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I’m dreaming of an Icy Christmas


Sey-Mour Snow
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12 minutes ago, OceanStWx said:

I feel like a ton of ice research has come out since then proving that stronger winds are in fact a net benefit to ice accretion.

 

I think sheltered from winds, but there is also some subtle cooling on the east side as air ascends over the terrain and even a wet bulb temp change of 0.5 degrees can matter a lot. 

I always felt anecdotally in “calm wind” ice events, I ended up at 32.1F pretty damned fast even when starting out cold. It’s nice that subsequent research ends up proving that to be at least a little more than just anecdotes. 

Also, even back a recently as the 1990s, there was conventional wisdom that the valleys would always be the worst icing spots. I remember reading so many forecasts and AFDs about the CT valley having to watch out for the ice and then I would be 29F and FZRA while CEF and BDL were 34F and RA. 
 

It was occasionally true they would get ice while we rained but usually in southerly flow events with in-situ CAD where the icing wasn’t a big deal anyway and would fairly quickly change to rain there…the more serious events were always worse with elevation (at least below a couple thousand feet)…it seemed like the ice climo knowledge was imported from outside New England in many of those instances. 

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15 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

I always felt anecdotally in “calm wind” ice events, I ended up at 32.1F pretty damned fast even when starting out cold. It’s nice that subsequent research ends up proving that to be at least a little more than just anecdotes. 

Also, even back a recently as the 1990s, there was conventional wisdom that the valleys would always be the worst icing spots. I remember reading so many forecasts and AFDs about the CT valley having to watch out for the ice and then I would be 29F and FZRA while CEF and BDL were 34F and RA. 
 

It was occasionally true they would get ice while we rained but usually in southerly flow events with in-situ CAD where the icing wasn’t a big deal anyway and would fairly quickly change to rain there…the more serious events were always worse with elevation (at least below a couple thousand feet)…it seemed like the ice climo was imported for outside New England in many of those instances. 

You probably aren't wrong there. So much ice research was from the central CONUS, where shallow cold outbreaks lead to ice storms. Those tend to bleed down the valleys as opposed to our active damming events that maximize cold in that 950 mb zone.

All you have to do is dig through StormData and see all the big ice reports are always at elevation and always on the northeast side of town.

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1 minute ago, Typhoon Tip said:

It all really draws the notion that the worst ice storms must be some sweet ratio between heat released thru phase change, vs offsetting heat sink feeding into the accretion layer. 

too much one way … more PLs … go the other and 32.1 

Yeah this is a good cliff’s notes version  explanation of the balancing act that needs to occur. I’ve seen so many potential larger ice events become more just nuisance because of too many ice pellets or latent warming to near freezing. 
 

Ironically several months before the December 2008 storm, we narrowly avoided a monster ice event on Feb 12-13, 2008. We had pretty solid accretion but it kind of stalled out around a quarter to 3/8ths and then we rotted near 32F with very heavy precip rates and most of it ran off. We just didn’t quite have the dewpoint drain there. Little did I know that it would all materialize 10 months later almost to the day. 

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4 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Yeah this is a good cliff’s notes version  explanation of the balancing act that needs to occur. I’ve seen so many potential larger ice events become more just nuisance because of too many ice pellets or latent warming to near freezing. 
 

Ironically several months before the December 2008 storm, we narrowly avoided a monster ice event on Feb 12-13, 2008. We had pretty solid accretion but it kind of stalled out around a quarter to 3/8ths and then we rotted near 32F with very heavy precip rates and most of it ran off. We just didn’t quite have the dewpoint drain there. Little did I know that it would all materialize 10 months later almost to the day. 

I'm just looking through the METARs from ORH for 2008 (:weenie:) and there are some classic WTF ones in there. 

KORH 120254Z AUTO 05012G19KT 2 1/2SM FZRA BR OVC001 M01/M01 A2982 RMK AO2 CIG 001V006 SLP110 P0021 60038 T10061011 56039

Ripping off 0.21" FZRA in an hour, gusting to 19 kt. Within 2 hours the ASOS shit the bed as it ticked off another 0.18" in an hour. 

Kind of wish those ice sensors were up and running then. 

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A very merry Christmas! Thanks to everyone for sharing their remarkable knowledge and tolerating my weenieish babble all year. Enjoy the day with your loved ones.

With the sun just rising, it appears we have a light glaze. Breeze is still northerly and cold is holding tougher than I expected yesterday.

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7 minutes ago, Hoth said:

A very merry Christmas! Thanks to everyone for sharing their remarkable knowledge and tolerating my weenieish babble all year. Enjoy the day with your loved ones.

With the sun just rising, it appears we have a light glaze. Breeze is still northerly and cold is holding tougher than I expected yesterday.

Merry Christmas!

Is my assumption your glaze is in Hamden and not Fisher's correct?

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