Back To Reality

Yesterday we broke a 70 year old record with our High temperature of 72F. More tornadoes and fatalities, the storm report is at the bottom of this post.

Today is a bit more like winter, albeit with slightly warmer than normal temperatures. This is just the transition in our pattern change I promised last week. I mention promise because I caught some flack from some of you who did not believe me.
Here is the visible satellite form 11am showing how the cold air advection often result in wide variety of weather observations. The yellow circle highlights the clear skies and low 50s south of Annapolis, while clouds increase around Baltimore, and it was overcast on the north side of the beltway with temps in the low 40s. The westerly winds (blue) interact with the mountains to produce wave clouds that break up as the downslope winds push closer to the coast.

I still anticipate snow showers and much colder temperatures this weekend. I am in a time crunch, so I will tackle that tomorrow.
Below is the map of Wednesday's Storm Reports: Only 2 tornadoes, but this is part of the deadliest outbreak in two decades.

Saturday 2nd Post Afternoon:

No Snow= No Shave: Day 9
Will schools be delayed or closed on Monday??? I know it's already the buz, but still uncertain. Below I have detailed why, but just a call for snow in the forecast is not what students and teachers (even my new friends at Cockeysville MS) want. The return of winter is a guarantee, and if there has not been a reason to shave the beard by this time next week, I will be shocked.
My GFS Video Blog is at the bottom of this post showing a few changes I don't trust. As for the first event- Sunday night and Monday: The mid range models (48-60Hr) are now catching on to it. Rather than just show a map plot (you can still see the GFS in this morning's post), I wanted to show some of the extracted text I look at. Below you will see the AVN grid from Texas A&M for BWI. This break down can be overwhelming, so I just wanted to point out the important features. More below image:
First in universal time 00Z (Zulu or Greenwich Mean Time) is at night. and 12Z is morning. So 00Z Monday is actually 7pm Sunday evening, and 12Z is 7am Monday Morning.
While the surface temperature is expected to be 34F-35F, the 850mb temperature (~5000Ft) will be -2F to -4F. That includes the 1000-500mb thickness below 540, and further breakdown not on this output (1000-700mb and 700-500mb) justifies either sleet or a heavy wet snow- that might melt on roads.
It's a very tough call. The total precipitation is .54" liquid equivalent. That's enough if all snow to give 3-5 inches of heavy wet snow. If it was daylight, I would say just wet roads, and white grass. At night is a different story. It's been warm for a while, so the chances of the roads cooling down and beating the trucks will be tough. It was have to be at it's heaviest on Monday morning, which it might be- to get a delay. But further south, the lower your chances (B'more city and AA County). The trend of all models is for more on the E. Shore but warmer temps and into New England up to 1 ft. near Boston. I'll do my best for a snowcast tomorrow.

Video Blog of GFS 240Hr Model:

Pattern Change- Winter Will Return. SOON!

No Snow= No Shave: Day 8
I posted my reasons yesterday about the shifting pattern and return of cold to the east. The models are still dancing around the trough with a few shots of coastal storms. The GFS which I never liked, but has done the best job this year- has diminished Monday's coastal, but building up Thursday and a larger one Saturday. This video is my analysis of this model. Check it out and then fill out the poll to let me know if this is something I should try again.The problem is that this second storm keeps getting pushed back to day 6 or 7 on every run. It sees something, but how confident can we be in it this far out. I am also waiting for the 12Z run for the latest on next week. I may post again on that later today, but definitely over the weekend. For those of you that like analog year, January 2000 started off warm. Jan 2nd and 3rd were both 68F, the 4th was 70F.. then the pattern flipped. We were hit with 3 storms between the 20th and 30th resulting in a total of 23 inches. That was an above normal season for snow- most in just those 10 days. Just how it works out some times.
Great Pictures were emailed to me yesterday. I made a new slide show in the Album page- Best of Baltimore Jan2008. Check it out in addition to my Snow Page.