, of 20 winters in which the QBO is positive in November and stays positive into February:

• Six had a January that was at least 1.5F above normal.
  • All six were followed by a February that was at or below normal: two were between -.1F and -1.3F of normal and the other four averaged 5.8F below normal. 
  • All six had Feb snowfall of at least 8.8", the average was 15.2". 
• Only four had a December and a January that were at least 1.5F above normal:
  • The subsequent February averaged 3.1F below and March 2.3F below normal. 
  • February in those four years averaged 16.2" of snow (9.8", 10.7", 27.2" and 16.9") 
• Removing some of the constraints and looking at the full set of 20 winters and comparing them to the 48 non "QBO stays positive Nov - Feb" winters 
  • December showed a normal distribution of snowless, versus <2" or >6" snow totals. 
  • January deviated from the non +QBO Winter distribution. 
    • 20% of the non +QBO winters had 2" or less while 50% of the 20 +QBO winters did. 
    • 35% of the non +QBO winters less than 4", but 60% of the +QBO winders did. 
  • For the month of February: 
    • 44% of non +QBO winters had less than 2" of snow and 35% of the 20 +QBO winters did. 
    • 60% of non +QBO winters had less than 4" of snow, but only 35% of the +QBO Winters did.
    • 60% of the +QBO Winter's Februaries had 8.8" or more, 50% had more than ~10" and 40% had more than about 15". That compares to only seven of 48, or 15% of the non +QBO Winter's Feb's getting more than 8.8" and five winters, 10%, with more than 12".
    • While Dulles' average February snowfall is 7", the non +QBO winters only had a 31% chance of getting at least 7" in the month (as opposed to 60% for +QBO Winters) and they had a 63% chance of recording less than 5" in the month. Thus in a winter that has not had a +QBO from November into February there's a better chance that we'll see less than 5" than there is a chance of more than ~9" in a +QBO winter February.
  • March: 
    • 67% of non +QBO winters will have less than 2" in March and 50% will in the +QBO winters
    • 27% chance of more than 6" in a non +QBO winter as opposed to a 40% chance in the +QBO set. 
    • 10% of non +QBO winters get more than 10" of snow in March and only one of 48 such winters saw more than 11", while 25% of the +QBO set had more than 13". 

NOTE: it was necessary to use Baltimore's observations as a supplement to the IAD records for 1948 - 1962 in order to get a history that covered the whole QBO reanalysis period that begins in 1948.