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Wintry January 23rd-27th 2026

pretty run of the mill cycle so far. three straight significant model suites... nice. high confidence of some sort of major winter storm. warm outliers (ukmet, gfsai) moderated southward. conversely, colder models (gfs family) nudged northward. the confidence interval for who could see what shrunk. If the euro family follows, i would expect either a hold serve or a slight nudge colder/south.

looking less likely yall around and south of i40 are staying all snow here

edit- canadian i am treating as persona non grata
 
Not liking 12z looks so far on any model really. GFS trends have not been great I suspect it'll be north by 18z or 00z. CMC was extremely amped. GEFS has a much more evident signal on the baja low diving with this system.. Not something you like to see at all.

General rule of thumb imo: When texas wins, the rest of the SE doesn't typically win. Take Feb 2021 for example.


Things to keep in mind going forwards.

Ice storm odds are still there. Not a good thing by any means
 
It’s just starting to remind me of last January. The SE trend hit accross most modeling during one cycle and it just never stopped. Just never was able to turn the corner due to the anomolous airmass. We were also dealing with a big draping high centered in the middle of the country with key energy situated in the SW. So much time left here
 
Not liking 12z looks so far on any model really. GFS trends have not been great I suspect it'll be north by 18z or 00z. CMC was extremely amped. GEFS has a much more evident signal on the baja low diving with this system.. Not something you like to see at all.

General rule of thumb imo: When texas wins, the rest of the SE doesn't typically win. Take Feb 2021 for example.


Things to keep in mind going forwards.

Ice storm odds are still there. Not a good thing by any means
This actually not true, while it may have been the case in recent years, generally if it snows in Dallas it is a good sign for us (nc)
 
I am nearly a perma lurker these days. Dusting off the keyboard to give my 2 cents that no one asked for haha.

The HP (cold) push is not drastically different across the model sets at 12z. And 2-4MB of HP strength isn't going to be life or death with such a cold airmass anyway.

What is the make or break point is how much/little energy is ejected from the Baja energy. GFS/icon at 12z don't fully ingest the Baja energy while CMC and UK do. That's why the gfs is flat. And the others amped.

The good news is that this can go either way. And lower res models/ensembles may struggle to find a good grip on the specific lobes of energy.

I'll be watching that piece like a hawk. The cold is here regardless. It's just going to come down to how much energy are we pumping into the system.

Back to my stalking of all you snow weenies. 🫥
IMG_4895.pngIMG_4896.png
 
Needless to say, somebody on this board will probably get a major ice storm. With the CAD building down, temps will just get colder as the QPF adds up. No "self-limiting" type event. At this point, I would say there's a high probability of a "lights out" situation somewhere.
 
It’s just starting to remind me of last January. The SE trend hit accross most modeling during one cycle and it just never stopped. Just never was able to turn the corner due to the anomolous airmass. We were also dealing with a big draping high centered in the middle of the country with key energy situated in the SW. So much time left here
I'm no pro, but I'm shocked at some of the definitives being thrown about this far out by some. About the only definitive I'm confident in myself is that something is going to change. Almost every modeling suite is oscillating with how much of the Baja energy to eject and that is going to be absolutely critical to amounts and precipitation types.
 
I am nearly a perma lurker these days. Dusting off the keyboard to give my 2 cents that no one asked for haha.

The HP (cold) push is not drastically different across the model sets at 12z. And 2-4MB of HP strength isn't going to be life or death with such a cold airmass anyway.

What is the make or break point is how much/little energy is ejected from the Baja energy. GFS/icon at 12z don't fully ingest the Baja energy while CMC and UK do. That's why the gfs is flat. And the others amped.

The good news is that this can go either way. And lower res models/ensembles may struggle to find a good grip on the specific lobes of energy.

I'll be watching that piece like a hawk. The cold is here regardless. It's just going to come down to how much energy are we pumping into the system.

Back to my stalking of all you snow weenies. 🫥
View attachment 185667View attachment 185668
It really is like a teeter totter. If we want more snow than ice like the GFS, we want more equilibrium between the energy moving west to east across the conus which gives the flat overrunning. The more amped models have this western energy stronger, unbalancing the force and tugging up the SE ridge.
 
Needless to say, somebody on this board will probably get a major ice storm. With the CAD building down, temps will just get colder as the QPF adds up. No "self-limiting" type event. At this point, I would say there's a high probability of a "lights out" situation somewhere.
and with the sustained cold for days on end after the storm passes... this could be very dangerous for a lot of folks. hoping NC/SC news starts honking the horn on this potential soon so people have time to prepare.
 
and with the sustained cold for days on end after the storm passes... this could be very dangerous for a lot of folks. hoping NC/SC news starts honking the horn on this potential soon so people have time to prepare.
I feel like the horn is being honked well right now. A lot of people on this early! I’ve heard a lot of chatter about it at work
 
and with the sustained cold for days on end after the storm passes... this could be very dangerous for a lot of folks. hoping NC/SC news starts honking the horn on this potential soon so people have time to prepare.

I feel like the horn is being honked well right now. A lot of people on this early! I’ve heard a lot of chatter about it at work
Let the bread and milk runs begin! Seriously though, around the RDU area there are a lot of recent transplants who have never experienced a major winter storm in this area before and have no clue what happens when we get winter weather in these parts. It's good there is already a buzz generating about this upcoming winter weather event.
 
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