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March 1-2 wind event


Ji

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58 minutes ago, Eskimo Joe said:

Hardy / Jefferson / Mineral / Grant / Hampshire counties in WV and Prince William county in VA have closed school for tomorrow.

All schools in West Virginia have been closed since last Thursday due to a teacher strike. 

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12 minutes ago, gymengineer said:

MCPS has never in my lifetime closed just for wind. Closing for wind accompanying a tropical storm/hurricane, yes. Closing because of widespread outages after a thunderstorm, yes. Individual schools closing because of power outages after an event, yes. Never for just high winds.

But what's very unusual about this event is the timing. The peak is forecast to coincide with the morning rush hour so there is more pressure than normal for disrupted schedules across the region. Think back to all the other high wind situations we've had over the past couple of decades-- very rarely have widespread 50 mph+ gusts happened during peak commute times. 

This here...this has been one of the rather unusual, and rather annoying, parts of this entire winter: Even though the events so far have been pretty small, their timing has always come right at commute time...causing delays and closings just by nature of said timing (even despite the event being small and without a snow shovel, lol). It's insane...ya got snow days used yet only 6-8 inches on the year, hahaha)

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Excerpt from the latest iteration of the LWX AFD:

Rain has overspread much of the region this evening, especially
across the northern half of the area. The cold front associated
with the low will pass through our area late this evening and
overnight, first across locations west of the Blue Ridge
Mountains between 9 pm and midnight, then across the rest of the
area between midnight and 3 am. A wind shift to the west and
northwest is expected behind the front and strong winds will
accompany that shift. The gradient will continue to strengthen
overnight causing strong winds. Winds at the top of the mixing
layer continue to be modeled between 60 to 75 knots per latest
multi-model consensus, peaking between 5 am and 12 noon, with
mean mixed layer winds between 50 and 60 knots. Therefore a High
Wind Warning is in effect for the entire region with gusts
around 60 to 70 mph expected. Could see gusts even a bit higher
than that...especially across the ridge tops.

Concern is increasing for the Friday morning hours between 6 am
and 12 noon for the strongest period of winds. A feature similar
to a "sting jet" (Browning 2002, Schultz and Browning 2017) may
cross the region during this time frame, increasing the threat
for the 60-70 mph winds. There will also likely be some
rain/snow showers around during the morning hours, including the
Washington and Baltimore Metropolitan areas. Snowfall could
coat some grassy surfaces but recent warm conditions and
marginal temperatures suggest that paved surfaces will be wet.
Following this period, strong and damaging winds will continue
through Friday and well into Friday night before diminishing
slightly toward morning. The fact that this is a long duration
event and the ground will already be saturated means that
widespread tree damage is expected along with power outages.
This is going to be one of the most powerful wind storms in
recent years. Through this evening...it is a good time to secure
lightweight objects outside, and check flashlights and
batteries as well as other items needed in a power outage.
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29 minutes ago, nw baltimore wx said:

No it's not.  There's no reason we can't get 180 days of school between Labor Day and June 15th. 

Don’t want to get too offtipic, so mods can delete this if needed. But for MCPS the change had a significant impact. This is in part due to the fact that we also observe several religious holidays that other Md school districts do not. We cannot change those holidays because absentee rates for both students and teachers would be too great. I agree with you that we should be able to accommodate the new calendar. 

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1 hour ago, MN Transplant said:

@mattie g

 

Sandy in the immediate DC metro was interesting but overall it was a bit disappointing given the monster winds not far off the surface that didn’t mix down.  However, Sandy has foliage which made more of an impact.

I’m OK with schools closing tomorrow. In fact, I’d agree with it. Branches and trees falling is a different situation altogether than a glaze of ice on grass with wet roads.

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