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Wintry January 23rd-27th 2026

This was interesting from RAH this morning. Goes along with what Webber previously stated:

*****cut from overnight discussion******
"....as those warm nose temperatures increase well above values to
completely melt any snow/ice nuclei falling through it. Despite that
complete melting, underlying cold nose temperatures are forecast to
be atypically cold (~minus 10C) and sufficiently so to yield
additional ice nucleation in the lowest couple of thousand ft AGL;
and that may allow for periods of continued snow and sleet
production, with crystal habits of the former that would favor
columns/prisms/needles that would not accumulate very efficiently,
particularly if accompanied by freezing rain as expected."
********************

That may also take some of QPF away from freezing rain.
 
I’ve been so busy prepping I haven’t had a chance to look at the extended forecast. There is no relief in sight. Scrolling through he entire 384hr run of the GFS, this is the most brutal stretch of sustained cold I’ve ever seen. And it’s coming directly after an apocalyptic ice event. Unbelievable. Day after tmrw type stuff
Hello, waiter? Yes, my lobster is too buttery and my steak is too juicy!
 
Soundings off 6z Nam Greensboro:
Hour:
36 = snow starts
39 = sleet @ 23 degrees surface
45 = still sleeting / surface has dropped to 19 degrees
57 = * Change to freezing Rain / surface temp 23 degrees:
Has precipitated .6 up to this point:
so we know that .6 of total qpf off 6z Nam at this point is 2% snow & 98% SLEET !

67 = Freezing Rain is ending/ stops here / surface temp 30-31 degrees: .4 of total qpf has fallen as freezing Rain


Summary: The 6Z Nam is the driest/ least qpf model out there, by several tenths of an inch. It handles thermals/ warm noses the best. If we take it at face value, then it's the least impactful model of all the models/ ensembles etc. The softest/ at a minimum what we can expect at Greensboro off the Nam is 2-3.75 sleet and snow accumulation with roughly a half inch of freezing rain accrued on everything.

This shows that if it's a hair tick to dry. And I'd give caution, it most likely is. Because that's been a handicap with it's new upgrade that I've noticed. Probably gonna spell big trouble just to the south/ east and especially southwest of here with Ice accrual. You go down toward Charlotte and all points in between, you'd be getting more freezing rain over sleet the further out you go. plus all models get wetter the further southwest you head. Start approaching / surpassing .70 Freezing rain with our surface temps, gonna be a lot of power outages, So be prepared.
 
Well the NWS Raleigh increased their totals from yesterday.

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For Raleigh Google has about 0.5-0.6” precip in very cold temps for the overrunning part. Another .2” comes after as probably freezing rain. It’s a cold model…hoping the initial overrunning is half sleet and half frzn. Would be a nice event but not catastrophic, I hope. Roads would be an ice skating rink and would still be power outages, just not worst case

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I’ve been so busy prepping I haven’t had a chance to look at the extended forecast. There is no relief in sight. Scrolling through he entire 384hr run of the GFS, this is the most brutal stretch of sustained cold I’ve ever seen. And it’s coming directly after an apocalyptic ice event. Unbelievable. Day after tmrw type stuff
NE GA and up your way through NC looks like ground zero for FZRA. The further NE of Atlanta you get the worse it looks. I'm preparing for the worst.

Some models are showing back-end rain as the precip moves out. Our only hope may be that it occurs and washes some out.
 
Model consensus ZR forecast is going in the right direction here

View attachment 187912
This may sound like hopiun but could this also be what Mitch was talking about yesterday when he said that those who think or thought they were getting a catastrophic ice storm could instead be looking at a raging sleet storm? Could this be a reflection of that? Or would we need to see more trends to reflect that?

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Well the NWS Raleigh increased their totals from yesterday.

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456a37e8c75eff9e4d9aa8665af838fd.jpg



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I think their snow accums include sleet and looking at trends and all model output, I highly doubt that .8 ice accumulation verifies in Roanoke Rapids. I'm curious what they see to continue to have an ice bullseye in corridor NE of Raleigh. Which btw these totals did come down some from yesterday and shifted NW some.
 
Latest (long range at 9z) RAP is very interesting. Gives me all sleet (and little snow) through hour 51. It is very dry to the SW from Charlotte to Atlanta. But still has more QPF to come in later. ***man, these models are all over the place for QPF
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To me it looks like some of the models are trying to go with a big tongue of moisture that shoots out ahead of what now looks like a strong frontal passage. That’s why there is a dryer gap south of that tongue. Then you get the influx of moisture as the front starts to push through late Sunday. Not sure if it is true though.

Would expect a lot of freezing drizzle even in the areas that are showing up in the dry slots
 
If you want more precip Sunday morning, then you want more convection to fire up tomorrow morning along the Texas gulf coast. Ai models don’t have any, nam 3k , rap doesn’t have any… the rgem, euro, gfs, fv3 have mega convection that develops there and races east.

Hrrr has some… sort of a blend.
 
6Z RDPS for Greensboro:

Matches Nam in that flakes onset, probably like 15 minutes, but straight to sleet. Colder at the surface. Nam has us in upper teens while precipitating. RDPS has us at 16 degrees and sleeting at its coldest point hour 48.

Hour 57: precip has changed to Freezing Rain with a surface temp at a toasty 20 degrees: So far 1.0 qpf has occurred and been in the form of sleet. easily 3-4 inches of sleet has accumulated by this point. Probably been getting close to 4:1 sleet ratios up to this point as it is still only 20 degrees at the surface.

at hour 72 Precip /freezing rain is ending with a surface temp of 28 degrees: So far another .9 qpf has fallen in the form of freezing rain.

Summary: This would be ferocious if things play out like the RDPS just did. The qpf that falls as freezing rain is .9 compared to the .4 as freezing rain off the 6Z Nam. Thats double the impact + weight wise on everything, places you in the worst category there is for frzng rain ice accrual.
 
6Z RDPS for Greensboro:

Matches Nam in that flakes onset, probably like 15 minutes, but straight to sleet. Colder at the surface. Nam has us in upper teens while precipitating. RDPS has us at 16 degrees and sleeting at its coldest point hour 48.ice

Hour 57: precip has changed to Freezing Rain with a surface temp at a toasty 20 degrees: So far 1.0 qpf has occurred and been in the form of sleet. easily 3-4 inches of sleet has accumulated by this point. Probably been getting close to 4:1 sleet ratios up to this point as it is still only 20 degrees at the surface.

at hour 72 Precip /freezing rain is ending with a surface temp of 28 degrees: So far another .9 qpf has fallen in the form of freezing rain.

Summary: This would be ferocious if things play out like the RDPS just did. The qpf that falls as freezing rain is .9 compared to the .4 as freezing rain off the 6Z Nam. Thats double the impact + weight wise on everything, places you in the worst category there is for frzng rain ice accrual.
When two models are that far apart on accumulated ice totals I would probably average these numbers and use that as a best guess for what might happen - .9 + .4 = .13/2 = .65 inches. I hope the NAM is right about these totals.
 
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