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March Forecast Discussion


IWXwx

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Snow squalls really overproduced across the area today, with several periods of moderate to heavy snow. Some of the stronger convection produced pea size snow pellets. There were even a few bouts of thundersnow in the area as well.

Numerous reports of 1-3” across parts of the metro, which no one would have guessed would happen.

ORD ended up with 2.2”. A few reports from there this afternoon below...

KORD 131951Z 04007KT 1/2SM R10L/2000VP6000FT SN FZFG VV007 M02/M04 A3015 RMK AO2 SLP218 SNINCR 2/2 P0014 T10221039

KORD 132051Z 03015KT 1/4SM R10L/2000V3500FT +SN FZFG VV007 M02/M04 A3016 RMK AO2 SNE26B33 SLP223 P0002 60019 T10221044 53004


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1 hour ago, Chicago Storm said:

Snow squalls really overproduced across the area today, with several periods of moderate to heavy snow. Some of the stronger convection produced pea size snow pellets. There were even a few bouts of thundersnow in the area as well.

Numerous reports of 1-3” across parts of the metro, which no one would have guessed would happen.

ORD ended up with 2.2”. A few reports from there this afternoon below...
.

Very similar conditions with the snow here off the north wind today... minus the thundersnow that is. 

Have probably received about 2-2.5" the last few days. Dying breaths of winter '17-'18. Doesn't look to warm up any time soon either. 

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RC did the afternoon discussion for LOT. His thinking is that ice will be limited in Chicago proper due to onshore flow and UHI.  The other thing to consider with the marginal temps is that precip rates could get moderate to briefly heavy, which would be another factor that would hurt accretion rates.

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25 minutes ago, cyclone77 said:

54 today but with the light winds and strong mid-March sun it felt warmer.  

Ditto this for me here in the Indpls area today. IND still concerned about some freezing rain in the ne parts of the CWA but Hoosier's map shown above shows northward trend from here.  Just think, a week ago they were talking 60's for here on Sat.  Get rid of that negative NAO!

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RC did the afternoon discussion for LOT. His thinking is that ice will be limited in Chicago proper due to onshore flow and UHI.  The other thing to consider with the marginal temps is that precip rates could get moderate to briefly heavy, which would be another factor that would hurt accretion rates.

Pretty tough call on how everything plays out, with multiple competing factors. I'm wondering if temps overperform again tomorrow especially if clouds don't thicken too quick which will play a role in where pavement temps are at prior to precip.

 

Excellent point about the marginal temps affecting accretion rate as well. Many of the raw freezing rain accum outputs from the models seem to be a bit aggressive vs total liquid equivalent qpf and are probably not well accounting for sub-optimal accretion rates. Since we don't forecast pavement temps, it's hard to be super confident, but gut feeling is still that ice accums are mostly limited to elevated/colder surfaces with some exceptions.

 

The city is a wild card but also feel that the steady onshore winds and UHI keeping temps propped up conceptually makes sense. Even if temps do drop to 30-32 or something, would think mild pavement starting point especially there would keep impacts minimal.

 

 

 

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Models seem to be a tad cooler... wondering if this might be more of a sleet/snow situation here vs liquid (rain or frz rain).  Close call though with the isothermal layer... any slightly warmer outcome would suddenly result in a deep layer above 0C.

Temps have been held in the mid 30s with clouds and wind off the lake, so don't have that far to go to drop to AOB 32.

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41 minutes ago, Hoosier said:

Models seem to be a tad cooler... wondering if this might be more of a sleet/snow situation here vs liquid (rain or frz rain).  Close call though with the isothermal layer... any slightly warmer outcome would suddenly result in a deep layer above 0C.

Temps have been held in the mid 30s with clouds and wind off the lake, so don't have that far to go to drop to AOB 32.

IWX is thinking an inch or two for snow/sleet before flipping to zr, probably around daylight for my area.  Can't argue. It will all be gone by late afternoon anyway.

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I honestly have no idea how much, or what kind of precip we will get tonight.  Every model is way different for both amounts and types.  HRRR would have us believe we'll be getting a few inches of snow.  3km NAM shows very little of anything, and the RGEM would be more rain/freezing rain than snow.  I guess we'll find out in a few hours lol.

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2 minutes ago, cyclone77 said:

I honestly have no idea how much, or what kind of precip we will get tonight.  Every model is way different for both amounts and types.  HRRR would have us believe we'll be getting a few inches of snow.  3km NAM shows very little of anything, and the RGEM would be more rain/freezing rain than snow.  I guess we'll find out in a few hours lol.

Yea, it's really all over the place coming down to the start of the event. What's new this season though...

Looks like a glaze to 0.20" ice and a dusting to 1.5" of snow/sleet across a decent portion of the area should be a good to go with.

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