Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Tracking the Potential for Snow this Weekend

The pattern for the upcoming weekend continues to look interesting, and several models are now agreeing on bringing some light snow into the area Sunday morning. The nor'easter the GFS was trying to blow up over the area on Monday is gone in the medium range solution, but both the GFS and ECMWF (Euro) are showing a shortwave clipper swinging through the region after very cold air has settled into the state. The GFS has actual precipitation (snow) depicted, while the Euro is dry with generally the same upper-level pattern. Based on the PVA that should be present ahead of the clipper that the Euro is showing, snow would likely be generated in the same manner as the GFS solution. The NAM only goes to 84 hours from the current time, so we can't see what it says for Sunday, but what it does show is in agreement with a short wave affecting the region by Sunday. The amount of snow should be on the light side, but the surface temps will be plenty cold enough for whatever falls to stick. This scenario is still about 4.5 days out, so things will change, but it's the only decent chance I see for us in the next week. I'll have another update tomorrow. -Zach

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