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January 3 CAPE Storm


WxUSAF
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38 minutes ago, CAPE said:

GFS has locked in on the big storm idea for 4 straight runs now, e incrementally better. Gotta go with it. B)

Impressed that the GFS was the best (by far) handling H5 in the mid range. I got dragged in when the first few runs hit showing h5 closing off just east of the MS River in the deep south. That's part of our textbook here with southern stream shortwaves. Too soon = rain. Too late = furries or cirrus. Just right? Gfs is perfection, basically 

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Hmmm, perhaps I should stay at my brother’s house in Ellicott City another night instead of heading back up to my house in Carroll County. I am off until Tuesday anyway! Looks like a better spot to be for this one (first time I’ve said this in several years)

excited for you all in the southern half of the CWA!

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With my homemade python program which takes in the EURO, GFS, CMC and ICON input then weights each differently (EURO then CMC then GFS then ICON), it spit out a raw output of 6.93 not factoring in melt or anything. Fed the program 7, 15, 5, 0 for amounts so glad to see the output is somewhat realistic. 

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1 minute ago, Bob Chill said:

Impressed that the GFS was the best (by far) handling H5 in the mid range. I got dragged in when the first few runs hit showing h5 closing off just east of the MS River in the deep south. That's part of our textbook here with southern stream shortwaves. Too soon = rain. Too late = furries or cirrus. Just right? Gfs is perfection, basically 

So good to see you here my friend. Gfs truly is a thing of a beauty, and it’s been pretty damn consistent the past few days. 

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6 minutes ago, WxMan1 said:

The 'warm ground' theory has been debunked numerous times, most notably out west (CO front range, temps in the 70s one day, blizzard the next), but even here in the mid Atlantic as well. Especially along the coast (see Norfolk with the March 1980 snowstorm). 

Your point about the rates is spot on. Best case scenario I see is we crash to 32 with ripping fat flakes.  There is certainly some instability, or very weak stability, to work with within the dendritic growth zone. 

Screenshot_20220102-111654_Chrome.jpg

Screenshot_20220102-111730_Chrome.jpg

Can you point to a reference on the warm ground debunking?  Not arguing, I'm genuinely interested in reading more on it.  My experience is the warm ground makes a 1" layer of slush but on top of that it's all snow. 

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12 minutes ago, IronTy said:

Can you point to a reference on the warm ground debunking?  Not arguing, I'm genuinely interested in reading more on it.  My experience is the warm ground makes a 1" layer of slush but on top of that it's all snow. 

Most of the long timers here debunked it through experience. All the doubt and hand wringing leading in then "shock and awe" that it stuck. IME, it usually comes down to the start. We all know the ground won't be frozen at all so how does it still pile up? Gotta get a quick start. Miller A's are good at that because the front side WAA snow usually comes in hot and heavy. It has to, otherwise the Pacman starts eating and never stops. 

If the front piece comes in in pulses and lulls...that's trouble. I've lost half of a storms qpf to melt/nonstick away too many times. 1"/hr rates at night will stick no problem above freezing. Gotta get the blanket down to maximize the cold side of the storm. March 2013 is a great example of how you get screwed even when qpf is good enough.

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23 minutes ago, IronTy said:

Can you point to a reference on the warm ground debunking?  Not arguing, I'm genuinely interested in reading more on it.  My experience is the warm ground makes a 1" layer of slush but on top of that it's all snow. 

I think the cooling due to conduction, i.e. with cold rain at the outset, does a great deal pretty quickly. We often see road surface temps fall into the 30s pretty quickly. But you're absolutely correct -- that first layer would be slush, and overall, the depth of snow on the roads in this setup would be less than that over non-paved surfaces. Would be a mess to drive on. 

Like you all have said, it's a "rates" storm. We absolutely need that or it's essentially a non-event. Much like November 11th 1987. When it happens, it's a think of beauty. A pasty wet snowfall -- my favorite -- with clumping aggregate flakes. A low probability event to be sure, but we've got the setup going for us, as well as a consensus among most models now within 24 hrs of the event. 

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2 minutes ago, Bob Chill said:

Most of the long timers here debunked it through experience. All the doubt and hand wringing leading in then "shock and awe" that it stuck. IME, it usually comes down to the start. We all know the ground won't be frozen at all so how does it still pile up? Gotta get a quick start. Miller A's are good at that because the front side WAA snow usually comes in hot and heavy. It has to, otherwise the Pacman starts eating and never stops. 

If the front piece comes in in pulses and lulls...that's trouble. I've lost half of a storms qpf to melt/nonstick away too many times. 1"/hr rates at night will stick no problem above freezing. Gotta get the blanket down to maximize the cold side of the storm. March 2013 is a great example of how you get screwed even when qpf is good enough.

Good point, I agree on the pulsing.  It's gotta push during the onset to build up a slush layer.  If it comes and goes it ends up as an inch or two of slush.  This is what happened during last winter's storm for us.  Even during snowmageddon we had a solid inch of slush underneath.  

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8 minutes ago, peribonca said:

So what are people thinking in terms of wasted precipitation? Do we have white rain for a few hours 1am-3am then start sticking?

Nowcast for that stuff. Need the wall of yellows to roll right overhead with no light green lulls or worse... holes...

If the waa is juicy, we avoid relying on a 6 hour windowor less of "rates" to cover everything. The best accum snow will obviously be during the CCB portion. If your ground is still mostly brown by that time, big snows become hard to impossible. If there's 2-4" of gloppy potatoes on the ground when the CCB sets up... oh boy.... hehe

The tricky part is nobody can honestly say they know how the front side breaks and until that's figured out, the cold side amounts are nothing more than wild guesses 

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1 minute ago, WxMan1 said:

I think the cooling due to conduction, i.e. with cold rain at the onset, does a great deal pretty quickly. We often see road surface temps fall into the 30s pretty quickly. But you're absolutely correct -- that first layer would be slush, and overall, the depth of snow on the roads in this setup would be less than that over non-paved surfaces. Would be a mess to drive on. 

Like you all have said, it's a "rates" storm. We absolutely need that or it's essentially a non-event. Much like November 11th 1987. When it happens, it's a think of beauty. A low probability event to be sure, but we've got the setup going for us, as well as a consensus among most models now within 24 hrs of the event. 

Mind blown, I've never thought of conduction which is pretty embarrassing as an engineer.  A cold rain right at 33F or somewhere close should take all the heat out of the soil.   Then it's just losses due to snow hitting wet ground, not necessarily warm ground though. 

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Just now, stormtracker said:

Lol dc metro under weather advisory. Charles county s and e upgraded to warning. Ok

DC itself could end up with a wide range of outcomes based on tiny distances. You're in the best general area of DC so that's good. Foggy bottom or navy yard weenies may not be stoked bros after the storm is done. 

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2 minutes ago, snowmagnet said:

Just got a WAA for Fairfax for 2-4”. It seems to be too conservative based on the latest information.  Is that because they depend on the NAM?

Makes more sense for them to be conservative here and upgrade this evening if the trend holds/continues rather than go all in now and have it bust.

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