Bob Chill

I'm convinced it's a dna hardwired trait. I was obsessed with snow when I was 2 and my parents didn't care for it all that much. There was no conditioning and I was too young to understand science. Simply born this way... for better or worse... probably worse

936-1212 lol. The ink was worn off the buttons on our kitchen phone hahaha. When snow was in the forecast I would burn it up late afternoon waiting for the update. Great memories that few can relate to outside of this forum. I'm pullin for you folks up north. It's a tricky setup but I really hope it comes through and swipes the metros with a satisfying snowfall. Nature's Xanax and things like that

Im not a huge fan of wxbell numerical index plots. Im not sure what algorithm they use but it's usually overstated to reality. Good trend though! Ensembles have struggled with quick shifts of the AO/NAO in both directions since early Nov. Part of me didn't want to believe the shift strongly positive but I finally caved to the idea after 5+ days of guidance showing it. Of course as soon as I caved things started uncaving haha. Wx is a cruel hobby but never boring. If blocking does in fact reset back to favorable, we're right back in the game even with the Pac being a bit hostile. I like CAD overrunners. They may get messy but they are rarely dry. Fingers crossed

Not showing up well in the ens (yet?) but ops keep printing variations of a legit -nao in the d10-15 range. Primary reason why they are spitting out some winter wx. Can't really buy it yet but if ens shift towards the idea my interest will jump considerably. 0z EPS had some hints of the idea and 6z gefs took it a step further....

Check out the blocking too lol. Don't think I've ever seen this before... the legendary banana block haha

Nothing wrong with a long range op showing probably the only way something can work with the prog'd longwave pattern. The second half of Dec is looking hostile but not impossible. Shutout patterns are the worst thing a weenie can endure. Progressive CAD type setups seem likely coming up but combining that with precip is something the mid/short range has to figure out lol

2 hours of flurries/lt snow but no accums. Was hoping to squeeze .2 to hit 7" for the month but the minor accum stuff ended up south of me by 20 miles. It was nice dendrites for a while so SnowTV looked pretty good for a bit

How warm isn't really the problem imo. It may be just run of the mill +3-5 departures and not really feel "warm". The issue is the longwave pattern and what it means for storms. Ensembles universally agree on a persistent -pna with low heights in the GOA and PacNW area and a positive AO/NAO combo. That pretty much kills snowstorm chances. The only path would be backdoor cold fronts/CAD and it's a stretch to get things right for a snowstorm without some kind of block. A transient 50/50 could work but that's threading the needle and most certainly not something we can track at long ranges. Tracking temp departures isn't something that excites me lol. I like to track snow chances exclusively and I'll need to concentrate on other hobbies for a while. I'm probably in the minority but if the upper level pattern is super hostile for snow chances, I'd prefer it to just be warm and dry lol

It makes sense to have the pendulum swing after a persistent cold first half of Dec but unfortunately the next pattern will prob be persistent for several weeks at least and it's one that pretty much closes the door on snow chances. The closest analog is second half of Dec of 2021. Jan 2022 did produce a storm but it was a weird one. My Rockville yard loved it but it was another of a long string of small maximas and forum dividers. Not saying I expect a repeat or anything just that the trip out of the current progs has produced in the recent past. We'll see how things unfold over the next couple weeks but I'm not a big fan of a persistent GOA low with no blocking. I really don't want to see that become the winter personality. My gut says blocking will return but that's just a guess. I'm not expecting a quick flip back to deep winter based on current progs. Would likely be more of a frustrating grind through the first half of Jan. If the GOA low becomes a mainstay, posting quality and fun factor here will decline precipitously lol. ETA: I think I'm remembering the early Jan 2022 storm incorrectly. Does anyone have a final snow map for it? ETA2: I figured it out lol. It was 2 storms in a week. That's why I remembered it being really good. Rockville got just under 10" combined and areas SE got smashed. My new yard got hit good too but it was before we bought. I'll keep tracking analogs as we move forward. I don't like what I see right now but there's a case to be made for an abrupt shift after we endure the next few weeks

I never had much hopes for this one. Downhill trajectory across a dozen+ mountains to my west doesn't work on the lee side basically every time. If there was any hint of a southern connection I would have been more interested but pure NS running downhill always runs out of gas by the time it hits the blue ridge.... and I'm even east of that... a clean inch would be a major win for my yard.

I love the driving lol. It's peaceful, beautiful and fun. No traffic so trips to stores always take the same amount of time. It's very predictable. I'm 30 mins each way to all the majors (wally, lowes, Kroger, etc) and an hour each way to 2 decent sized cities (roanoke, lynchburg). We've learned to be efficient by combining errands and avoiding any single store trip. We generally only run into town 1-2 days a week tops. Not much walking for errands but we walk in the woods or around the lakes daily with the dog. Lots of outdoors stuff for foot travel but if we need to buy anything it's a drive. I was 100% sick of driving anywhere in the metro region lol. 5 miles took 20+ minutes and I was surrounded by impatient jerks or people not even looking at the road lol. Here, it's just sightseeing with a few cars and trucks here and there. Totally relaxed and pretty scenery everywhere. You can drive as fast or slow as you want. I rarely see police and when I do they all wave lol. Speed limits are just suggestions on the back roads. The driving experience itself is night and day compared to the DMV so even though it's 60 miles round trip for groceries the actual driving is only 60 mins with no stress or traffic.

I've made plenty of good and bad decisions in my life. This move has been the best good decision by many miles. On top of cost of living, things like never sitting in traffic and beautiful scenery are quite valuable. People are genuine, honest, and helpful. Go to any store (even big box like lowes/wally) and employees are genuinely happy to help. Neighbors will help out for any reason and never be rude or intrusive. After 25 years in Rockville I never knew this world existed lol. Rural living has drawbacks of course and I can totally understand why this type of life isn't for everyone but for us personally, our mental health has never been better and we've never been happier on a daily basis.

I was worried when I moved here that the deathband would follow me... Sorry buddy. I'll have a chat with tomorrow's deatband and see if it can make a trip to Hoco soon after dropping another garden variety 3-4"

Didn't lose much snow today. Took a sunset walk and it was crazy scenic still. What a week...

Gfs d16 setting up for a severe Boxing Day storm... just the wrong kind of severe