Minor snow possible sunday 12/14/25

[mob1]

43 minutes ago, jm1220 said:

That doesn’t cause high ratios. You want temps between -12 and -18C in the clouds where snowflakes are made which promotes good snow growth, and plenty of moisture/lift in that layer. If temps are higher or lower it will hurt ratios. I remember a few times temps were in the low 20s or even teens but we had tiny sand or needle flakes that were 10-1 ratio. 

Here's the sounding from the GFS for his area (roughly), that's actually decent temps for the dendritic growth zone but the winds at height probably argue against really good ratios.

Precipitation rates also come into play here as you'd need something heavier (like the NAM shows) to get proper dynamic cooling. Light rates with a surface temperature of just about freezing won't do much. 

A general rule that would serve people well is that for coastal areas the ratios don't usually exceed the standard 10-1. There any obviously plenty of exceptions but more often than not it's best to ignore ratios for the coastal plain.

[David-LI]

47 minutes ago, WeatherGeek2025 said:

all levels will be below freezing during the storm!

Normal ratio for this storm

[wthrmn654]

Reading the last few pages will give anyone a headache jeez!  

[North and West]

According to what?

drugs


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[Jersey_Snowhole]

Why dos the euro always get stuck at hr 51 on weather bell

[bluewave]

This looks like it could actually thread the needle. Kicker coming into BC probably will prevent the low from riding too far north. The weak ridge to our east will work against a complete suppression to the south. So a 2” scenario like the 12z Euro has in NYC would be a decent outcome for such a fast Pacific flow pattern. Perhaps there is a 1” downside -upside risk for a 1-3” event in NYC.

[Krs4Lfe]

2 minutes ago, bluewave said:

This looks like it could actually thread the needle. Kicker coming into BC probably will prevent the low from riding too far north. The weak ridge to our east will work against a complete suppression to the south. So a 2” scenario like the 12z Euro has in NYC would be a decent outcome for such a fast Pacific flow pattern. Perhaps there is a 1” downside -upside risk for a 1-3” event in NYC.

When do you think this fast Pacific flow pattern will ease up a bit? Back in the 2010s, there used to be bowling balls traversing the US when there was this much cold air. Now; we’re stuck with clippers. Only have had to shovel snow a handful of times since 2020. 

[jm1220]

31 minutes ago, mob1 said:

Here's the sounding from the GFS for his area (roughly), that's actually decent temps for the dendritic growth zone but the winds at height probably argue against really good ratios.

Precipitation rates also come into play here as you'd need something heavier (like the NAM shows) to get proper dynamic cooling. Light rates with a surface temperature of just about freezing won't do much. 

A general rule that would serve people well is that for coastal areas the ratios don't usually exceed the standard 10-1. There any obviously plenty of exceptions but more often than not it's best to ignore ratios for the coastal plain.

Yep good point, strong winds break apart the flakes which causes poor ratios. 

[bluewave]

4 minutes ago, Krs4Lfe said:

When do you think this fast Pacific flow pattern will ease up a bit? Back in the 2010s, there used to be bowling balls traversing the US when there was this much cold air. Now; we’re stuck with clippers. Only have had to shovel snow a handful of times since 2020. 

Don’t really know since it has become such a persistent feature since the 2018-2019 winter.

[CPcantmeasuresnow]

1 hour ago, bluewave said:

Don’t really know since it has become such a persistent feature since the 2018-2019 winter.

Has there been a comparable period for this feature, for this long a period in our observable past?

[eduggs]

Noticable shift ESE with the PV on the 18z NAM. Looks more suppressive. Bummer... was really hoping to get lucky with this one and keep trending it. Although it shouldn't be surprising that the outlier solutions shift towards model consensus.

[WeatherGeek2025]

nam doesn't look good

[winterwx21]

We knew that the 12z NAM was likely overdone. 18z NAM looks fine ... a 2 to 4 inch snowfall is what we're looking for from this type of system. 

[WeatherGeek2025]

1 minute ago, winterwx21 said:

We knew that the 12z NAM was likely overdone. 18z NAM looks fine ... a 2 to 4 inch snowfall is what we're looking for from this type of system. 

i think that's a great call 2-4 inches and you know what if we get that we should be happy with it. especially with what we got in the last 5 years!

[WeatherGeek2025]

[North and West]

nam doesn't look good

Can you include context moving forward? Sometimes I don’t need to add this board into my daily doomscrolling.


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[mikem81]

RGEM looks great and its 100 times better than the NAM