Kmlwx

I was hoping you'd give me the "NEVER" answer. Now I feel too inner circle

When will the watch be upgraded to a warning?

I'm mostly taking the Bob Chill approach this year - so I hope this was not targeted at me. Cover my grass so I can't see the blades and I'm happy. Yes - a HECS is fun - but snow is fun. I've turned into more of a severe guy myself.

They are pretty good about getting the 88Ds back up in a timely manner. They got the LWX radar back up a few days ahead of schedule when the bullgear failed.

It's worth waiting for the 3km frames to be out. It will handle thermals better than the 12km run.

There's many annoyances on this here weather forum - but posting banter and then straight up labeling it as such in the main thread defeats the purposes of having a banter thread. At least this time people agree on what a frame shows. Half the time one person says "it looks suppressed" and the other person says "looks way more amped"

But to be honest - I think for most people who do it - it's almost their way of saying "If I put 'Banter' in my post I can break the rule!" When I start my career as a carjacker I'm going to scream CARJACKING whenever I steal one.

Starting your post with "Banter:" in the main thread will 100% make me wonder if you've even looked in the thread listing.

Gotta love it...

600 to 700 is to the left of the freezing line in that.

@mappy wouldn't do this unless I made a map and committed major mapping no-nos. I'd omit a legend/color scale, put incorrect data on it, put a city or two in the wrong place and use the worst projection possible. Then she might do this.

Also...does anybody else here get irrationally frustrated when their non-weather friends/coworkers insist that it is "hailing" outside in winter? And when corrected they are emphatic that no...they are correct and that ice balls are hail?

This is a totally unrelated question to anything - does LWX "filter" spotter reports or "blacklist" people if they submit too many sketchy reports? I know spotters get the Basics I training - but with the huge influx in local spotters thanks to CWG and overall interest in weather from social media - if they see that a certain spotter is reporting improper things like funnel clouds when it's scud, wrong snowfall totals (inflated or way too low) - do they eventually just stop using that spotter's data?

When will LWX issue watches? I don't make my plans based on the weather - I make them based on watch issuance time.

Climo.

DC area drivers suck - But tell me this - would you rather have DC drivers in a minor to moderate blanket of snow - or DC drivers in a covering of sleet and a glaze of ZR (slop). I'll take the snow...and of course even then it would suck. Hell...throw 3 melting snowflakes onto somebody's windshield on 270 and you'll end up with the entire road being closed for 3+ hours.

I was way too lazy to do this. Also - just realized that @stormtracker - came in after I posted and said his idea of slop is different than mine. Oops.

Randy will make us move this to banter at some point, I'm sure BUT - I'd argue sleet can be much more impactful if it's really coming down. Little ice pellets take a bit longer to melt than a flakey piece of snow. If it truly is pouring sleet, that can form a crusty covering that would be a lot more awful to drive on than a covering of snow. Add in some FZRA to an untreated road or a bridge/overpass and it's a nightmare. Again - slopfest doesn't mean low impact. White rain perhaps does...but not slopfest. If it's dumping sleet I assure you it will not be wet roads everywhere. (edited for spelling)

I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt - my therapist hasn't quite gotten that part dealt with yet @EHoffman - one thing you've gotta realize....you can't just add the word "climo" into every post and expect it to hold meteorological weight. Yes - DCA climo is warmer than suburbs - but the tarmac at DCA is not the same as NW DC.

I might be remembering wrong - but didn't you actually call for just wet roads and pretty much very low impact in DC? A slopfest is definitely not the same and can be rather high impact. To me...a slopfest is a mixed bag of precip - but doesn't mean low impact. You also said you thought all the models (except the NAM) were going to bust too cold.

The way I read that is that you're calling for a wedge at my place tonight in Arundel Mills. Lezdoit.

Generally speaking I AGREE with you. But your writing off of a non-marginal surface temp event as if it's a 33 and white rain event is kind of puzzling. BUT - at least you then backed it up with saying you thought the models were too cold. So I'm not battling you here - we are allowed to have different opinions. That said - the "climo" of NW DC is NOT at all the same as the tarmac at DCA. Ice storms are rare for the entire area - not just downtown Washington. Look how narrow the corridor of sig ice (significant enough to do extensive power outage stuff) was in this past event. It wasn't narrow because of DC climo - it was narrow because the areas where FZRA falls and matches up really well with the rest of the factors is always relatively narrow. Conservative is always good for DC snow. But you're also writing off the mixed nature of the event as well. I think it's totally possible the warm nose is closer to the NAM and we get sleeted to hell. But sleet can be even more impactful than snow. I'm not sold on "meh wet roads" I remember you back on Eastern - always thought you were a solid poster if memory is correct. I don't think you're not now - but you just went perhaps too far in the "meh we are DC" direction. Sometimes we've gotta actually forecast!

Power outages are not the only metric. I heard plenty of reports of accidents that were definitely above the normal background from just wet pavement. Bridges and overpasses can get ugly fast even with marginal temps. But yes - power outages were minimal in Maryland. At my place near Arundel Mills (E of the fall line!) I had to clear off like 0.3 inch of ice from my entire car. Sure - the roads weren't terrible - but they were also salted about 4 times during the icing event. Nobody is going to argue with you that DC has a UHI and it DOES impact marginal events. We'll have to see what the surface temps actually end up being for the upcoming event.

IIRC there were more than one or two posters in DC proper reporting icing that was a bit more than what most people would call a snoozer. I get your overall point - and to an extent I do agree with you. Could easily fail in the way you are suggesting - but the "heat island" of DC is smaller than the entire city in most cases. Think about how much better NW does versus near the airport. The NAM is worth looking at for the reasons PSU has pointed out. But you aren't backing up your posts with evidence like he is. Come on...at least add to the discussion...It's not hard to post something other than "NAM has done well"