Mid - Atlantic Observations/Discussion

[yoda]

[+SN]

It actually does look like we will see a few flakes west of dc on wednesday.

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[Ian]

dca did hit freezing last night... was missed in the 6 hr, so we finish one day short of 1980 in that cat

[clskinsfan]

First night below 20 last night. got down to 19.

[yoda]

Coastal Flood Watch been give. Tidal departures 2-3 feet above normal

[Herb@MAWS]

Only 0.04" in the bucket today, no doubt similar amounts for BWI. This will finish as a dry/below normal rainfall month, unless we squeeze in one hellacious downpour before midnite.

[WinterWxLuvr]

Heavy, heavy rain here over the past few hours. At 6:05 the temp was 59.1, at 6:55 it stands at 45.2. Pretty awesome.

[Herb@MAWS]

Heavy, heavy rain here over the past few hours. At 6:05 the temp was 59.1, at 6:55 it stands at 45.2. Pretty awesome.

Noticed Sterling dropped from approx 64 at 8:30 to 43/44 at 9:15

[WxUSAF]

Noticed Sterling dropped from approx 64 at 8:30 to 43/44 at 9:15

17C down to 9C at BWI in 9 minutes!

2010-12-01 09:54 METAR KBWI 011454Z 29022G28KT 1SM R10/4000VP6000FT +RA BR BKN006 BKN018 OVC023

09/08 A2960 RMK AO2 PK WND 30028/1454 PRESRR SLP021 P0015 60035 T00940078 55018

=

2010-12-01 09:45 METAR KBWI 011445Z 24012G18KT 210V280 1 1/2SM -RA BR BKN006 OVC018 17/16 A2955 =

[Lee]

After a storm total 2.57" of Rain, light snow began falling before dawn. Only a dusting has mounted up at my location here in the Valley . I suspect the typical elevated areas will get a general 1-2 inches today before ending.

Here's a Cam link from Wise:

http://www.mcs.uvawise.edu/webcam/

[Herb@MAWS]

0.59" for the 11/30-12/1 event in Columbia.

[clskinsfan]

First flakes tonight. Driving home from Martinsburg WV on 81 south. A little snow shower. Was nice to see.

[Herb@MAWS]

0.59" for the 11/30-12/1 event in Columbia.

With 0.80" rainfall at BWI on 12/1, this pretty much assures CY 2010 BWI rainfall to be at-or-above normal, regardless of what falls -- or doesn't fall -- for rest of December.

[Amped]

Any flurries?

[WxUSAF]

Flurries at my house in east Columbia per my wife. Of course I'm at work in Laurel and only a couple snowflakes here.

[Herb@MAWS]

Unexciting flurries under partial sunshine on drive from NW Balto to Columbia.

[Dalfy]

flurries galore first flakes of the season here.

[tombo82685]

when i do the euro precip maps for storms i included the dc metro and balt area, heres a map from the 12z euro qpf i did for this run

gray- .75-1

lgt pink- 1-1.25

lgt yellow- 1.25-1.5

lgt blue- 1.5-1.75

dark pink- 1.75-2

red- 2-2.5

[Dr No]

Looking for some flurries or snow showers... naturally the NWS radar site is having issues.

[mdsnowlover]

he called for wintery mix both days, and temps near 40 both friday and sunday.

[CAPE]

he called for wintery mix both days, and temps near 40 both friday and sunday.

lol john collins. not really interesting sorry ;]

[Yeoman]

The weekend TV hacks are always right on the money. Thanks for making a thread about this breaking news.

[winter_warlock]

The weekend TV hacks are always right on the money. Thanks for making a thread about this breaking news.

lol

[Powderhound]

Was gone all weekend, but family reported in 3" exactly. Still half of that left.

[weathervswife]

Did you guys see the AO is forecast to go to -6!!!! That's ridiculous. Cold through Christmas I would imagine.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/ao.shtml

[NoVaSnow]

Did you guys see the AO is forecast to go to -6!!!! That's ridiculous. Cold through Christmas I would imagine.

http://www.cpc.ncep...._index/ao.shtml

Paging Dr. Sutherland. Don Sutherland, please report to the forum.

[Dr No]

I've always wondered what it would be like to be under a PV.... guess we'll find out in a week.

[WinterWxLuvr]

I have one question for some of you northern Va, wva panhandle, central MD, veterans. I have only lived in NoVA for the past three years, and the one event I have never witnessed is a cloudy day with snow flurries and snow showers. There was an event here in Fred Co. around MLK day in 2009 where we got about 3 inches of snow but I don't know what that was as I was out of town.

My question is.....is there any scenario where we can get snow showers? What experiences along those lines can anyone share? I find it more frustrating to have cold days and be about 50 airmiles from blizzard warnings that I do when storms miss us south or west.

[chris21]

I have one question for some of you northern Va, wva panhandle, central MD, veterans. I have only lived in NoVA for the past three years, and the one event I have never witnessed is a cloudy day with snow flurries and snow showers. There was an event here in Fred Co. around MLK day in 2009 where we got about 3 inches of snow but I don't know what that was as I was out of town.

My question is.....is there any scenario where we can get snow showers? What experiences along those lines can anyone share? I find it more frustrating to have cold days and be about 50 airmiles from blizzard warnings that I do when storms miss us south or west.

The Alleghenies are extremely high to the west of us (well over 4000 feet) and most of the moisture from the lakes is wrung out. Occasionally you'll see a brief heavy snow shower drop out of the mountains. I've seen an inch or two (Im in Bethesda, MD) from a snow shower/heavy mountain snow event (Jan 2007 I believe) but that was more of a WINDEX situation if I remember correctly, which are not very common here.

[Jim_in_CA]

I have one question for some of you northern Va, wva panhandle, central MD, veterans. I have only lived in NoVA for the past three years, and the one event I have never witnessed is a cloudy day with snow flurries and snow showers. There was an event here in Fred Co. around MLK day in 2009 where we got about 3 inches of snow but I don't know what that was as I was out of town.

My question is.....is there any scenario where we can get snow showers? What experiences along those lines can anyone share? I find it more frustrating to have cold days and be about 50 airmiles from blizzard warnings that I do when storms miss us south or west.

What you are asking about is what I call "conversational snow." Flurries, off and on snow showers, sometimes accumulating but often not (or often accumulating a dusting which then blows away). I used to live in Blackburg, VA, west of I-81 in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, and we'd get that a high number of times every winter. Blacksburg is high (2100 feet) and while east of the Allegheny Front, it is nonetheless CLOSE to it, so lots of rogue upslope snow showers "run the gauntlet." This is one big thing I miss about Blacksburg - these conversational events lend themselves to a very wintry feel, even if they don't usually amount to much in terms of accumulation.

But in the DC area, as you've noted, for the most part they just don't happen. I have found snow here is basically 100% storm driven and therefore very much all or nothing. You get a big winter storm, or you get nothing. The only time I've seen us get "snow showers" is on the tail end of a rainy lakes cutter or apps runner (e.g., "back side snow showers," which are also technically storm driven) or sometimes with a very strong arctic frontal passage or on the fringes of a clipper. These are all pretty rare events, and generally are the result of the main system missing us rather than us actually getting true "snow shower activity."

It is one of the negatives of living here. That said, the dynamics that make summer rainshowers and "pop up" thunderstorms possible don't generally exist in winter, so MOST places in the US are in a similar situation. Outside of lake effect snow, or orographic enhancement seen in mountainous regions, almost nowhere gets snow absent a larger scale synoptic feature.