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Weekend Storm Discussion Part II, 2/18-2/19


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I still think there will be a gradual shift north and west even if small...this doesn't mean a bad result necessarily for anyone, but you still have to favor JYO - MRB - HGR - Marcus's House for the best snows....Plus there is still a lot of time

I still like my 2-4" call for my backyard....We are going to have to deal with some rain and some non-accumulating stuff but once it gets cranking, 33 and +SN should overcome that....I expect we will even get street accumulation at least on side roads in DC and maybe main roads depending on timing...I like 3" for my backyard...If we end up with a closer track, I still think we can do ok with deform...we just deal with more rain as a percentage than we want

There is still a lot of time for the track to shift but I think an OTS miss is pretty unlikely and I would lean toward PHL-NYC-BOS getting in on this...The southern stream is amped enough on its own....

A couple additional things to consider:

This could change but as of now the heaviest snow falls during day time...this will cut down on accumulation since the BL will cool less quickly, and sun angle will be an enemy

This air mass is really tough...As of now MOS has us in the low to mid 50s on Saturday afternoon and low to mid 40s when precip arrives Saturday night...As a point of reference on January 25, 2011 we were about 5-7 degrees colder at midnight and same with 2/22/87....We would like to see temps trend toward the mid to upper 40s Saturday afternoon..and upper 30s by midnight....that will give us more of a head start...I expect they will trend down a little

This is going to be more like a March storm than a February one...Even Feb 87 had a slightly better air mass....So imagine this storm happening around March 15-20th with somewhat better sun angle and I think you get a better idea of the result...It probably means DCA is capped in the 2-4" range, but accumulations could potentially vary quite a bit over short distances....Stay fleixible

Great post, Matt - I hope everyone reads it :)

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Probably pointing out details too fine at this stage but storm is a bit slower and 850's further south than 6z.

Getting ++SN at 2pm - 5pm has its advantages and disadvantages, but not sure you want the core of the storm falling at the absolute worst sun angle and temp in a late FEB marginal air mass....at the same time, anything less than crushing deform in that window would have a tough time sticking well

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The clown maps are going to be even worse than normal with the borderline nature of this event, so ignore them.

Are those things ever worth looking at for analysis purposes or just fun to look at? I never take them seriously. I've lived here along time as many others. It's not terribly difficult to look at the surface, 850, and 500 panels and pretty much know what the model would imply.

The most recent GFS is telling me that if I didn't have to battle any temp issues, 4-8 or 6-10 would be reasonable. Gotta cut that in half here. 3-5 just n&w of the cities? Seems ok.

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Are those things ever worth looking at for analysis purposes or just fun to look at? I never take them seriously. I've lived here along time as many others. It's not terribly difficult to look at the surface, 850, and 500 panels and pretty much know what the model would imply.

The most recent GFS is telling me that if I didn't have to battle any temp issues, 4-8 or 6-10 would be reasonable. Gotta cut that in half here. 3-5 just n&w of the cities? Seems ok.

I'm not sure why people post them other than fun?....They are unreliable, the algorithms are goofy and nobody I know has ever relied on them to make a forecast or used them at all

yes....they are completely useless

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Basically from 18z to 22-23z or so..it's snowing pretty darn hard in the city.

If you take the GFS at face value, 18z seems like the changeover time, and DCA/BWI get about 0.3" after that. 2-3" snow considering the surface. If we go over instead by 15z or so, then there is 0.5" frozen and we end up with a nice little event.

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If you take the GFS at face value, 18z seems like the changeover time, and DCA/BWI get about 0.3" after that. 2-3" snow considering the surface. If we go over instead by 15z or so, then there is 0.5" frozen and we end up with a nice little event.

12 hr total qpf beginning 18Z

http://mag.ncep.noaa.gov/NCOMAGWEB/appcontroller?prevPage=Param&MainPage=indexℑ=&page=Param&cycle=02%2F16%2F2012+12UTC&rname=PRECIP+PARMS&pname=precip_p12&pdesc=&model=GFS&area=NAMER&cat=MODEL+GUIDANCE&fcast=090&areaDesc=North+America+-+US+Canada+and+northern+Mexico&prevArea=NAMER&currKey=model&returnToModel=&imageSize=L

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If you take the GFS at face value, 18z seems like the changeover time, and DCA/BWI get about 0.3" after that. 2-3" snow considering the surface. If we go over instead by 15z or so, then there is 0.5" frozen and we end up with a nice little event.

I could see it snowing a bit earlier than that, but it might be a 34F snow..or something like that. Once it flips, it should come down good..but surface temps will may be a slight issue at first, anyways. With any elevation...even 300'..it will make a difference.

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Gotta stay optimistic about temps here. Subtle shifts can really make us smile (or cry). Pretty much a lock we get some rain at the beginning. Can't really get around that. Once we hit nowcasting time we'll have a much better idea of how much we're going to lose before the changeover.

GFS showing 40's at onset. What if we are say.....38 or so?

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