Carvers Gap

Bring me some snow, Holston.

We saw this EXACT thing happen already in this short winter. I referenced my erroneous Nov 21st post yesterday(which caused some confusion). Let's see if the Euro stays with that solution. But the 12z Euro is a great example of what happens when things don't stall or feedback over the Pac NW. I have little doubt the GFS is having trouble in that region, but I don't remember it having feedback issues w/ troughs there. It does have some issues with building up cold air masses in the Canadian Rockies front range and then not kicking it out. But w/ the comparison I had above w/ the snowfall amounts vs AIFS, the GFS is an outlier at this time. Now, it can snow out there big time, but it really is out on a limb. When the trough doesn't stall there, it "should" kick out which it did on the Euro. The bad thing about that possible error is that it absolutely wrecks LR ext (weeklies) until it gets fixed. And if we are looking at 1055 HPs coming out of Canada, that would explain the models bouncing around.

I will be interested to see if CPC updates their official plot. I honestly don't know if they derive their own plot or get it from ABM. I haven't ever thought about it. Thank you for clarification on that.

I "think" the black line is the observed index. The black line is the same on the Euro. The starting points for the model are the 11th. Prior to that I "think" is observed. It is possible the CPC site corrects that later? I haven't really watched to see if they change it, but I don't think they do.

The 12z Euro slides a 1052 hp into the Plains late in its run. Wild swing. I will post some graphics when my stuff updates.

The 12z Euro (it hasn't run on WeatherBell...but has on pIvotal) gets rid of the infinite feedback loop and kicks a strong trough into the East and completely flips the d10-15 pattern. Is it right? No idea. But I feel like I have seen this movie before....like about 2-3 weeks ago.

Well, the 12Z Euro beat me to it...LOL. That is quite the correction. Is it done flipping and flopping? I doubt it.

Until that feedback gets fixed, things are not going to be right. I think we see one of two things happen. Either a trough sets up shop in the West or that trough kicks out and models correct. I just don't know. But I do know this...either the AIFS or GFS is off its rocker.

Is that a different RMM1/RMM2 than CPC uses? I noticed it is ABM generated. I haven't seen the CPC site go into 6, and it is updated to the 11th. Here is the CPC site's for today. It never crosses into 6. If they are different, I wonder which is more accurate. Now, back to model feedback, and the 12z GFS was EXTREME with it today. I figured that if was noticing at 500, the surface had to be crazy. This is a comparison of the AIFS and GFS at 12z. Notice anything? This is how we know that we are dealing with model feedback, OR the ski slopes in the Sierra Nevada are about to get buried(not without precedent BTW).

One thing to add and I haven't looked at SSW maps today. It has been my experience that when we see a big WAR(western Atlantic ridge for the new folks), that ridge often precedes significant SSW events, especially if the ridge is anomalous. That WAR will also often preceded HL blocking as well. I don't have the lag on that, but I would guess 2-3 weeks and the bottom comes out.

I had a long post and basically just dumped it...too long. The 12z GFS looks like it has an infinite loop which has crept into it(and other models) yet again. This time it is over the PAC NW and front range of the Canadian Rockies. Until that gets worked out, modeling is probably wrong. I don't understand how that feedback loop is making its way into all modeling(reference early December fiasco). Now, it could be right. However, when we see a vortex continue to spin up in the same place over and over....you probably have found an infinite loop. The 12z GFS shows what happens(late in the run) when the model exits the loop. If that loop isn't real, it will likely exit that loop much earlier in the period which is what happened in early December. As for the MJO, to me it looks like phase 7 on the actual OLR satellite map for today w/ some elements in 3 and 4. It is definitely flirting with 6, but the tops look brighter in 7 and even some in 8. RMM1/RMM2 has the MJO index in low phase 8 with it bordering on 7. It might be generous to have it in 8. The problem w/ phase 6 is that there is generally always some type of convection over the MC all the time at this time of year. That said, the cold forecast for tomorrow and bitter cold for Sunday/Monday looks like a classic phase 8 look. After that, we see either a pattern relaxation(if indeed that is an infinite loop) or a pattern change to a western trough(if the infinite loop is actually real). A gradient look w/ cold trapped in Canada...I can buy that. 8-10 days of repeated vortices spinning up over the PAC NW...not so much.

That post was from November 21st as an example of how quickly things changed(back to cold) in modeling. I was commenting at the time about a standing wave which never materialized in reality. I will have some comments hopefully this morning about the possible upcoming pattern change to a ridge over the East. And yes, I do think it is probably a pattern change which will last through the last ten days of December and through most of January....but that isn't a slam dunk just yet, but more of a strong likelihood.

18z GFS....good run.

I posted this on Nov 21st about the first and second weeks of November. Look at the second paragraph. That standing wave was replaced by a trough. Is that standing wave over the SE a feedback error on the EPS and Euro?

Temps are 48, but the wind chill is 34 in this howler. Absolutely freezing my tail off.