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March 3-4 Potential Winter Storm


Hoosier
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7 minutes ago, Malacka11 said:

How likely is there to be an actual wind threat with this storm?

There should be some wind but this isn't surrounded by a very strong high, so even if this ends up sub 980mb it won't be a big wind bag.

3 minutes ago, Frog Town said:

Nice to have you back, Stebo.  Always appreciate your insight and tactfulness. 

Thank you :wub:

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14 minutes ago, RogueWaves said:

This is 1/25 on 'roids...and going NW of us. Gonna b 34 Rainer for DTW again. Yay. But, we need the hydro

We shall see, the thing I am watching is that it is already maximized on strength, I don't see this being stronger than 975mb. So there is a limitation how far left it can go, especially since it doesn't go negative until it gets into AR and as RC mentioned there is still a -NAO on going so it could come up and then move east, which would lead to more of an ice storm potential.

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Either way. I'll ride the 34F and rain as a slight majority. Let's call it 50/30/20% for RN/ZR/IP outcome from here. And no, we won't need skates since our ground is anything but frozen. The ISW wasn't about slippery roads at all, nor can this be if ZR actually plays out.

WPC does not see a snowstorm in our future

image.png.c8aa96062a94e0fa154f3dc9c651c286.png 

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16 minutes ago, cyclone77 said:

All of that variability makes me think this one will have surprises right up until the final 24hrs. 

As we've seen many times this winter. Primarily when the thermals are mega-borderline. Some have still managed to produce a very narrow snowstorm zone, while others have just been cyber snow and little more.

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The 18z EPS, while another shift northwest, still nicely shows the range of plausible outcomes for the heavy snow swath. There's roughly 3 camps and the swaths have a similar west southwest to east northeast orientation due to the NE/ENE surface low track. Can use Chicago proper as the dividing line for the 3 camps:
1) NW of Chicago
2) Bisecting Chicago
3) SE of Chicago

I think 1 and 2 are about equally likely at this point and 3 is a bit less likely, given recent trends. If you want to give how this season has played out some extra weight, then scenario 1 currently has a bit higher probs than 2.

None of the 3 scenarios can be ruled out at this range. There's likely a relative northward bound to how far north it can go, but on the other hand, an earlier negative tilt can result in a farther north approach before track slides east-northeast. Plus, a weaker block can contribute to the above, favoring scenario 1.

For the middle ground scenario 2, we basically need to balance out the competing factors in this setup to allow for a sweet spot track for Chicago and closer surrounding suburbs.

Scenario 3 would rely on later negative tilt or farther south approach and/or a stronger downstream block to provide stronger confluence. Since the system will be rapidly intensifying early on, a faster occlusion and opening up at 500 mb could potentially contribute to a farther south snow swath.

Regarding icing potential, seems like the forecast surface high pressure position would favor extreme northern Indiana and southern lower MI more than out here, due to proximity to the supply of lower dew points with the surface high and strong easterly flow from the surface up to 850 mb providing replenishment. There's also likely to be a sleet zone north of the icing.

Farther west, with the fairly marginal antecedent air mass, might be a narrow swath of sleet between the snow and rain areas, vs. pronounced icing.

Note on this analysis: It's meant to be a bit more simplified to lay out 3 realistic outcomes. There's obviously more going on meteorologically. Another factor that's always a wildcard is convection in the true warm sector, which looks to extensive and intense in this setup (wouldn't be surprised at moderate to high risks both Thursday and Friday).




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00Z GEFS shifted a bit south. For my money at this range, giving the ECMWF/EPS the most weight (overall best NWP and 51 member high res ensemble), followed by the GFS/GEFS (for all its flaws it's not terrible and has done okay this year and the ensemble has improved with 30 members at higher resolution). Then the GEMs, then the UKMET (not having access to its ensemble precludes giving more weight to its forecast), then the NAM.



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