psuhoffman

I remember being in the weather station at PSU the day before the 2000 storm arguing with the meteorology professor they had on duty after the 12z guidance came in that something was way off. All the models totally missed the amplified of the upper level feature coming across the MS valley. It was super easy to spot on the WV loop that there was a completely closed SW where guidance had a much weaker feature and as a result the gulf moisture was already affecting north and the trough was taking on a negative tilt way ahead of schedule. He saw it but said there was no way models would be 200 miles off in 12 hours and maybe it might clip the outer banks or Boston as worst lol. I’m sure I was driving him nuts. The next day he didn’t want to talk to me lol. I remember me and my friend (he’s the one with the place in Vermont now) driving Jon Neese crazy the year before because he didn’t trust the ETA (too new) and relied on the NGM and AVN and twice in a row the ETA nailed a snow event for up there. I had no skill at all back then it was pure luck. Actually the fact I had no idea what I was doing is probably why I caught both, I was naive enough to question everything and not just trust the most reliable data.

That would fit because our elevation difference is on average a 1 degree difference in general.

My weather station hasn’t been above 31 but who knows if it’s accurate

It totally depends where the boundary sets up. It won’t work if the trough axis is centered too far west. Right now I like where it’s centered on the means.

Exactly where it places an area of .15 qpf v .08 or changes across the board of .05 qpf are noise. Unfortunately in such a minor event that noise is the difference between a coating and a 1.5-2” snowfall. But we still don’t have the ability to pin that down.

The h7fgen shifted way northwest and ended up completely disconnected to the main WAA and h85fgen banding. This created a dead zone north of the main bullseye which was DC southeastward and that band that ended up putting down 4-8" way up into west central PA. That northern band died out as it shifted east and ran into the NS shred zone from the 50/50 spinning up there. That disconnect is what lead to the minor "bust" across MD and into your area. It also didn't help that there was a disconnect from best lift and the DGZ such that even what qpf we got didn't maximize ratios to the level we would have liked along the northern tier of the snowfall zone.

It was a 3 week period of non stop boundary waves and we were riding the boundary with each one with mixed results wave to wave. It was fun.

I remember in 87 in NJ leaving school during one of those snowstorms when 2-3" had already fallen and it was coming down like a blizzard...took an hour to get home and I lived a mile away. Remember another storm where I was waiting an hour for the bus in like 6" of snow and it took almost until lunch to get to school then then took 2 hours to get home that night after about 10" total fell. We did get a 2 hour delay the next day! High school in northern VA I remember several times in 1994 waiting for a bus in ice, one time I waited over an hour and my father told me to just come in and forget it. I don't think the bus ever came. A storm in December 1996 waiting in 2" of snow. I have no idea which is the right way, but we definitely got softer. When I was a kid school was cancelled for weather when it was just not possible to get there, and often they didn't cancel when I couldn't get there lol. Probably somewhere between that and now when they cancel for some snowshowers was a happy medium.

The long range reminds me most of very late January through mid February 2014 right now. That was not the coldest period of that winter, there were a TON of waves in that window and they were about 50/50 rain v snow across our area. There was an ice event thrown in, a rain to snow that thumped 70 north, and of course that mid Feb MECS. But it was fun times.

I can see a win within this paradigm

EPS snowfall much improved day 10-15 also

I know a pure snowfall map is not the best way to break down a threat window...but I already laid out what I like about the pattern yesterday and nothing has changed. So just for sh!ts and giggles, this is a good looking 7 day mean for a week 2 period. First of all its 7 days not a 16 day mean... and at day 10+ you're not going to have a uniform track across guidance so you get this washed out area of snowfall, but its centered on us and extends well to our south and north...plus the "extra" snow to our NW is lake effect not synoptic, we are the epicenter of the snow max on this plot from synoptic snow. This is about as good a signal as you will see on a week 2 snow mean. I was waiting for the ensembles snow plots to start to match the potential and todays 12z GEFS did. Again a snow map is not that useful but it shows what I wanted.

There is a window around the 18-20 where the boundary could shift to our NW. But it depends on wave spacing. Right now things are trending towards a bit too much space between the departing trough/50/50 and the next wave amplifying a bit too far west creating a ridge in between. But that can change...but even if it did go down that way we are only talking about a 2 day period and one wave that would likely cut to our NW. After that we would be back in the game and the next wave becomes a threat...again contingent on the details of wave spacing. We don't have blocking anymore so we would need something to time up correctly, come at us while we have the 50/50 from a departing wave, have waves come at us in pieces and not phased. We pulled it off multiple times in 2014 and 2015. I know it hasnt worked much lately but as I pointed out yesterday one of the main culprits for that was the full latitude -PDO induced central pacific pattern. That causes systems to want to amplify way too much into the western US. If the pacific ridge is displaced northeast which directs the cold into the eastern US more it gives us a much better chance. We had that in January 2022.

Not necessarily, there are two types of Nina base states. One with a flat pacific ridge and more westward displaced north american trough (typically in western canada or worse into the southwest US) and one with a more poleward pacific ridge which pushes the downstream trough eastward and extends cold into the eastern US. In the former nina type the eastern US is a torch and there is typically no snow anywhere near us, think years like 2008, 2012, 2023. The storm track doesn't matter at all in these years since there is no cold to work with. In the latter(years like 2001, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2022) our typical fail mode is that storms tend to develop too late for our area and miller b us. The STJ is suppressed and the northern stream systems get going too late. Places just to our northeast Philly to Boston did much better in those years. In neither type of nina are lake cutters the primary reason we don't get much snow.

GEFS finally starting to show a snowy signal day 10-15

Some of us had a strong suspicion that wasn't going to cut based on the longwave pattern. Ji pointed it out! This is more complicated, we don't have a ridiculous block, but there is cold around and there are plenty of other ways to get a snowstorm if cold is around. We basically just can't have all the energy phase and cut, any number of other solutions end up with snow for us with that scenario. But it COULD cut, there is no block to stop it if a strong wave comes along...but I'll still take my chances with that look.

Regarding 12z Euro...I know it ends up Ice to rain, but I'll take my chances with a gulf wave approaching us from the TN valley with a 1045 high over upstate NY. There are so many paths to a win there, basically anything other than it phasing early and bombing out to 989 in the lakes and I'll bet against that at this range.

BTW, I am not so sure we actually want storms to look "suppressed" in the long range anymore. That was a guidance bias 20 years ago, and we still say "just where we want it" when guidance has some southern wave day 10, but is it really what we want? How often has that worked out lately? Actually over the last 5 years or so a lot of our snow was rain on the guidance day 10. More that I can remember than storms that were suppressed and trended north. Pattern recognition is important here. When a model run shows some snowstorm day 13 despite the fact that almost every pattern driver is wrong we can be 90% sure its going to end up rain. But when the pattern in general is good, I am getting to the point where I would rather see a wave over or even slightly north of us than squashed in the long ranges. If cold is nearby there are multiple paths to win. A wave can end up weaker and south, it could come out in pieces, a lead can cut and a caboose can get us, a lead wave can become a 50/50 for a following wave, we can get a front end CAD thump... But guidance has become pretty good at picking up on suppression and its rare anymore that some wave thats down in the deep south and suppressed off the SE coast ends up coming up the coast. Its been a really long time since that happened.

I would like a redo, with a slightly less suppressive 50/50 location next time

DOH

They cancelled registration for a weekend program I oversee last Saturday because of the 30 min snowshower that hit Baltimore Friday evening....and now they will probably cancel our make up and last chance to register before the program starts because of 1" of snow.

Milk was such a horrible choice

I could blow smoke up your arse and pretend I know what's going to happen like some others do.

Wait I need an excuse to do that?

I am uncertain where we go following January 20th or so. But I am a lot more optimistic than I was a month ago. I was on the record expecting Jan 20 on to be pretty bad...so it still would not surprise me. BUT... the PDO is now about neutral and heading the right way. The Nino is incredibly weak and has failed to assert much dominance on the pacific longwave pattern. The high latitudes have been more favorable than I expected. Could it all fall apart and flip to typical Nina Feb torch...sure, but some of the more neutral PDO nina's didn't even do that. Feb 2006 wasn't that bad and we got a MECS. I am now ambiguous on my expectations post Jan 20, I could see it go either way.