To illustrate the turbulence in the long range, the operational GFS trended between 10 and 18 degrees colder from 12z to 18z today for the Dec 10th event.
I can absolutely understand the anxiety in the annual winter long range threads. Each year our window for any sensible winter gets smaller and smaller it seems.
Last winter we were pulling ticks off our horse in January. Went back and looks at the data from my cooperative site and noticed we hit the mid 70s. . .
This is also mentioned in the Northeast Snowstorms books by Kocin and Uccellini. Some of our biggest "surprise" winter events were not detected until we got inside D4.
Wonder if the long range stuff is models reverting back to climo state? We saw that last year where beyond D10 guidance kept trying to advertise a solid pattern that never materialized.
Would be nice to get 3"-5" regionwide then a dryslot. Then we get back into cold weather in a day or two. Just don't want it immediately melted off or washed away.
Yup. Wind direction matters. You get a screaming east wind and it's sleet city. But turn that into a north-northeast or northeast wind and we're draining cold air from interior New England. Geography matters.