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1/9-1/10 Now Morphing to Less-Than-Exciting Power Cutter


Torch Tiger
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6 minutes ago, CT Rain said:

Soundings do not look conducive to a damaging southerly wind event. Certainly nowhere near as impressive as the 12/18 event.

If we get damaging wind it would be from a QLCS but there's very little instability modeled. I don't see much in most areas the way it looks right now.

Yup, agree. 

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I'm not totally sure I completely agree with that assessment of the LLJ. It certainly isn't as expansive as Dec 17-18 but I don't think it is weaker but that is also relative based on where you're comparing too. In that event, mixing was aided with the expansive warmer temperatures which muted the inversion. Now I get we have the snow cover and that is going to fight back the warmth a bit, but there is still a good signal we get 50's into a good part of CT on east. 

At least to me, there is a much stronger signal for convection than Dec 17-18. While soundings aren't impressive in terms of mixing we have to look at the potential for convection to draw down these winds - so yes, convection or bust in terms of winds. I don't think bufkit handles situations very well where its torrential rain with wind potential. Take a look at tropical systems...if you look at bufkit profiles for tropical, you'll see bufkit subdue the wind big time when it has torrential rain falling. 

Sfc instability isn't great at all, but we do get some elevated instability with TT's also pushing into the upper 40's and LI's crashing down towards the lower single digits. 

We'll see.

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Here’s the whole wind discussion (still think hydro is the headline)

Strong winds...

Hi-res guidance is indicating 80-90 kt low level jet at 925 mb
across SE New Eng, peaking 06-10z and moving east of the Cape by
12z. This jet peaks at 5-6SD above normal and the NAEFS ensemble
mean 850 mb wind is greater than the maximum of the CFSR climate
database for this time of year. While this is a very strong signal
for strong to damaging wind, there is some uncertainty with how much
wind will mix down due to low level inversion which is usually the
case with S/SE flow. One strong signal that we normally see with
damaging S/SE wind events is anomalous low pres tracking to the west
with strong pressure falls. We certainly have this for this event.
In fact, guidance is forecasting 8-11 mb pres falls in 3 hours late
tonight which is quite impressive and this will help to enhance the
winds due to the isallobaric acceleration. Our current thinking is
peak gusts 55-65 mph near the south coast through SE MA and Cape
Ann, focused in the midnight to 6 am period. An examination of model
soundings indicate that we need to reach the mid 50s to erode
inversion enough to support these gusts. If temps only reach lower
50s, winds will probably underperform with gusts more in the 45-55
mph range. The other wildcard is all the hi-res guidance sources are
indicating some sort of fine line moving through 08-12z which will
help to enhance wind gusts. In fact, CSU machine learning severe wx
probs are indicating a low risk of severe wind. Overall, we think
this wind event will not be quite as strong as the Dec 17-18 storm
as the low level jet is a bit weaker and not as expansive.

Less wind further inland across interior northern and western MA as
snowpack will help to keep temps cooler (mainly mid/upper 40s)
keeping inversion in place. Expecting peak gusts mainly 35-45 mph
here.

 

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The convection part is always overrated. Unless you have these weenie cells flying parallel to the flow, they tend not to do well when the line is perpendicular to the flow.  Maybe if you get a crescent shape-like bow (QLCS like Ryan said) or a meso low to form you could. But the overall environment does not seem as favorable for synoptic winds. If you look back at the big 2/25/16 outbreak, there were a lot of cells flying NNE and causing damaging wind gusts. 

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Just now, WinterWolf said:

Hmm… Wiz and Kev excited. Ryan and Scott are not.  I know where I stand(wind  will be a non factor), but will be interesting to see which pair is more correct. 

I see what Wiz is saying. I guess for me, I would rather see a better synoptic environment for winds other than hoping convection does it. 

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20 minutes ago, weatherwiz said:

I'm not totally sure I completely agree with that assessment of the LLJ. It certainly isn't as expansive as Dec 17-18 but I don't think it is weaker but that is also relative based on where you're comparing too. In that event, mixing was aided with the expansive warmer temperatures which muted the inversion. Now I get we have the snow cover and that is going to fight back the warmth a bit, but there is still a good signal we get 50's into a good part of CT on east. 

At least to me, there is a much stronger signal for convection than Dec 17-18. While soundings aren't impressive in terms of mixing we have to look at the potential for convection to draw down these winds - so yes, convection or bust in terms of winds. I don't think bufkit handles situations very well where its torrential rain with wind potential. Take a look at tropical systems...if you look at bufkit profiles for tropical, you'll see bufkit subdue the wind big time when it has torrential rain falling. 

Sfc instability isn't great at all, but we do get some elevated instability with TT's also pushing into the upper 40's and LI's crashing down towards the lower single digits. 

We'll see.

I don't have the modeled LLJ for 12/18, but you can see the difference a bit in the EFI product.

ens_2023121712_ne_24h_10fgi_SFC_36.png?w

ens_2024010912_ne_24h_10fgi_SFC_36.png?w

Remember this product isn't as simple as extreme = big wind, it just means unusual for this time of year. 

Much bigger CAD signal for this event. Also a much bigger downslope signal. 

The shift of tails (black lines, and the real indication of the higher end gusts) also are inverted for this event. Instead of values near 1 across the interior to the coast of Maine, they are all focused in the northwest downslope zones. I would be more surprised if GYX pops a 50 kt gusts than BTV.

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