I’d go as far as to say they should take down the watch, but they’ll leave it up until it turns into an advisory for a trace to a tenth of freezing rain. We met our quota of one good winter month, but now it’s February.
1.8” of QPF through 3z Friday, of which 1.72” is rain and the other 0.08” is “freezing rain” that falls during the day at 32 degrees, which is just a glorified way to say plain rain.
A boring rainstorm. It’s almost like they set these models up in such a way that they suck us in for a storm we had no business tracking, only to pull the rug out.
12z HRRR was at 33 at daybreak Thursday. 18z HRRR is at 36 at the same time and stays above freezing through the end of its run. Hours and hours of 33 degree rain.
The book has been closed on January. Coldest January (5.2 degrees below normal) since 2014. Snowiest January since 2011. At least a trace of snow on 23 days, measurable snow on 13 days. There were 20 days that didn’t get above freezing. Finished the month with 15 consecutive days of snow cover. About as good as it can get if you ask me.
That’s significantly less bullish than they were on the ice potential earlier. The previous package had over a quarter inch for much of the metro.
They’ve also updated the zones to include a lot more mix during the day Thursday (with sleet more prevalent than zr).
That’s the bottom line. The goalposts are narrowing. The most plausible options are a sleet bomb or an ice storm or some combination of the two, with little rain or snow.
Everything so far is starting to suggest that we might be below freezing most of the day Thursday, but temps aloft don’t support snow during that timeframe. This can’t be good, unless you really want the crippling ice storm. Anyone?
NAM also has us below freezing all day Thursday from daybreak. More sleet than zr in Pittsburgh but the 1”+ ice totals are in southern Allegheny county.