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NYC Jan 11-12 Miller B Thread


am19psu

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I'm 52 and to date the most intense overnight storm in my lifetime, which was a KU storm was Jan 20, 1978. The LFM forecasted 2-4" then a changeover to rain. Needless to say it was all snow but ending as fz drizzle. The snow started mid evening and was S++ by midnight . By 8am there was 17" on the ground. Betwwen midnight and 6am, 1 foot fell. This storm on paper looks to exceed Jan 78, let's see if it can outperform it. I was up all night for that storm and it was like watching YHBROOOKLYN's time lapse camera in real time.

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We get some winter storms in the form of Colorado Lows, Panhandle Hookers, and a select few Gulf Lows, but nothing on the scale of a Nor'easter. Nor'easters have the advantage of air-sea interaction instability, much smaller friction values over the ocean, and moist latent heat effects. This can make them highly non-linear beasts, and this storm threat is the perfect example.

In terms of convection, a meteorologist could not have created a better dynamic/thermodynamic setup than the high plains/plains region of the United States. The flat and open plains with results in unimpeded air flow, the Gulf of Mexico which provides low level moisture, the Rockies which provides an Environmental Mixed Layer during the summer (a dry adiabatic layer overtop a capping layer), and dynamic effects which results in the advection of moist Gulf of Mexico boundary layer air (nocturnal low level jet and the dynamic low level jet under lee troughing influences) make the plains a nearly perfect setup for deep, moist convection.

I think the current NAM is about as far W as it can go. Quite honestly, the exact qpf amounts will be ridiculously challenging to nail down both to a potential erratic track and extreme mesoscale banding. Personally I have no analogs since I have never seen such an event, but I am sure some of the EC veterans can name a few. Nailing down qpf totals will be challenging though with an event such as this.

I will admit I wish I was out east for this event. I am jealous.

Oh yea. I bet you would want to live in NYC, the land of the brave, where you dont get plowed out for days, then get a ticket for not clearing your sidewalk! Those poor people! My taxes here in NW NJ are the highest in the state, but at least they clear the roads when it snows!

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I'm 52 and to date the most intense overnight storm in my lifetime, which was a KU storm was Jan 20, 1978. The LFM forecasted 2-4" then a changeover to rain. Needless to say it was all snow but ending as fz drizzle. The snow started mid evening and was S++ by midnight . By 8am there was 17" on the ground. Betwwen midnight and 6am, 1 foot fell. This storm on paper looks to exceed Jan 78, let's see if it can outperform it. I was up all night for that storm and it was like watching YHBROOOKLYN's time lapse camera in real time.

I was born in 1978 and I recall pics in the old album of my mom and sister out in the yard from that storm and the snow was up to my moms upper leg. She is 5'8. I only saw snow in my lifetime here exceed that in the 1996 blizzard...where the snow drifts were right along the windows of my truck as I drove around that night. Insane.

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Doesn't look like any major signs of the GFS caving in...one of these models is going to really sh** the bed.

I dunno - I was saying the other night I can't support the NAM because all the other models are against it (I think only SREFs) were kind of for it. Now it looks like GFS and UKIE (which has been terrible) against all the short range and the Euro. If GFS scores the upset I'll be shocked - these are the kind of dynamics that the short range models are built for. I don't think the NAM is necessarily right, however I think it is probably more right than the GFS at this juncture based on the camp of models that are in its corner at this time frame.

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Do you think the GFS just doesn't have the resolution required to process such a dynamic, tightly-wound low pressure?

The GFS has had 10 storms probably since 2005 where it has been out on its own in the short term, its probably been wrong on 5 and right on 5 of them...you just don't know...its a good enough model inside 84 hours that it can't be tossed as easily as in the medium or long range.

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And the NAM is west. Truth probably lies in the middle hedging closer to the NAM by like a 70/30 ratio. Basically the other consensus of guidance.

Yeah, agreed. But I mean I can't really recall the GFS being so far off from most other guidance like this. And it's not budging despite better appearances aloft.

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And the NAM is west. Truth probably lies in the middle hedging closer to the NAM by like a 70/30 ratio. Basically the other consensus of guidance.

The GFS probably caves to ECM/NAM at 12z....it tends to do this in major winter storms. I'm pretty confident the track won't be as close to the coast as 6z NAM but the GFS seems to be trending towards the idea of a further west, more amplified system...so it is getting there.

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as I said to earthlight via phone earlier tnt, the GFS was the first to latch onto the blizzard vice the other guidance so it DOES have history of performing well given the new upgrade. However, with such a strong, closed h5 feature...which would lend to capturing the sfc low and going frther W, the NAM seems to be the best bet now. I will note, I have seen the Nam plenty of times do this. It is stubborn with a storm all the way thru the short term, then at the last moment, it suddenly shifts twds the other guidance. If we see the nam do this, i wouldnt be shocked. But synoptics argue against it.

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Yeah, agreed. But I mean I can't really recall the GFS being so far off from most other guidance like this. And it's not budging despite better appearances aloft.

Well I'm sure its not going to handle the compact dynamic nature of this low very well so I definitely wouldn't go with its solution. On the flip side, the NAM could very well be too amped...we've seen it do that type of track a couple times now and it goes slightly back SE the next run which makes me think thats probably the western edge of the possibilities and the truth lies somewhere a little bit E of it ala Euro and its ensembles and SREF mean.

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Yeah no problem. I thought you would like it since there are all sorts of gravity waves--both at the convective level in the anvil cloud tops and near the surface. You need to look close, but there is a large scale gravity waves that develops around 22:40 as that first supercell explodes. Note the ring that develops around the low cloud deck..

Supercellular convection is an amazing event--and one which I am most humbled by as a meteorologist because they are simply impossible to truly forecast. The dynamics involved both at the synoptic, mesoscale, and microscale levels are mind-boggling, and the supercell is almost weather perfected as a steady state highly non-linear being.

It almost looks like there are several different dynamics coming together and working collectively in that animation-- on all different scales-- creating a "runaway effect"-- it actually reminds me of some of those detonation movies, where a really small explosion can trigger a massive collapse!

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Well I'm sure its not going to handle the compact dynamic nature of this low very well so I definitely wouldn't go with its solution. On the flip side, the NAM could very well be too amped...we've seen it do that type of track a couple times now and it goes slightly back SE the next run which makes me think thats probably the western edge of the possibilities and the truth lies somewhere a little bit E of it ala Euro and its ensembles and SREF mean.

Basically what I just posted. Agreed.

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I will note, I have seen the Nam plenty of times do this. It is stubborn with a storm all the way thru the short term, then at the last moment, it suddenly shifts twds the other guidance. If we see the nam do this, i wouldnt be shocked. But synoptics argue against it.

I would have been alot less confident if the Euro and it's ensembles hadn't come so far northwest on the latest 00z run. The GFS is out on it's own..not counting crazy uncle Ukie...I just wonder what kind of problem it is having here. Could it score the coup here? Sure...but I wouldn't bet my money on it at this moment in time.

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The GFS has had 10 storms probably since 2005 where it has been out on its own in the short term, its probably been wrong on 5 and right on 5 of them...you just don't know...its a good enough model inside 84 hours that it can't be tossed as easily as in the medium or long range.

I wonder if having the euro and nam together and the ggem trending towards them means its much more likely the gfs is wrong.

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