It was a very tough forecast for sure. If I was coming off angry about the higher wind forecasts I apologize as that was not my intention at all. This really just goes to show how important communication is and how important it is to clearly communicate. But I never try to come across that way and I love hearing input from everyone and discussing the science behind everything.
For this event, I didn't think we would see widespread significant wind gusts (60-70), but there were certainly a few more than I thought as well. This was also tied into that fine line of convection which really helped with these higher end wind gusts.
I also agree, these torched low-levels and higher sfc dews would be a pretty strong indicator for higher-end wind gusts but the lapse rates were just horrific and I recall this being a huge differentiator between widespread higher-end wind potential and more localized higher-end gusts.
Even going through so many bufkit profiles and playing around with the mixing layer depth...it was real tough to find consistent mixing drawing down super strong winds and I thought that was a big flag.
Don't know what the peak was but highest I saw for customers without power in CT was just over 33K...down to just under 22K. Hopefully this will come down quickly.
Well it's been quite a while since we've had a major ice storm.
Thus far we had Isaias, tornado event/RFD induced damage, parts of the state nailed by the serial derecho, widespread 10-12'' snowstorm, let's put 2020 on....ice
I wonder if there is a small window to develop some discrete convection ahead of the main rain shield. There are subtle hints this is possible. Those 3km CAPE values aren't too terrible but it is also possible the shear is just too strong and those value might not be enough for updrafts to fully establish...or at least not enough to utilize the dynamics.
Part of it too is I think they've probably been heavily briefed on this for several days. I mean this storm signal has been there for a week. They've certainly had plenty of lead time
Yeah definitely becoming more of a concern. And this is why I was more conservative with thoughts on wind...but if this convection does verify with that leading dry slot we are screwed...well especially out your way. There is some possibility though that the majority of the line end up passing more of E CT (which screws you but would be some better news for much of the state).
Do you think there is room for a narrow dry slot ahead of the convective line? Looks like the hi-res models are kinda picking up on that. That would certainly escalate higher-end gust potential