Tuesday, December 20, 2011

December 20 Blizzard Event Final Totals

(from HPC)


...SELECTED STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL IN INCHES FROM 700 PM CST SUN DEC
18 THROUGH 300 PM CST TUE DEC 20...

...KANSAS...
SCOTT CITY 10 SE                     15.0                     
BISON 2.9 NW                         12.5                     
QUINTER 3.3 SSE                      12.1                     
ELKHART                              12.0                     
COLLYER 10 S                         11.5                     
SYRACUSE 7.2 WSW                     11.5                     
VICTORIA 5 ENE                       11.5                     
RUSSELL 8.1 NW                       11.0                     
JOHNSON CITY                         10.0                     
LA CROSSE                            10.0                     
TRIBUNE 5 NE                         10.0                     
DODGE CITY 9.1 WNW                    6.0                     

...OKLAHOMA...
KENTON 2 NNE                         10.0 ESTIMATED           
BOISE CITY                            7.0 ESTIMATED           
GUYMON                                6.0 ESTIMATED           
HOOKER                                5.0 ESTIMATED           
TURPIN                                5.0 ESTIMATED           

...SELECTED STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL IN INCHES WHERE THE EVENT HAS
ENDED...

...COLORADO...
CHERAW .15 NNE                       18.6                     
ROCKY FORD 2.9 ESE                   17.7                     
LA JUNTA                             15.0                     
SPRINGFIELD                          15.0 DRIFTS UP TO 10 FT  
SWINK 0.1 WNW                        14.0                     
BEULAH 0.4 SW                        13.9                     
COLORADO CITY 4 SE                   13.6                     
RYE 1.1 WSW                          13.1                     
KIM 8.8 SSE                          12.0                     
BONCARBO 1.5 WSW                     11.0                     
SHERIDAN LAKE 4.2 E                  10.9                     
CEDARWOOD 0.6 NNW                    10.1                     
PUEBLO                                7.0                     
COLORADO SPRINGS 18.7 N               5.2                     

...NEW MEXICO...
PIETOWN 25 N                         24.0                     
MILAN 2.2 N                          14.5                     
GRANTS                               14.0                     
ANGEL FIRE 0.2 SSE                   12.4                     
BLUEWATER LAKE                       12.0                     
ROCIADA 8 SW                         10.0                     
TIJERAS 11 SSE                       10.0                     
PREWITT 5 WSW                         9.5                     
EDGEWOOD 2 SE                         9.0                     
SANDIA PARK 2 E                       9.0                     
SEDILLO                               9.0                     
THOREAU 3 W                           9.0                     
ALBUQUERQUE 8 E                       7.0                     

...TEXAS...
TEXLINE                               6.0                     
HARTLEY                               4.0                     
MORSE                                 4.0 ESTIMATED 

December 21 Personal Winter Forecasts Come Out Tomorrow!

Cities featured:

DECEMBER 21
----------

Post 1
Omaha, Nebraska
Detroit, Michigan
Holmesville, Ohio

Post 2
Chicago, Illinois
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Mount Laurel, New Jersey

Post 3
Leesburg, Virginia
West Plains, Missouri
Beckley, West Virginia

Post 4
Gloversville, New York
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Onalaska, Texas





Time of publishing for each post number:
This is a set time for each 3 towns for each post for each day to be released.

Post 1: 9:00 AM CST
Post 2: 12:00 PM CST
Post 3: 2:00 PM CST
Post 4: 5:00 PM CST

This is for each day of forecasts released.

Christmas Snowstorm Discussion (12/20)- Battle of the Models and Indices

We have quite a predicament here with this Christmas storm. We have the ECMWF and LRC going up against, among other things, the NAO and the GFS. (To clarify, the ECMWF and GFS are models, the NAO is an index that is monitored in the Atlantic Ocean. The LRC is a reoccurring pattern each winter and spring, which repeats every 45-50 days this winter.)

ECMWF and LRC

The ECMWF is putting out forecasts of a big snowstorm to hit the Northeast just after christmas, which would indeed crush travel and bring places to standstills. It is projecting widespread amounts of over 6 inches in the Northeast. And it may hold some truth to it. You see, a system associated with the LRC repeated in the early days of November. What has come to be seen is that the LRC has repeated again with the storm system that is producing a blizzard over the Southwest today and yesterday. Afer comparison, it appears that this new system currently in the Southwest (not associated with the blizzard) may be the ultimate Christmas Day storm maker or breaker. Here's the storm right now.
The storm is right on the Four Corners (Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado) as of this morning. We can see the blizzard is in Oklahoma. Now, if the LRC proves its point, we may be seeing this storm move into the Midwest very strong and possibly put down some precipitation. However, if the system takes a more southeasterly direction, it would indeed match up with the ECMWF solution of a snowstorm for the Northeast. It is very well possible that the system could go southeast- 45 days ago, we saw a similar situation as today, but with a strong ridge present for both storms (blizzard and 4 corners storms) when the moved eastward. Today, we are not seeing that very strong ridge for the blizzard storm, so it is possible that a big ridge will not build up for the 4 corners storm, and that storm will instead go more southerly into the Northeast.

GFS and NAO

 The GFS is predicting that the storm will eject north-northeast out of the Southwest and then suddenly move eastward offshore into the Atlantic Ocean on Christmas Day, thus leading to no Northeast snowstorm. The idea of this is supported by the NAO. The NAO, in its positive phase, brings calmer and warmer conditions to the east US while all the cold is held up in the northern reaches of Canada. The NAO is forecasted to be positive during that timeframe, as seen in this GFS Ensemble 6z NAO image from Policlimate.
The NAO is forecasted to be positive during the supposed storm (Dec. 26) before dipping negative a couple days before New Years Day. When the NAO dips negative, all the cold air comes flowing southward from Canada into the US. However, if it is only negative for a short period of time, nothing may actually happen due to the too-short time that it was negative. As we have heard a well-known meteorologist say, he has only seen big snows happen for the Northeast when the NAO was negative.

What Do We Prefer?


The ECMWF is a very good model, but it can't win all its battles, so to say. The GFS and NAO may come out in the end, but the ECMWF and LRC team are also holding a good contest. I am not going to give my input, as this looks like a wait-and-see situation for now.