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March medium/long range disco


psuhoffman

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1 hour ago, Bob Chill said:

The thing about March (especially near the cities) is the climo fight can ruin things that are otherwise a pretty good chance. The opposite of January and early Feb when a so-so deal can produce something. Of course this year that didn't happen but you guys know what I'm talking about. 

Diligent long range tracking this late in the season is waste of time beyond just looking at the means and hoping as we get into med-short range that something either shows up or holds together. The same thoughts I had a few days ago are still the same. Looks like a good pattern to build some impressive late season cold in Canada and eventually the US. This "should" make it's way east. The cold Canada pattern seems pretty stable so my guess is a fairly decent period in March will feature cold and stormy weather in the CONUS. Not much else to discuss. Anything specific is 1-2 weeks away. 

good attitude, there is potential but we're still a week away from any clarity so enjoy the nice weather and we will see...

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9 hours ago, pasnownut said:

 "frankly, i think this hobby is somewhat of a waste of time if all you're doing is regurgitating model output each run.   that's why i don't even bother with that.  for me,  "

 

If I misread, then my bad.  But this didnt sound "in defense of" to me.

Carry on.

 

Nut

 

 

My point was that if all you're doing is just staring at numbers and not knowing where they come from then you're better off letting a forecaster make the call otherwise you're just going to hug each model run which I absolutely 100% think is a waste of ones time.  But if you're actually in this to learn about patterns and where the numbers come from then tracking storms can be beneficial even if everything seems 10 days away.  I'm sure plenty can be learned about patterns even if it doesn't snow.  I can't be any clearer than that.  

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10 minutes ago, PCT_ATC said:

Isnt our average high like 53 on march 7 @ DCA.  So take away 10 degrees and we are still 10 degrees to warm 

 

Note, however, that area of bn temps represents the center of High Pressure getting ready to pass over us or to our south.

http://www.tropicaltidbits.com/analysis/models/?model=gfs-ens&region=us&pkg=mslpaNorm&runtime=2017022306&fh=360&xpos=61&ypos=156

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3 minutes ago, PCT_ATC said:

Isnt our average high like 53 on march 7 @ DCA.  So take away 10 degrees and we are still 10 degrees to warm 

 

Those are 850T anomalies.

But yeah temps are always a concern in March. Get a storm with a favorable track with that sort of look, and surface temps are less likely to be an issue.

 

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1 hour ago, PCT_ATC said:

Isnt our average high like 53 on march 7 @ DCA.  So take away 10 degrees and we are still 10 degrees to warm 

 

Your looking at it wrong. First that's Celsius. Second it's an ensemble mean which smooths out details. Your going to have some warmer runs mixed in. Or days where it's sunny vs precipitating. A sunny day in mid march isn't going to be that cold. Plus your quoting the high. It doesn't have to be below 32 all the time just when it's precipitating. If it worked the way you imply it would never snow in march. Frankly it would almost never snow period since the average high in DC is in the mid 40s or higher most of the winter except a few weeks. Even then it's never below 40. 

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1 hour ago, C.A.P.E. said:

 EPS looks good as well. Been trending colder and sooner. Days 11-15 look cold. Faint signals for winter storms showing up beyond day 12 on some of the members too. Be nice to see that get stronger in the next few days.

Ok let's play bad v good again.

bad: the snow signal is pretty bad on the gefs and EPS. And usually I ignore that at range but it's been a feature all year and in the end was correct. While cold on the mean when you look at the details the individual runs and warm wet and cold dry. They differ on timing at that range but the majority cut something west then drive a cold dry high down behind it. 

Good: just because it's been crap all winter doesn't mean the next pattern will be. This is a very different look then we have had so far. Like I said a week ago we're heading into a 4th distinct longwave pattern. But this one, unlike the last 3, has significant large scale differences in some of the issues we have faced. Mainly it looks like North America will have ample cold available and the southeast ridge will be suppressed. Those two haven't lined up this year yet. Furthermore at range smaller vorts within the pattern will be missed and in march those can be a big deal. 

Neutral: I would like to see a bit more southern energy but in march a vort in the northern stream could get it done but I want to see some hits start showing up in the guidance soon. 

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1 hour ago, psuhoffman said:

Ok let's play bad v good again.

bad: the snow signal is pretty bad on the gefs and EPS. And usually I ignore that at range but it's been a feature all year and in the end was correct. While cold on the mean when you look at the details the individual runs and warm wet and cold dry. They differ on timing at that range but the majority cut something west then drive a cold dry high down behind it. 

Good: just because it's been crap all winter doesn't mean the next pattern will be. This is a very different look then we have had so far. Like I said a week ago we're heading into a 4th distinct longwave pattern. But this one, unlike the last 3, has significant large scale differences in some of the issues we have faced. Mainly it looks like North America will have ample cold available and the southeast ridge will be suppressed. Those two haven't lined up this year yet. Furthermore at range smaller vorts within the pattern will be missed and in march those can be a big deal. 

Neutral: I would like to see a bit more southern energy but in march a vort in the northern stream could get it done but I want to see some hits start showing up in the guidance soon. 

Good post. Another element I am keeping an eye on is the ridging over GL and how stable that feature is (or isnt). We have seen that general look in the means quite often this winter but at verification time, its not a real "block". Odds have been against it due to the QBO, etc. It seems like it could be more than transient this time. Even looking at individual runs of the GFS op the higher heights being advertised up there have looked rather persistent for the first week to 10 days of March.

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12 minutes ago, dallen7908 said:

12 UT GFS: Clipper parade could begin as early as next Friday with light wintry mix output by the model on both Friday morning and Saturday evening; however, the lows pass to our north on both occasions, which is never a good sign, especially with a clipper.

with that just starting a potential cool period its not unexpected in my view...but there are more after that which are south of us...uber LR so not worth even discussing but a theme that seems to be emerging is a cool period starting next Friday.  I suppose that's it and could vanish.  But I will be watching.

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Differences between EPS and GEFS: The EPS has some brief weak blocking in the atlantic before heights start building again. PNA and AO are also not great on EPS.

GEFS has stronger blocking and holds it through the run though it weakens a bit toward the end. AO stays negative too. GEFS also wants to turn PNA positive. That would be a window, with cold air in place, though nothing much really pops.

A couple of storms pop on EPS, but they're the "trailing low amps up" variety from what I can tell. Based on EPS, I'd say we have a good window for snow starting around the December 20th period. 

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1 hour ago, paulythegun said:

Differences between EPS and GEFS: The EPS has some brief weak blocking in the atlantic before heights start building again. PNA and AO are also not great on EPS.

GEFS has stronger blocking and holds it through the run though it weakens a bit toward the end. AO stays negative too. GEFS also wants to turn PNA positive. That would be a window, with cold air in place, though nothing much really pops.

A couple of storms pop on EPS, but they're the "trailing low amps up" variety from what I can tell. Based on EPS, I'd say we have a good window for snow starting around the December 20th period. 

Without getting into too much detail, which is useless, the NA blocking is there, and not what I would call brief (or particularly weak) on the EPS, from day 7 forward. Looks like it does weaken around day 15. Both have a generally building +PNA which fades late in the run, and neither have an EPO ridge. Mostly lower heights over AK. Upshot is if there is an opportunity for a late winter weather event, it will likely occur in the day 10-15 window, maybe a bit beyond, which is pretty brief.

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