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Jan Medium/Long Range Disco 2: Total Obliteration is Coming


Jebman
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7 minutes ago, Maestrobjwa said:

Question: Aren't those a bit more of a crapshoot/chaos? (Then again that may be our snow climo, haha) And I'm trying to remember the last time one actually worked, lol Now when we're tracking a couple of waves it's usually "well if that cutter trends strong enough then...50-50 :D:D:guitar:" but I tune it out because I can't remember when it worked recently.

There is chaos in any pattern. But get us cold and throw stj waves at us and eventually something likely works out. Nino snow climo is made a lot simpler by having a stronger stj throwing chances at us more frequently. 

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3 minutes ago, DeeDeeHCue said:

How much will the existing storm system affect the dynamic of the 1/19 one, @psuhoffman?

Everything is pinwheeling around the parent anchor vortex tpv.  So it affects it very much. Problem is we don’t know exactly how it will play out. And there are a lot of variables. But we’re stuck in a bit of a double bind. We need that NS wave to dig a lot and stay south. The only path to a big storm I see is if the NS wave comes in stronger and digs more, that might also require more of a split between the main tpv and the lobe hanging back.   In that case we want the system now to phase and pull the tpv further east. 
 

But what if the NS SW isn’t going to be stronger and dig?  Then we probably lose any path to a bigger snow but in that case if we want anything even a 1-3” event DC needs a more suppressive flow to force the NS SW not to gain any latitude as it slides east and keep it under us. In that scenario we want the main tpv further west.  
 

This is too chaotic a setup for me to play it out in my mind and say for sure what need from X and Y now.  Sometimes I do that when yes a simpler scenario and I can see from 5 days out “we just need X this and Y that”. This is way too complicated for me to do that with any clarity. 
 

The 2 things I can say for sure is we ideally want a stringer NS SW and for it to be further south.  

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Everyone said last week we needed to clear the weekend systems before we got a real look at today and Friday - and how bout that - we cleared the weekend systems and now the models picking up on it again.   It is only Monday.  Maybe just maybe the original idea of a warning criteria storm will start the trend today.  

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1 hour ago, Bob Chill said:

The relax is quite different than a pac jet type of pattern. That's happened so much recently that a "relax" is becoming synonymous with "continental Pac invasion" lol. 

When cold retreats next week, flow will be slow and cold will mostly just decay and not be "replaced". What brings cold back on the ens is a very efficient way to go from warm/blah to a single front then cold enuff. Cold continental air from central Canada pushes down into the conus SE over the lakes into the east. Ens guidance unanimously agrees that the Epo and/or pna ridges remain favorable. Potentially for weeks. In this type of setup a -AO regime delivers the goods because of favorable ridge axis offsetting lack of a NAO block when the AO displaces the TPV to hudson bay or south. The look reminds me of Feb/Mar 2003. 

Eta: I left out transient 50/50s would be the key piece for a big storm with the advertised look going into early Feb. We'll see about the NAO. So far it doesn't look to reload quickly 

Thanks for the added insight, Bob!  That's sort of the impression I had, that we shouldn't be waiting around for weeks to clear out a bunch of Pac puke air.  Looking at the flow over the entire north American region on TT to get a better idea, you can see that Canada generally keeps a northerly flow so the cold air source doesn't get obliterated, thanks to that EPO/PNA ridge.  I wonder if in a way this is also a bit reminiscent of 2014, though at the time I believe we had a strongly +AO (whereas -AO this year) and were blessed with having an EPO/PNA ridge on 'roids to help us then.

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8 minutes ago, DarkSharkWX said:

has there been any examples of a 12"+ storm besides 2003 with a netural to positive NAO and w just a 50/50?

There aren't many other 12" plus examples...but there are plenty of like 6-10" examples.  Not having a NAO block severely limits our ability to get a 12" plus storm because even if we get a transient 50/50 its moving out and so any long duration slow moving storm, the kind you usually need to get a 12" plus storm...is going to have issues unless its times absolutely perfect.  But we can certainly get a good storm that way.  2003 was time up perfect with an arctic high in a perfect spot and not just a 50/50 but an absolute BEAST of one that because it was so strong didnt move as easy. 

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3 minutes ago, psuhoffman said:

There aren't many other 12" plus examples...but there are plenty of like 6-10" examples.  Not having a NAO block severely limits our ability to get a 12" plus storm because even if we get a transient 50/50 its moving out and so any long duration slow moving storm, the kind you usually need to get a 12" plus storm...is going to have issues unless its times absolutely perfect.  But we can certainly get a good storm that way.  2003 was time up perfect with an arctic high in a perfect spot and not just a 50/50 but an absolute BEAST of one that because it was so strong didnt move as easy. 

do u think -NAO can restore in like mid feb? 

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Here is the path to a bigger snow Friday, and its closer today than it was yesterday...

gfs.thumb.jpg.3518f71fcb6a2f955d1c61aa30c72aa2.jpg

Yesterday I noted that the ensemble members that had a big storm were the few that actually washed out the lead NS SW (X above) and developed something behind it associated with Y.  Y is the SW that actually has the most potential to amplify.  X is coming in under a pretty suppressive flow since the TPV didn't fully split or slide east.  Problem is that solution was an extreme outlier and things were trending away.  That lead SW is coming in a bit stronger not weaker lately. 

However...there is now another path IMO.  Y could catch up to X.  There is now a little more interaction that yesterday between these features and they do eventually phase just a little too late.  IF Y can speed up some...and X can slow down some which will happy if it continues to amplify more, Y could dive in in time to buckle the flow and phase while the storm is still south of our latitude ...that would be the path to a bigger storm here IMO. 

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2 minutes ago, DarkSharkWX said:

do u think -NAO can restore in like mid feb? 

There was always disagreement for early Feb but all guidance agrees the NAO goes negative again by mid Feb.  The Euro had a -NAO early Feb but it was always a very weak signal...it didn't go strongly neg until later...now guidance is more in agreement that the NAO starts to flip back negative between Feb 10-15.  That's fine with me...Feb 15-March 10 is still prime snow climo.  And there would be opportunities for snow before then in the advertised pattern.  JUst not really a HECS until we get the nao back. 

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14 minutes ago, psuhoffman said:

There was always disagreement for early Feb but all guidance agrees the NAO goes negative again by mid Feb.  The Euro had a -NAO early Feb but it was always a very weak signal...it didn't go strongly neg until later...now guidance is more in agreement that the NAO starts to flip back negative between Feb 10-15.  That's fine with me...Feb 15-March 10 is still prime snow climo.  And there would be opportunities for snow before then in the advertised pattern.  JUst not really a HECS until we get the nao back. 

In big trouble for HECS hunting if NAO doesn’t go negative before February 15. Don’t have a great track record of big storms that late.

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UKMET is mostly a 1-2" event Friday...but its a beautiful SW pass and the bullseye axis is right across DC.  Getting this to track south enough is my main concern at this stage...we can work on beefing up qpf and a little more amp on the coastal later.  Nothing matters if the wave goes north of us though and they never come back from that...almost never. 

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9 minutes ago, osfan24 said:

In big trouble for HECS hunting if NAO doesn’t go negative before February 15. Don’t have a great track record of big storms that late.

If you go back to the 60's we do, since then not so much...the question is was that just random or...you know. 

Are we "due" or...

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For the record I actually tend to think the lack of a HECS after Presidents Day to about March 15 is just simple random luck.  Truth is HECS are pretty rare.  We haven't had many in January since 1980 either!  Just 1996 and 2016!  There is way too small a sample size.  If you track smaller snowstorms like 6" plus it's clear our climo degrades QUICK when you hit March 10-20 depending on where in the region you are.  But I think the last week of Feb and the first week of March if the right setup comes along it would not be too late to get a HECS.  The end of our winter climo has been affected way less than the beginning due to SST's cooling by then. 

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59 minutes ago, DarkSharkWX said:

has there been any examples of a 12"+ storm besides 2003 with a netural to positive NAO and w just a 50/50?

What about the 2006 storm? Not sure of the NAO on that one. I got over a foot out of it

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9 minutes ago, Terpeast said:

What about the 2006 storm? Not sure of the NAO on that one. I got a foot out of it

NAO was negative... people at the time called it "thread the needle" but the pattern was pretty good...just the thermals were marginal and "iffy"  by those days standards anyways lol.  Perfect track and amplification overcame the marginal temps.  Then everyone complained when it melted right after because again...the airmass wasnt cold. 

compday.ANrZqtvXN4.gif.63e8b96d8c01a9eb8adda916ad504886.gif

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