January 14, 2014 archive

Challenging Northwest Flow…

We’ve made mention of this in the past and we bring this up again as the upcoming weather pattern is one that’s predictable in one sense, but very challenging in another.  We know it’s going to get colder, that we’re confident on.  That said, models will continue to struggle with the details of snow chances, associated with clipper systems diving southeast into the region.  Issues with timing and snowfall amounts are common in these patterns up until 24-48 hours prior to the event.

Case in point, let’s take this weekend. Three forecast models are handling snow chances differently in the Friday-Saturday period.  The European model and Canadian are jumping more on Friday snow (light accumulations), while the GFS is focused on Saturday snow (again, light accumulations)…

Which is the correct solution?  It’s a tough call at this point, but we’ll go with a blend of the three for now, focused on best accumulating snow chances (1-2″ variety) coming late Friday into Saturday morning.  That said, as mentioned above, it’s a tough call and this will require fine tuning as we move forward.  Make it a great day!

The European and Canadian forecast models are honing in on Friday for best chance of light accumulating snow:

cmc_precip_mslp_east_16

Meanwhile, the GFS is focused on Saturday for best snow chances:

gfs_ptype_slp_east_19

Permanent link to this article: https://indywx.com/2014/01/14/challenging-northwest-flow/

IndyWx.com