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Freezing Rain, Sleet, Snow, Rain...Kitchen Sink (12/15-16)

The NAM looks like it’s coming in pretty beefy for western/central NC and the northern Upstate but it is warmer than the GFS suit and CMC suit this might be because the NAM’s hp is 2-3 mb weaker than those models. However it looked like it did increase QPF this run.
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The NAM looks like it’s coming in pretty beefy for western/central NC and the northern Upstate but it is warmer than the GFS suit and CMC suit this might be because the NAM’s hp is 2-3 mb weaker than those models. However it looked like it did increase QPF this run.
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Doubt that. It’s still the very long range NAM so whether it’s showing beefy totals or nothing at all it shouldn’t be taken serious until we get inside 36-48 hours. It had a 1035 HP sitting further south closer to the US border so I think we are sitting pretty as of right now.
 
Doubt that. It’s still the very long range NAM so whether it’s showing beefy totals or nothing at all it shouldn’t be taken serious until we get inside 36-48 hours. It had a 1035 HP sitting further south closer to the US border so I think we are sitting pretty as of right now.
Dewpoint. Another poster hit the nail on the head. These warm dews we experience anymore will do a number on what would have been a classic CAD even 5 years ago.
 
Probably will not make too much difference but @60 the 3k NAM is 1 mb stronger with the high, meh, but temps are 2-3 degrees colder than the 12k NAM. Subtle differences but for a few a couple degrees can make it interesting
 
Most of the models have me at 33 and rain for a good portion of the event :(. But even if that was to drop a degree of two, that still wouldn't give me (or others in similar setup) a big event. As you said, we need the lower dew point to web bulb down into the upper 20s. Ice cycles are pretty but it means your losing a lot to run off.

We are always right on that line between rain and something frozen. I am trying to recall how the last big ice storm we had in Dec 02 was forecasted. I can't remember if that was supposed to be just rain for the Raleigh area or the ice storm that we actually got. I do remember once in 9th grade getting stuck on the bus going to school one morning because of a freezing rain event that was forecasted to be just rain for the Triangle. The roads got icy quick and the bus couldn't make it up a hill. A Durham County deputy sheriff had to take me home. One degree can make all the difference.
 
Really cool study from Sanders & Barjenbruch (2016) wrt ice liquid ratios that's worth reading imo.

https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/wefo/31/4/waf-d-15-0118_1.xml?tab_body=fulltext-display


For ice radial accumulations, which are the standard for measuring freezing rain accumulation, they found that for every inch of radial ice accrual about 3-4" of liquid equivalent is measured (via ASOS).

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Thus, when you see maps like this, especially when there's a ton of QPF, it's usually a good idea to take ~25-33% of these 1:1 QPF-ice accumulations.

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Pivotalweather also now has an option for those w/ a subscription where you can select for the Freezing Rain Accumulation Model (FRAM) accumulations described in the aforementioned study & these are considerably more reliable than 1:1 QPF-ice accum model output. The FRAM model uses regression on modeled precipitation rate, wet bulb temperature, and wind speed to estimate ice accrual. It's certainly better than using straight 1:1 QPF-ice output, but I would still urge caution in using a product like this.

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So a 25/75 percent ration of ice to water? I would really like to see charting of the BTU’s given off during the process. I’m sure that there are lab reports that show that. Pretty interesting. Thanks for sharing.
 
Yes, it's more like 1" Radial ZR:3-4" QPF according to this study. Stronger winds actually enhance ice accrual efficiency because it increases the rate of evaporative cooling, the rate of sensible heat transfer from cooler surrounding air to slightly warmer adjacent air near a freezing object that's undergoing latent heating & stronger winds increase a horizontal cross section's mass flux (of ice), all serving to increase ice accumulation efficiency at higher wind speeds. The effect is pretty small until wind speeds begin to approach exceed 10-15 knots.

"It is inferred that the increasing wind speed replaces air near the ice surface warmed by latent heat release, alters the droplet collision efficiency, increases the horizontal mass flux, and promotes evaporational cooling. Although, the data show that these processes are not as noticeable in the ILRs until wind speed reaches >15 kt, and may rely on the thermodynamic environment as well. Wind gusts had a similar influence on ILR with an increasing trend in ILR as wind gusts increased."

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As for surface temperatures, your intuition is correct in that there's a strong temperature dependency, with wet bulb temperatures above -1C (~30F) experiencing significantly lower ice liquid ratios (ILRs) than those with temperatures between -4 to -1C. The relationship reverses and lower ILRs are observed for temps lower than about -4C (~25F), as the low-mid levels usually become more supportive of sleet instead of freezing rain, in environments where the surface temperatures are this cold or colder.

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They also found rather unsurprisingly, that ice accumulation efficiency is dependent on precipitation rate with the largest changes in ILRs between rain equivalent rates of a few hundredths to a tenth or so per hour, with it asymptoting towards ILRs of about 1:7.5 or so in heavy precipitation.

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And then I look farther and see what I was questioning. You’re the man!!
 
Surprisingly the NAM the RGEM look Similar excluding the more crazy ice amounts on the RGEM here E3EE4C7D-DA26-49CE-A638-686BE8FFB33A.jpegE58EB263-EF18-4432-AC5B-ABF0B1BBAA71.jpeg
 
Doesn't the NAM have the same issue as the Euro of being overamped, especially in the long range?
It does which makes it’s temp profiles in the long range warmer. That’s something that switched on the nam from years past. That’s why the rule of thumb is to really not put much stock into the nam until you get inside 36-48 hrs.
 
chances for snowfall accumulations heavily depend on how quick and heavy persistent moisture is (like cmc) . Odds are probably only 30% chance for 1” or so foothills and 60% chance mtns and 10-20% piedmont triad or far western piedmont (Statesville).
 
Let me guess...the models are trending warmer and upstate Sc is looking like a cold rain now?
For us upstaters, I think it's still too early to say yet, but there's no question it's very marginal for us. The high is much farther north than you want to see it; we need to see down around NY/PA, which would more likely be a snow situation. Given what are currently seeing I-40 north and I-77 west is a good bet for at least something frozen. For the upstate, especially western upstate, it looks like a novelty event at best; for now.
 
For us upstaters, I think it's still too early to say yet, but there's no question it's very marginal for us. The high is much farther north than you want to see it; we need to see down around NY/PA, which would more likely be a snow situation. Given what are currently seeing I-40 north and I-77 west is a good bet for at least something frozen. For the upstate, especially western upstate, it looks like a novelty event at best; for now.
Webber said yesterday the high placement being in Quebec compared to NY has little to no affect in the CAD. Especially when you’re talking a 1035-1038 HP. If you live in eastern Pickens, Greenville, Spartanburg, Cherokee, western York, and northern union county you have a good chance of seeing a decent icing event IMO. Seeing the 3KM being much colder than the 12km at Hr 60 is a telling sign to me as well.
 
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I'm thinking along and NW of 85 up to 1in of snow if front end thump can get in here quick enough before waa takes over and changes to sleet/fzr up to .25 of ice max quick system not that much precipitation. The closer you are to the escarpment the better chance you have to see sleet and fzr and accumulation close to .25. Hopefully 925s can cool enough to give us sleet here along the escarpment fingers crossed.
 
I'm thinking along and NW of 85 up to 1in of snow if front end thump can get in here quick enough before waa takes over and changes to sleet/fzr up to .25 of ice max quick system not that much precipitation. The closer you are to the escarpment the better chance you have to see sleet and fzr and accumulation close to .25. Hopefully 925s can cool enough to give us sleet here along the escarpment fingers crossed.
The snow part is pure wishcasting but it's happened before. All depends on 850s how close they get before warm nose takes over here at my house I'm only a degree away from all snow at onset.
 
While it’s unlikely, and probably to aggressive by some members, can never count it out, but yeah it has been back and fourth with runs showing stuff further north then south
I count 13/20 showing pretty significant ZR in the Upstate there. That’s getting closer to a consensus than outliers. However you’re right those members, despite being in the majority, are not really in agreement with the other models
 
The 12z GEFS is definitely an improvement over the 0z & 6z runs at 500mb and these changes translated towards the surface. We need our s/w over the Arklatex to slow down a bit more to allow the s/w ridge over the NE US to balloon towards the Lakes & southwestern Ontario. These changes will increase mid-level warm advection & change the deep-layer flow over Canada to be less zonal, allowing for more low-level cold air and cold advection as well more time for the low-level air mass to build into the Carolinas & NE GA preceding our storm. It would also shift the onset of the precip closer to daybreak on Wednesday, providing an additional degree or two of radiational cooling Tue night that could laterally expand the initial coverage of freezing rain and sleet in the piedmont.

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Canadian has another very large thumping of ICE again and it’s still well into the upstate. Haven’t gotten the totals yet but there was a solid 6-10 hrs of icing just in the upstate. GEFS looking solid and likely changing over too fast, CAD always holds on longer than modeled, so so far the 12z suite is holding true.
 
My call rn is the Foothills to the NW CLT metro(Shelby to Lincolnton to Statesville) seeing a medium to maybe significant event, possibly more sleet and maybe a little snow for the foothills and mountains, I can honestly see those areas staying frozen throughout the duration of the storm.

The GSP to the immediate CLT metro to areas between GSO and RDU probably have a nuisance to medium-ish event with the NW areas being favored, I can honestly see a possibility of these areas staying at freezing but not really getting much more in the way of ice accretion.
 
What about the 12z Icon, It was coming in colder last few runs has the trend continued or gone the other way? Haven't seen it mentioned. Maybe it hasn't run yet? IDK I'm still of the notion EURO has to be more on board for me to take it serious meaning (something more than token pellets and tops of trees with a glaze.
 
What about the 12z Icon, It was coming in colder last few runs has the trend continued or gone the other way? Haven't seen it mentioned. Maybe it hasn't run yet? IDK I'm still of the notion EURO has to be more on board for me to take it serious meaning (something more than token pellets and tops of trees with a glaze.
Went back the other way a bit
 
The Canadian is basically unchanged from the last several runs, I-85 corridor in SC & southwestern NC will generally be the dividing line between cold rain/nuisance glaze to the SE vs significant impacts NW.

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Your not lying it has been very consistent the last 3 runs, although it’s trended towards more ZR instead of IP for more NW areas 6FAB71C6-B5A3-45FE-8559-9AB293E39F74.gifC68DFD53-4002-4E43-9B8A-42100E11C56E.gif
 
Your not lying it has been very consistent the last 3 runs, although it’s trended towards more ZR instead of IP for more NW areas View attachment 57477View attachment 57478

Yep. This is exactly why I mentioned that once we get the synoptics generally nailed down, the CMC is probably one of, if not the most reliable global model as its often cold biased low-level thermals play to its benefit in CAD.
 
Last 3 days of 12z GEFS runs valid for 0z Wed.

Despite some noise that we've lost some QPF, been ticking warmer/less ice, or that much of upstate SC is out of the ballgame for this event, it's pretty obvious in my eyes where we've been trending the past few days:

All of these aforementioned statements are simply false w/ these synoptic scale changes at 500mb across successive days on the GEFS. This more amplified, slower wave pattern in the east-central US continues to push the distribution of realistic solutions here towards a colder, stronger, more laterally extensive CAD and more ice overall, w/ risk of ice increasing in the I-85 corridor in upstate SC. A few more large-scale tweaks like this and far NE Georgia will also stand a chance to see at least a light glaze before all is said & done.

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Last 3 days of 12z GEFS runs valid for 0z Wed.

Despite some noise that we've lost some QPF, been ticking warmer/less ice, or that much of upstate SC is out of the ballgame for this event, it's pretty obvious in my eyes where we've been trending the past few days:

All of these aforementioned statements are simply false w/ these synoptic scale changes at 500mb across successive days on the GEFS. This more amplified, slower wave pattern in the east-central US continues to push the distribution of realistic solutions here towards a colder, stronger, more laterally extensive CAD and more ice overall, w/ risk of ice increasing in the I-85 corridor in upstate SC. A few more large-scale tweaks like this and far NE Georgia will also stand a chance to see at least a light glaze before all is said & done.

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Do you think the models maybe just aren’t translating it on the precip maps so it’s making people think the upstate be out of it? Living in the best CAD position in SC I have seen this many times. Models trying to underestimate CAD, models trying to erode it way too fast, and models being anywhere from 2-5 degrees too warm, and models trying to drive the LP into the CAD. We’re seeing this now. If you have a 1037 HP even in Quebec that’s got a solid 12-24 hour head start on the LP, I just don’t see anyway you don’t get significant ice in the Piedmont, foothills, and the upstate. Especially those from Anderson to Laurens to Union north.
 
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