Maestrobjwa

Snow-lover's version of a Stephen King novel...smh I hope that could happen...at least give us something to offset that nightmare scenario!

And that would mean a little more time in the "warm" phases?

Thanks for sharing (although I couldn't read the study in it's entirety because of the paywall). But what would you say the consequences of that expanding warm pool would be? (or is that the unknown part? Lol Sounds like it's saying that it's hard to tell what exactly it will do to the MJO. But what about other things?)

Now, correct me if I'm overgenaralizing...and perhaps my worry isn't too rational...But I've always had a nagging fear of this being the new normal (that is, that we'll start seeing this every single year). I mean, I guess 2 years in a row doesn't mean much statistically, but...I'm just wondering (maybe this is more for the global warming thread...where I hesitate to traverse, lol)

@psuhoffman Yeah man you don't have to sugarcoat anything...just calling it as you see it. Yes, it sucks that things are setting up this way...but there's no need to shoot the messenger. I mean...personally, if we gotta punt half or more of winter away I'd much rather know it now and just snow-grieve the loss than have the heightened expectations we had going into last year. Will be nice to just be surprised in a good way.

I believe you mean Feb 9-10 (and the flowing Wednesday) 2010?

I personally don't have a problem punting the first or second week of winter...For me, since most of our major snowfalls historically don't come until after that, that's fine. But if this +AO malady eats into the prime period...that WILL be crappy. (man, I hope we can benefit from the solar minimum next year if we can't this year...provided something else in the atmosphere doesn't screw that up too) That being said, I'm still hangin' on the every 3-4 year trend for one-footers at BWI--I'll ride that horse till' the streak breaks! It'll be 4 years since 2016...(hey, we got a fluke in 2006 to keep the streak goin, right? )

Actually HM did make a vague mention about something in the pattern looking "sorta like"the "transitions" at the end of Dec 1986 and Dec 1982 for the Januaries that followed...lol (of course I could be reading a bit too much into it)

Is this similar what we know it will look like for this current stretch? (also, I sent ya a DM)

I see...so in that winter we managed to take a swing during that tiny window and just happened to hit a homerun, lol I mean, I'd call that thread the needle in a more general sense of getting a good swing during a very brief favorable period! And what do ya know...that one time was all it took for the "1 foot storm every 3-4 years" trend to continue (otherwise we would've had a drought of footers until 2009-10!) Hopefully we can get at least one swing like that this winter...even if things don't get more favorable overall (but hopefully they do)

Random question: Now I see back in 2005/06 we got that one storm that dumped about a foot at BWI and then not much the rest of the winter (I don't know why I don't remember that one, lol)...Now was that one of those situations where we lucked into something during a variable pattern (with hostile periods, I'm guessing)?

Now...I'm wondering if that means this ends up like the 2005/06 winter when got a single 1 footer and not much else, lol (I'm still bettin' on that 1 footer because of our recent every 3-4 year cycle for those!)

Next 8-10 days or beyond that?

This statement has more truth than you realize...lol

Yeah that's unfortunate...who knows when we can crack that 20-inch mark again! (But if the NAO cycle is decadal...and we are near solar minimum...I hope that betters our odds for finally breaking the streak next year. I say next year based on the loose theory of the solar minimum to -NAO correlation has a lag effect sometimes...or so I've heard on here, lol)

So we're essentially facing the same setup as last year? (correct me if I'm oversimplifying). If so...wouldn't that make the winter forecast easier, since you could just go by last year, and go from there? Both weak ninos...the Hadley cell thing you mentioned: would it stand to reason the process will pretty much go the same way? (of course I'd like better than last year, but...if we're dealing with this "not coupling to the atmosphere" again...I won't put my expectations past last year)

Not sure how much you can count 1941/42...The only reason for those 21 inches is because of that highly anomalous Palm Sunday blizzard. Don't want to have to rely on a redux of that! (and 1930/31...to have that tiny amount of snow to only get 10 in march doesn't seem worth the wait) So overall...that would be a recipe for mediocrity...("very backloaded" is tough to bet on...let's hope that's not the case!)

But wait...then how do we know what kind of ENSO we're in? (And are we reaching a point where we can't rely on history/analogs as much? And if we can't...how do ya make predictions? I'm particularly thinking about last year and how a lot of people got it wrong...partly because a weak El Niño was showing yet didn't behave like one. Are we entering uncharted weather territory overall due to the changing climate? If so...woe to the folks trying to make accurate predictions, lol

Can anybody point to a reliable source for ENSO history? (I'm looking to compare snowfall during neutral winters for my region, lol)

Uh-oh...smh I don't understand how we came to this. That even WEATHER has been poisoned by the divisiveness that has come with this presidency! I mean look, he messed up...but because of his otherworldly level of narcissism, he could not let it go (which led to the media not letting it go) because he can't stand looking bad even in the littlest thing. Mercy...we can't have this with weather warnings--lest people be less likely to react to a real threat!

Lol

Eric Webb found some humor in the situation...lol

Maybe I might be a bit biased for my own region...lol Where I am that blend ain't the greatest (more in the "okay" category like last winter!)

Except we really don't know where it's gonna hit yet...so ya might wanna hold off on that, Analogon! (gonna start calling ya that because I've seen somebody dissect analogues to the minute detail you do! )

Oh stop...Man, you lucky stormtracker isn't in here...you know what's he'd tell you to do, lol