• Hello, please take a minute to check out our awesome content, contributed by the wonderful members of our community. We hope you'll add your own thoughts and opinions by making a free account!

Pattern January 2020 - Operation Thaw Alaska

The 12Z Euro has a freeze to CHS and almost to SAV and GNV on 1/7. That day would average out 6-10 colder than normal in those locations if this verifes.
 
Last edited:
1577646488772.png
1577646606763.png
Big differences at day 8-9 between GFS on the top and Euro below, especially out west and in the pacific. Euro with a beautiful look, especially with 1050 high just east of Rockies and reinforcing high near Yukon. That look is nearly golden along with PV nudging south into Hudson Bay. GFS with a cold shot but far less impressive wintry potential with too much ridging in Midwest and no reenforcing high. Would expect the Euro pattern to play out better down the road as well.
 
The 12Z EPS mean has a freeze for ATL and RDU for 1/7, 8, and 9 with the coldest 1/8-9. It looks mainly dry with only light precip for most areas of the SE once the cold front comes through prior to this (let's see what the bulk of the members show..I bet there will be a few interesting ones) although I wouldn't bet against NW flow snow flurries/showers, especially in the NC mountains as the cold air comes in.
 
The day 5 massive trough has me slightly intrigued.. both Gfs and euro have come into line with a better oriented axis and a deeper trough along with more and more rushing out west for that +PNA ... maybe we could get something sneaky there .... they do say our big storms always show up randomly within 5 days
 
A significant piece of the TPV starts to drop down towards the Baffin Bay by day 8-9 on the GFS. The evolution of the TPV is still the biggest wildcard the next few weeks and its predictability is severely limited. Just a week or so ago, it appeared that the TPV would park over Alaska, instead it’s going to end up going over Greenland
Honestly that’s why I made my post the other day about how bad the models have been doing in the LR
 
Per the 12Z EPS, the nice cold snap of 1/7-9 still looks transitory with SER/A to MA for 1/11-13+
 
Last edited:
Good thing the eps has sucked in the LR so far this season


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It hasn't done well, but no model has done well and the EPS still did the best/least bad for the US overall for the 11-15 during 12/1-15 with an average miss of 5.7-5.8 F vs ~7.5 for the GEFS. That's a significant difference.


GFS (FV3):
0Z 7.9
6Z 8.1
12Z 8.3
18Z 8.3

GEFS:
0Z 7.4
6Z 7.3
12Z 7.9
18Z 7.5

EPS:
0Z 5.8
12Z 5.7

- So, although not great by any means, the EPS by a rather wide margin did the best during the first half of Dec.
- The GEFS didn't do that much better than the GFS
- None of these had a warm bias then as even the EPS had a -1.2 F bias in the 11-15:

GEFS -4.8
GFS(FV3) -3.2 (so not quite as bad as the GEFS)
EPS -1.2 (easily the best of these 3 but even it has been slightly too cold overall)

- With the MJO likely headed toward 4-5 and the -AAM about to return after a brief hiatus, I'd be wary about betting against the SER influence after the upcoming cold shot. I mean even the strongly cold biased GEFS and GEPS are showing SE warmth then.

*Edited
 
Last edited:
So filter out all the noise.... pattern is changing again, how do I know (or think that) well... the models are all over the place.

Even assuming that after the expected cold period that the SE gets warm again ~1/11-15 (I think the odds are very good at this point), the jury would still be out for the last half of January as that is too far out to see and that warmth could also be transitory, especially if the MJO gets out of 5 and the NAO and AO go back down toward neutral. We'll see.

So, in summary, I'm currently thinking N to A SE 1/1-15 (with higher chance of A deeper in the SE) and up in the air for 1/16-31.
 
Honestly that’s why I made my post the other day about how bad the models have been doing in the LR
Even in this day and age, there’s almost no predictability when it comes to the tropospheric polar vortex, it truly is a huge unknown in medium-long range forecasting. Seeing it continue to meander around the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and the propensity for legitimate, highly amplified ridging in the North Pacific and Alaska which could send it southward in a hurry, should give most a good reason to be very cautious from the 3rd week of January and beyond. It would not take much at all for us to completely flip the switch from a mild pattern being modeled to an extremely cold one reminiscent of Feb 2014 & 2015.
 
Even in this day and age, there’s almost no predictability when it comes to the tropospheric polar vortex, it truly is a huge unknown in medium-long range forecasting. Seeing it continue to meander around the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and the propensity for legitimate, highly amplified ridging in the North Pacific and Alaska which could send it southward in a hurry, should give most a good reason to be very cautious from the 3rd week of January and beyond. It would not take much at all for us to completely flip the switch from a mild pattern being modeled to an extremely cold one reminiscent of Feb 2014 & 2015.
Are you saying I should get a new jacket?
 
January 6-10 looks like a legitimate period for a storm to potentially appear on the horizon over the coming week, thereafter I would hedge my bets that we will be mild for at least a little while thru about the 15th, because these -EPO patterns usually dump cold into the west and Rockies before it shifts eastward (if at all). The second half of January is completely up in the air as far as I’m concerned and I could see how we turn insanely cold or end up with another rendition of last February, there just isn’t much of a difference between the two outcomes in a large scale sense
 
Even in this day and age, there’s almost no predictability when it comes to the tropospheric polar vortex, it truly is a huge unknown in medium-long range forecasting. Seeing it continue to meander around the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and the propensity for legitimate, highly amplified ridging in the North Pacific and Alaska which could send it southward in a hurry, should give most a good reason to be very cautious from the 3rd week of January and beyond. It would not take much at all for us to completely flip the switch from a mild pattern being modeled to an extremely cold one reminiscent of Feb 2014 & 2015.
Throw in the active southern jet and we could be in for some fun right? Or would that pv disrupt that and maybe shut off moisture supply ?? Kind of hard to believe this big wet pattern we’ve seen for the past several months will suddenly shut off but you know more than me what do u think?
 
Next weekend January 4/5 time frame looks interesting on the gfs. Try to sneak a little piece of energy
 
Next weekend January 4/5 time frame looks interesting on the gfs. Try to sneak a little piece of energy

The 5th is my sons 4th birthday. It snowed a little the day he was born and on his 1st and 2nd birthdays. Last year has been the only year it hasnt been wintry on his birthday. Hope we can get back to getting wintry inis bday.
 
Back
Top