Friday, March 25, 2011

Snow on the way!!!

NOTE: This is a preliminary posting. Graphics to come around 4:30-5:00 PM today if possible.

This is crazy, but we are expecting snow tomorrow night and into Sunday!

The setup: An upper level disturbance crossing the west coast today will move into the Midwest tonight and tomorrow and through the Ohio Valley Saturday night and Sunday. This includes a piece of energy at 500 millibars known as a vort max, or vorticity maximum. That vort max provides the needed lift for precipitation.

The Storm Timeline: Snow will begin west to east during the evening hours of Saturday. Snow will be heaviest in the early hours of Sunday, then taper off west to east as the vort max passes Sunday.

Accumulation: Generally, we are looking at 1-3" of snowfall. One model was MUCH more aggressive and was painting 3 to as much as SIX inches! I don't buy that and am not going with it as of now. However, I do reserve the right to change my mind.

Impact: The bigger impact from the storm is likely Sunday morning. Expect slick roads, as the snow could come down heavy enough to cause a few issues.

Much more on this later including model maps to illustrate my points, but I did want to get the promised posting out there.