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February 2026 OBS & Discussion


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21 minutes ago, RU848789 said:

With major caveats - I don't love Kuchera, but temps will be in the mid-20s so it might be accurate here, and it's the NAM at the end of its range - here's the 12Z NAM Kuchera for late Friday into Sat morning.  Would love to get ~1" of fresh powder on top of what we have.  

snku_acc-imp.us_ma.png

Time for a refresher for the black ice piles in the parking lots. 

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1 hour ago, bluewave said:

That is one feat I never attempted back in my Long Beach days. I made it a rule to never go into the ocean when it when the SSTs were any cooler than the 60s. But knew a bunch of people who attended them.

I've done the Coney Island polar plunge a few times.

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3 hours ago, jm1220 said:

Looks like a SWFE setup. Without a massive high pressure dome like last time locking in cold air, we know how those normally turn out. 

Can you explain the difference between a SWFE set up versus Miller B? I know there might be some overlap, but is it a Midwest originating low redeveloping off the coast in Miller B verses south westerly originating LP that then may or may not redevelop off the coast in SWFE? Anything on the 500mb to look for difference-wise?

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41 minutes ago, RU848789 said:

With major caveats - I don't love Kuchera, but temps will be in the mid-20s so it might be accurate here, and it's the NAM at the end of its range - here's the 12Z NAM Kuchera for late Friday into Sat morning.  Would love to get ~1" of fresh powder on top of what we have.  

snku_acc-imp.us_ma.png

Rgem insists on only a quarter inch

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15 minutes ago, romba said:

Can you explain the difference between a SWFE set up versus Miller B? I know there might be some overlap, but is it a Midwest originating low redeveloping off the coast in Miller B verses south westerly originating LP that then may or may not redevelop off the coast in SWFE? Anything on the 500mb to look for difference-wise?

To me they're the same thing...a SWFE is a Miller B which does not transfer and re-develop til N of 40 or 41N while a Miller B IMO is one that transfers and re-develops from like 39 or more 38N south.  Also the transfer N of 40N is always sloppier and longer, because you have land mass extending more E over SNE than you do over DE/VA where the ocean is further west.  Some of my friends and I used to call them Swmiller Bs at times....here's an example of one from 2/1993, you can see how it attempts to transfer over SNE but its messy and even most of SNE went to rain here.

https://www.meteo.psu.edu/ewall/NARR/1993/us0222.php

 

Blizzard of 1996 is a true Miller B, the transfer happens way more south.

https://www.meteo.psu.edu/ewall/NARR/1996/us0107.php

 

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14 minutes ago, Freezing Drizzle said:

Not a snow coverage pattern that one often sees. Complete with coverage in northern Mississippi and a snow hole in Iowa.

AW February 1, 2026

FE-10C-ZOOM-1.jpg?w=632
 

Heaviest snow in some spots since December 1989.

 

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1 hour ago, SnowGoose69 said:

To me they're the same thing...a SWFE is a Miller B which does not transfer and re-develop til N of 40 or 41N while a Miller B IMO is one that transfers and re-develops from like 39 or more 38N south.  Also the transfer N of 40N is always sloppier and longer, because you have land mass extending more E over SNE than you do over DE/VA where the ocean is further west.  Some of my friends and I used to call them Swmiller Bs at times....here's an example of one from 2/1993, you can see how it attempts to transfer over SNE but its messy and even most of SNE went to rain here.

https://www.meteo.psu.edu/ewall/NARR/1993/us0222.php

 

Blizzard of 1996 is a true Miller B, the transfer happens way more south.

https://www.meteo.psu.edu/ewall/NARR/1996/us0107.php

 

Would NEMO as well as Feb. 2010 be SWFEs? Both primaries were north of us.

image.jpeg.d9ba0dd51ceeca632d7727eadd0678fd.jpeg

image.jpeg.e1d4de6d49b420bb5a17ec6ff8e2d91e.jpeg

 

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From rainstorm to blizzard to cold and suppressed in 3 runs

Gfs AI from best I can tell on pivotal based on qpf and temps has a moderate snowstorm and close to something bigger.


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A SWFE is an event that is dominated by mid level southwest flow over colder surface air, so an overrunning event. It can transfer to the coast early enough where the mid level lows develop south of us and the winds turn around to easterly or northerly at those levels at which point it’s not a SWFE anymore but those are rare these days. They used to happen in the 2000s and before, some examples are the 12/20/95 and 12/6/03 storms. But we usually have storms now that redevelop too late so we keep southwest flow at the mid levels due to the mid level lows tracking west of us. That causes changes to sleet/rain/dryslot here. Further north in New England they have more time for the low to transfer to the coast and the cold air is deeper with confluence closer by so they stay snow longer or entirely. 

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2 hours ago, JustinRP37 said:

Plows went by my house this morning pushing the snow back further. Weird to do this without a true threat on the horizon yet, but I guess they want to push it back before the next deep freeze. 

Most of the towns in Union County should be carving the corners, etc...

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1 hour ago, MJO812 said:

Barely a warmup on gfs

its been like that most of the winter except in early January - models allow the warming to reach us in the longer range then when we get closer and closer to it they reduce its impact here

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5 minutes ago, Cfa said:

Snowpack definitely took a decent hit over the past couple of days, thankfully it wasn’t a heavy wet snow. The piles will probably persist for a while though.

34 here.

believe it or not the snow is also being absorbed into the warmer grass/dirt underneath which has been very dry and needs the liquid thus reducing the snow pack- thats why my basement sump pump is still going off at least a few times a day

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25 minutes ago, jm1220 said:

A SWFE is an event that is dominated by mid level southwest flow over colder surface air, so an overrunning event. It can transfer to the coast early enough where the mid level lows develop south of us and the winds turn around to easterly or northerly at those levels at which point it’s not a SWFE anymore but those are rare these days. They used to happen in the 2000s and before, some examples are the 12/20/95 and 12/6/03 storms. But we usually have storms now that redevelop too late so we keep southwest flow at the mid levels due to the mid level lows tracking west of us. That causes changes to sleet/rain/dryslot here. Further north in New England they have more time for the low to transfer to the coast and the cold air is deeper with confluence closer by so they stay snow longer or entirely. 

I'd classify 12/20/95 and 12/6/03 as Miller Bs more than SWFEs, 12/14/03 was a SWFE though more of a south approacher like 11/2018 was...most come in from way further west than that so the core of the heaviest snows occur to our W and N.  Overall systems do seem to amplify more now, we rarely see these weak washed out systems anymore like a 2/8/94 or 2/2008, those types of events always seem to want to majorly intensify or amp.  There are numerous reasons why thats the case, likely the Pac SSTs being one of them

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