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January 9-10, 2024 | NE / Mid-Atlantic Winter Storm


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A cloudy 14ºF for this morning low temperature.  These conditions continue  with 24ºF the present temperature.  The NWS/B-N Office has issued/maintained a Flood watch, WWA, and Flood Watch.  From the morning discussion:

Spoiler
.SYNOPSIS...
High pressure yields dry weather into this morning, but a high
impact frontal system moves in later today into Wednesday. This
has the potential to bring strong to damaging winds, heavy
rain, coastal flooding and river/stream flooding. We turn drier
late in the week before another system takes aim at us this
weekend.

&&

.NEAR TERM /UNTIL 6 PM THIS EVENING/...
10 AM update...

* A burst of accumulating snow expected for the higher
  elevations during the evening commute.

Main issue for the afternoon/evening period is a burst of
moderate to heavy snow across interior MA, especially the
higher elevations. Leading edge of precip moving into central NY
and NE PA and this precip will begin to overspread western half
New Eng between 1 and 4 pm and eastern New Eng after 4 pm. The
column is sufficiently cold to support all snow across interior
MA with perhaps a brief period of snow in the northern CT and
northern RI hills before changing to rain.

Models are indicating a decent thump of snow late afternoon and
evening coinciding with the evening commute, especially over
the Berkshires and northern Worcester Hills. A brief period of
strong omega in the DGZ will support a few hours of 1"/hr
snowfall rates and this is supported with HREF/SREF probs and
there is even a low prob of brief 2"/hr rates in the Berkshires.
This will result in hazardous travel during the evening
commute, with main impact over the higher elevations. Snow will
change to rain between 7 and 10 pm from south to north across
interior MA.

Total accum into the evening before the changeover will be 1-3"
in the Worcester Hills with locally up to 4" near the NH
border. In the Berkshires, expecting accums of 2-5" with locally
up to 6" near the VT border. Across the low elevations of
interior MA, accums up to an inch is possible before it changes
to rain.

&&

.SHORT TERM /6 PM THIS EVENING THROUGH 6 PM WEDNESDAY/...
* Quick hit of snow across interior southern New England this
  afternoon, with Winter Weather Advisory for parts of NW MA.

* Widespread 2-3" and locally 4" of rainfall leading to river
  and poor drainage flooding tonight and Wednesday.

* High Wind Warning was expanded to include coastal Essex County
  and interior Plymouth county and Bristol County in MA. In RI
  was expanded to eastern Kent County and Bristol County.

* Coastal Flood Watch continues, but did expand to eastern MA,
  Cape Cod, and the Islands.

A robust area of low pressure located over the southern plains is
expected to bring multiple hazards to southern New England beginning
late this afternoon through Wednesday. There were a few adjustments
during tonight forecast update, notably to expand the High Wind
Warning and expand the Coastal Flood Watch. Otherwise, details for
storm number two for the week remain largely unchanged.

Currently, the surface low is centered over the state of Oklahoma
and is expected to move northeast, reaching the Great Lakes region by
late tonight, and from there, the low reaches the Saint Lawrence
River Valley by Wednesday afternoon. While improvements will be
underway the second half of Wednesday, river flooding will likely
persist well into the later half of the week.

Let`s discuss the hazards at hand...

SNOW: There has been little change to the snowfall forecast and no
change to the the Winter Weather Advisory; this includes the
northern Berkshires of western MA. Cold antecedent airmass will
allow a quick punch of snow to fall across the high terrain of the
Berkshires and Worcester county at precipitation onset, currently
slated for 20z to 22z. HREF ensemble probabilities continue to hint
at the chance for 1" or greater per hour accumulation, but it will
be a race against time as warm air rushes in between 00z-03z as SLRs
fall from ~10:1 to less than 3:1. The greatest accumulations are
expected across far northwestern Franklin county where cold air
persists the longest. Expecting accumulations of 1-2" of snow across
the high terrain of Worcester County, with localized amounts near
the NH border to 3". And 2-4" with isolated totals of 5" across the
northeastern slopes of the Berkshires. We continued to hold off on
expanding the Winter Weather Advisory into northern Worcester County
at this time, but if confidence were to increase in widespread
snowfall of 3" or more it could become necessary.

Rain and Flooding: Say goodbye to the snowy landscape as heavy rain
is expected to fall across all of southern New England. We have a
very robust and moisture charged system as PWATs surge in excess of
1.25" overnight; values more representative of summer and some 3
sigma of normal for this time of year. Thanks to efficient moisture
transport from S/SE winds parallel to the approaching cold front and
warm cloud depths around 10,000ft, it is no surprise that hi-res
guidance continues to emphasize the potential for widespread
rainfall amounts of 2-3", with the possibility of localized 4"
across areas of central and southwest CT per the GFS ensemble.

In addition to rainfall, snowmelt will be a huge player in the
threat for flooding overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. While
antecedent airmass is cold, temperatures will warm rapidly from the
30s/40s to the 40s/50s, which will obliterate the snowpack south of
the MA Turnpike. Given the current liquid equivalent of snow across
northern RI and CT is somewhere in the range of 0.75-1.5", total
liquid values of some 3.5-5" will enter the watersheds of the
southern half of the CWA. This threat is highlighted best on the
MMEFS for the Pawtuxet River in Cranston, which currently has a 30%
chance of major flooding come Wednesday. In addition to river
flooding, which is anticipated to be quite considerable, poor
drainage and urban flooding is also likely.

North of the Pike, the foot to foot and a half of snowfall received
this past weekend and the 1-4" of snow that falls on the leading
edge of this system will act as a sponge for much of the rain that
falls, thus, we anticipate some of the snowpack to survive this
system and hopefully quell at least some flooding concerns across
northern MA. Still, poor drainage flooding is possible given many
storm drains are still clogged by snow.

Overnight there were no changes to the ERO, which remains moderate
for all of CT and RI, while slight for MA. The flood watch issued by
the previous shift remains unchanged.

Wind: Confidence continues to increase that strong to damaging winds
will impact coastal communities of southern New England. With
tonight update did expand the High Wind Warning to coastal Essex
County, the interior of southeast MA (northern Bristol and Plymouth
Counties), and eastern Kent County and Bristol County in Rhode
Island. The other areas which were under the High Wind Watch have
been converted over to a Wind Advisory as confidence remains low that
cities like Providence and Boston will reach the high wind criteria.
FWIW, DESI has a 25 percent prob of those cities exceeding a wind
gust of 58mph. While there is a 70 to 85 percent prob of gusts AOA
46mph.

High res guidance continues to suggest the LLJ approaching 70 to 80
kts across the Cape and Islands overnight, with 850mb approaching
100 kts! Greatest forecast challenge remains the strong inversion
tied to the current snowpack and how quickly WAA is able to overcome
that influence. Overall, expecting max wind gusts on the order of 50-
60kt with a few gusts to 65kt not out of the question.

There are several reasons we anticipate the highest winds to be
centered southeast of I-95 and along coastal RI and MA. The first
being that the strongest jet will skirt the south coast of southern
New England. Second, as mentioned previously, the snowpack is
expected to be completely eliminated by WAA and rainfall, which will
mix out the inversion while the most potent portion of the jet is
centered above SNE. Rapid pressure falls will also aid in mixing out
the inversion but that too will be a race against the clock as winds
begin to shift to the west. Strongest winds will occur between 04z
and 14Z Wednesday, though gusts in excess of 35kt may persist for
much of the day across the waters.

We would like to emphasize that the difference of a few degrees will
drive how far inland strong to damaging winds will extend, and with
the current forecast calling for temperatures in the 50s to extend
all the way to the Springfield metro area, the damaging wind threat
may creep further inland than where warnings are currently
posted.

 

I do expect some frontend snow starting this afternoon and I might even see ~3" before the changeover to rain.  No matter what happens, this is one very interesting and complex weather system to follow.

A snow graphic: 

StormTotalSnow.jpg

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4 minutes ago, Wayuphere said:

You omitted the word “foreign” in front of investors…😉

So do we root for CAD to hang in there or a quicker push to warming?  Based on the 3 day storm cycle I’d almost rather see a quick changeover to erase any new accumulations in prep for the next mess.  Only have about 1” of snow on the ground so all good as far as flooding.

We mix out that inversion and it opens the door for the winds, that's my concern there.

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Posted (edited)

Wish I had gotten a better sleep last night...expecting to be baby sitting downed power lines and cutting up trees tonight. 

Temp currently 30F after starting the day at 14F. NWS saying maybe 2" snow before changeover....we'll see. It almost always flips faster than expected here.

Edited by telejunkie
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36 minutes ago, JDClapper said:

1.5" and still all snow. Reading post on NWS and folks out in I99 country have like 4-6, elevations more. Oof. 

We have every bit of 4" here, probably one of the thumpiest thumps. Lots of road closings from this greasy wet snow  Snow is getting sleety though so the end is nigh.

Safe to say we easily have more snow on the ground now at one time than last winter, so I guess that's a win......

Just hope we miss the mega rain

 

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Just came in from some errands

There could be a more dismal day around here, I suppose. If there was, I'd rather be in Costa Rica. 

Ponding on roadways is causing vis issues - every vehicle sending up a huge plume of nastiness that is hard to see past. 

34 and moderate RA

Edited by Undertakerson2.0
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1 minute ago, Cdfarabaugh said:

Rte 422, Rte 22 and they are closing the main st here through Ebensburg.  

 

20240109_111306.jpg

Yeah, this is a massive overperformer out your way.. what u got, like 6-8" or something?

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1.7", still all snow but 34 degrees so ratios lowering and compaction keeping the number down. A definite "win" for the interior on this one, if you like snow that is.

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12 minutes ago, JDClapper said:

Yeah, this is a massive overperformer out your way.. what u got, like 6-8" or something?

With compaction and snow ratios I'm not sure how you make the number official.  4-6 from CTP is about on the money.  

I'm sure there's more going east on the Summit heading down to Blair County and up on Blue Knob

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So.. down our way, even we started as sleet this morning for about an hour. All rain now. I love the actual vs. predicted temp though. 33 vs. 41.. love the CAD. 

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56 minutes ago, MDBlueridge said:

Mostly rain and 33F now. Ice, snow, flooding rain, then snow tonite. 

Go mother nature. 

I'm living my love of weather vicariously through you.

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8 minutes ago, Cdfarabaugh said:

With compaction and snow ratios I'm not sure how you make the number official.  4-6 from CTP is about on the money.  

I'm sure there's more going east on the Summit heading down to Blair County and up on Blue Knob

Yeah, seems we are fighting between snow, snow/rain now. 1.75" goes in the books for this one. 👍

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