Winter Thread 2015-16 (Northern Hemisphere) (snowing, warm, ice, records)

[chicagogeorge]

Model failure


https://twitter.com/MJVentrice/statu...36360964726785



Great Plains February torch coming





https://twitter.com/MJVentrice/statu...70856321736707

[Warszawa]

It's still too cold! But hopefully tomorrow it will be in the positives again

[Infamous92]

Saw people ice skating on a shallow pond, never seen that before.

[nei]

cold is still hanging in... 14°F out. This is frustrating. More snow making:

https://twitter.com/MWObs/status/698670663767293952

[nei]

another use for street parked cars post-snow

https://twitter.com/BostonDotCom/sta...41868073684992

[nei]

Originally Posted by Cambium

Interesting. Good stuff!! No idea why it would be warmer above 850 at that time there.. Clouds? Not in front of PC right now. Love the profile stuff! Seeing u say PA isnt warmer above makes me assume they are clearer from the surface High when NH still has upper clouds around from being near the Vortex?

Michael Ventrice noticed the warmer than 850 mb pattern as well. Don't know why he called it the tropopause, it looks like an inversion, temperature then keeps decreasing till about 350 mb or so after warming up until 800 mb

https://twitter.com/MJVentrice/statu...63944862138368

[Cambium]

Originally Posted by nei

Michael Ventrice noticed the warmer than 850 mb pattern as well. Don't know why he called it the tropopause

Lots of good replies to that. Apparently they were talking about where the temps were as cold as the Tropopause?


"Could you please explain what this means?"

"it's polar cold "

"it's the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere. It's often much higher in elevation than this"


"I would argue 300mb... temp still decreasing with height consistently until then."

"It depends how your define the tropopause and what PVU surface you want to use?"

"it is somewhat obtuse though"

"sort of a hybrid I guess. But yeah it's semantics - but fun to track!"

"agree. temps in this sounding, i.e., above 850 to 300mb are not what I'd define as stratosphere, per lapse rate."

"Impressive! Looks like a sounding that could have been used in "Day After Tomorrow" for their NYC quick freeze scene " lol

[nei]

Originally Posted by Cambium

Lots of good replies to that. Apparently they were talking about where the temps were as cold as the Tropopause?

I thought tropopause refers to where the level where the atmosphere stops cooling with altitude and become isothermal (no temperature change) or actual rises with temperature. Look at the vertical temperature above 350 mb, it follows a temperature line. Hmm, this what they meant by PVUs:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropopause

[Cambium]

Originally Posted by nei

I thought tropopause refers to where the level where the atmosphere stops cooling with altitude and become isothermal (no temperature change) or actual rises with temperature. Look at the vertical temperature above 350 mb, it follows a temperature line. Hmm, this what they meant by PVUs:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropopause

Hmm. Not sure. I see cooling stop with altitude at same height or even lower a lot of times so not sure why would this be different? I figured because of the extreme cold airmass they were looking at how low it was which isnt a common scene?

[ral31]

The weather got more intense than I was expecting today!

A Pizza Hut was damaged in Alexandria after wind picked up part of a car wash and threw it into the building around lunch time. A couple of minor injuries reported. The roof of Pizza Hut fell on top of some cars.I'm thinking it was straight line winds and not a tornado.

Photos below are from local news.



https://www.facebook.com/KALBTV/phot...type=3&theater



https://www.facebook.com/KALBTV/phot...type=3&theater



https://www.facebook.com/KALBTV/phot...type=3&theater

Two rounds of storms came through, one around 8 AM and one after noon. Both produced frequent lightning and small hail. I ended up with 3.26 inches of rain at my house. The airport didn't get as much with 1.48 inches.