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December 16-17, 2020 Winter Storm


Ralph Wiggum
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18z euro agrees with the gfs, high qpf, cold. Yay! Re WSA: quite true, but they seem on point. 5"+. 5 is the abs worst case I wrote down earlier. The fact is, no model, no ensemble member, says Philly et al gets advisory snow. May as well give folks more notice so they can get salt or what have you early, instead of all crowding in a store the day before the event..mid-covid surge. We know it will be a WSW, we just don't know the precise amounts yet. 

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The Winter Storm Watch (I initially figured it was for tomorrow and would be converted to a WWA but this was for the Wednesday storm) -

Quote

Winter Storm Watch


URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Mount Holly NJ
715 PM EST Sun Dec 13 2020

DEZ001-NJZ012-013-015>019-PAZ070-071-102-104-106-141200-
/O.NEW.KPHI.WS.A.0001.201216T1200Z-201217T1200Z/
New Castle-Middlesex-Western Monmouth-Mercer-Salem-Gloucester-
Camden-Northwestern Burlington-Delaware-Philadelphia-
Eastern Chester-Eastern Montgomery-Lower Bucks-
Including the cities of Wilmington, New Brunswick, Freehold,
Trenton, Pennsville, Glassboro, Camden, Cherry Hill, Moorestown,
Mount Holly, Media, Philadelphia, West Chester, Kennett Square,
Norristown, Lansdale, Morrisville, and Doylestown
715 PM EST Sun Dec 13 2020

...WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY MORNING THROUGH
THURSDAY MORNING...

* WHAT...Heavy snow possible. Total snow accumulations of 5 or
  more inches possible. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph.

* WHERE...Portions of New Jersey, southeast Pennsylvania and
  northern Delaware along and near the I-95 corridor.

* WHEN...From Wednesday morning through Thursday morning.

* IMPACTS...Travel could be very difficult. The hazardous
  conditions could impact the morning or evening commute.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Snow is anticipated to move into the region
  Wednesday morning and some areas in the watch may mix with sleet
  and rain. We anticipate there will likely be a sharp gradient in
  snow totals depending on precipitation type.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Monitor the latest forecasts for updates on this situation.

&&

$$

Deal/Gorse/Robertson

 

 

 

20201213-nws-winterstormwatch-phi-stormwarning-winterweatheradv-phiarea.PNG

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2 minutes ago, Animal said:

18z euro buries phl metro!

 

It sure does!! Still has that damn subsidence thing right over my area in Central Bucks. Different than the dry slot we saw progged earlier. This looks like a subsidence zone behind the area of insane frontogenic lifting. Going to be tough to nail that area down. I mean would it matter that much though we are talking the difference between 20" and 13" lol. At this point after the past few years I'm quite happy with a Warning criteria system.

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You know, looking at the model consensus here, 3 days out, I'm really struck by how far forecasting science has advanced in the last 30 years. The fact we can, with some reasonable degree of confidence, say right now, when it's in the high 40s in Philly, that we'll get crushed in the middle of the week by a storm that hasn't EVEN FORMED YET, is pretty dang cool. Everyone always jokes to me that meteorologists have the only job where they're allowed to be wrong. But frankly, when I see stuff like this, it makes me really appreciate all of the professors and researchers and forecasters that have advanced us to this point. Ask a 60s meteorologist to predict this using a paper map of the current weather. 

Another thing I like about systems like this is, they're not "easy" to forecast per se, but unlike marginal events, where you have to hunt around for tiny kinks in the height lines trying to read the tea leaves, the big systems follow some basic rules vis a vis how strong mid lat systems form and operate, and have clear boundaries, so it's less hair splitting and more actual meteorology. 

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39 minutes ago, Ralph Wiggum said:

It sure does!! Still has that damn subsidence thing right over my area in Central Bucks. Different than the dry slot we saw progged earlier. This looks like a subsidence zone behind the area of insane frontogenic lifting. Going to be tough to nail that area down. I mean would it matter that much though we are talking the difference between 20" and 13" lol. At this point after the past few years I'm quite happy with a Warning criteria system.

Based on relatively recent history, that area of subsidence seems fairly consistent.  I remember watching those bands just to the west of my house (Hatboro) and being dismayed at the near-miss.  That was during the last few of these Miller-B hybrid systems.  Maybe it's just coincidence.  I don't know if there's a climatological or geographical reason for it to happen that way outside of elevation and/or distance from the ocean.

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3 minutes ago, ChescoWx said:

I do not see this at all as a Miller B or any type of hybrid B system....there is no primary going up well west with a 2nd low developing on the coast

Isn't there a secondary in the Ohio Valley?  The trend recently has been to kill it off quite quickly, but at least it used to be there.

Also, this might of interest to you guys, but I had no idea there was an 18Z CMC?  Is it of equivalent value?  You can see the shift in the heaviest axis of precip from 12Z to 18Z, with the latter looking a lot more like the GFS.  If this off, I guess we'd find out at 0Z.

12Z

ujMTuwk.gif

18Z

uh2BZfz.gif

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20 minutes ago, Birds~69 said:

NAM is on a LSD trip....

That silly model is hell bent on giving us a major sleet event. All by itself it appears. Im fairly certain we can chalk it up to the NAM doing typical NAM stuff at range. If you follow the 500mb vorticity maps and compare with 18z there are improvements until about hour 54 irt slightly better confluence, slower departing hp, and better organization/tilt to the bowling ball coming across the Plains. Then at 54 hrs the surface gets all wonky. By this time tomorrow we should have a classic NAMming under our belts....I thought we were headed there just now until it got whack with the slp placement running into a deeper and better positioned hp.

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2 minutes ago, Ralph Wiggum said:

That silly model is hell bent on giving us a major sleet event. All by itself it appears. Im fairly certain we can chalk it up to the NAM doing typical NAM stuff at range. If you follow the 500mb vortices maps and compare with 18z there are improvements until about hour 54 irt slightly better confluence, slower departing hp, and better organization/tilt to the bowling ball coming across the Plains. Then at 54 hrs the surface gets all wonky. By this time tomorrow we should have a classic NAMming under our belts.

Oh yeah, I've been around the block. It's not within range and doing silly things probably till later tomorrow/early Tuesday. 

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Well, will be interesting to compare to other short range guidance. Sref etc. I just took a peek at the rpm model, can't post that, but it doesn't have the sleet pocket at the 72 hour mark (end of run). It does have a small sleet pocket over western VA similar to the NAM, but then that line doesn't extend out into PA as the NAM does. Perhaps suggests a potential for a brief period of sleet or ice in a mostly snow event. Definitely does not echo the NAMs craziness though. 

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4 minutes ago, Moderately Unstable said:

Well, will be interesting to compare to other short range guidance. Sref etc. I just took a peek at the rpm model, can't post that, but it doesn't have the sleet pocket at the 72 hour mark (end of run). It does have a small sleet pocket over western VA similar to the NAM, but then that line doesn't extend out into PA as the NAM does. Perhaps suggests a potential for a brief period of sleet or ice in a mostly snow event. Definitely does not echo the NAMs craziness though. 

I wouldn't rule out the mix line getting to my area in Central Bucks but there will be enough moisture to provide snow depth prior to AND after the mix line punches thru then falls back. And that's still an IF the line gets this far N and W.

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6 minutes ago, Moderately Unstable said:

Well, will be interesting to compare to other short range guidance. Sref etc. I just took a peek at the rpm model, can't post that, but it doesn't have the sleet pocket at the 72 hour mark (end of run). It does have a small sleet pocket over western VA similar to the NAM, but then that line doesn't extend out into PA as the NAM does. Perhaps suggests a potential for a brief period of sleet or ice in a mostly snow event. Definitely does not echo the NAMs craziness though. 

Believe it or not the NAM has had "wins" but it's such an outlier right now. Give it a day it will come around...

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Lol, I believe you. It isn't a crappy model a la no gaps and co, I don't even know if they still run that. So many gaps. Just tends to be wet, over amped, and wild, vs the other contenders. Nam is the place to go if you like things wet and a bit crazy. Sometimes that's a winning combo though. :D. I mean, the main reason not to buy it, to my non expert eyes, is that it disagrees with everything else. Same reason you don't believe one ensemble member that says 30" when the rest say 3" or vice versa. 

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3 minutes ago, Ralph Wiggum said:

I wouldn't rule out the mix line getting to my area in Central Bucks but there will be enough moisture to provide snow depth prior to AND after the mix line punches thru then falls back. And that's still an IF the line gets this far N and W.

I'll be a little shocked if we don't hear pings/mix for a short time but minimal...it always happens but changes back to snow relatively quick. Especially as it pulls away...

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16 minutes ago, Ralph Wiggum said:

ICON is an improvement. Stronger better positioned hp/CAD...thus colder. Starting to come around to other guidance finally.

Could you tell me, where does the ICON rank in terms of performance versus the gfs euro and ukmet for Philly? Not super familiar w/ICON.

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