DT wrote:SINCE I am the one who Forecasted the Pacific Jet Back in OCT
and on my winter forecast back in mid NOV and since I am the one that brought it to all of your attentions it is fair to say I am MOST familar with it and know of it and how to forecast with it more than anyonme here and in 95% of the meteorological community
That being said Jeb your forecast for Jan for washigton DC flat out sucks donkey crap.
Jeb wrote:The COLD is coming to the Mid Atlantic.
Yeah, Right!!!!
No, it isn't. Ferocious Pac Jet plus persistent SE Ridge will inhibit any persistent pattern like the one we enjoyed last winter.
January......
1: 52/43
2:59/38
3:68/44
4: 54/44
5:48/38
6: 50/35
7: 51/36
8: 49/37
9: 44/34
10: 49/40
11: 45/35
12:56/39
13: 50/35
14: 53/41
15: 55/42
16: 61/49
17: 63/51
18: 55/27 Yeah I'm real impressed with that lame low.
19: 49/30
20: 45/27 Oh gosh I'm gonna have a heart attack; AVERAGE high/low.
21: 52/35
22: 54/40
23: 49/38
24: 49/35
25: 48/36
26: 49/32 Wow....we actually hit the freezing mark in Jan.
27: 46/36
28: 42/28 Oh my gosh!! Average weather again!!
29: 50/34
30: 54/43
31: 59/49
The above is a fairly good representation of what we (in the East) can expect in January with the combination of the Pacific Jet and the SE Ridge. It takes two to tango and these two are gonna get together and party. It's gonna be a Blowout BASH that's gonna make the 1999-2000 New Years Party look fairly lame by comparison. The East will see impressive savings in heat bills this "winter". The northern Plains will be cold enough to freeze the genital organs off of a brass monkey lol, because some of the arctic air will bleed over into the northern Plains. But then, most years, some cold air gets into the Plains, they are climatologically favored for colder air, are they not? Why are Minneapolis malls built underground? Cold and winds and potentially dangerous, life-threatening visibilities caused by blowing snows up there is one big reason. The Pac Jet will dump disastrous amts of snow on the Western Mts.
I didn't say winter was over. True, some people are saying winter is over, but I did not say that. I am saying that winter over much of the CONUS will be substantially milder than has been generally expected. We have all been way too excited about last winter, myself included. We need to take this thing one winter at a time. The 2003-2004 winter WILL BE DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT than the 2002-2003 winter was. It's sure NO 2001-2002, there is much more cold air up in Canada this winter. But the Pac Jet is strong this winter. The synoptic setup is different. The Pacific Jet is very, very active and ferocious this winter. It will prove to be semi-permanent. Seeing deep cold and significant snow in the MA is difficult at best because so many variables have to come together and be just so in order for the MA to see significant snows and lasting cold. Climo will verify this: Washington DC's average temperature range for this time of year is approximately 44/28. That averages out to about 35 degrees, ABOVE FREEZING. Give it a little ESE winds ahead of an approaching low and voila, RAIN is your best bet. This winter we are averaging more like 48/34. Can anyone say Rain's in the forecast?
I said the Pac Jet and the SE Ridge will tend to give the East a mild winter. The South will be downright warm at times. The West will be stormy and unsettled. The West will begin to make up some of the 7-year deficit, but they need MUCH MUCH more to make up for a devastating 7-year drought. The SE Ridge will keep Florida in the 70s and 80s clear thru March, easy. It aint goin' anywhere anytime soon. I've seen this before. The Pac Jet is super strong and it'll give the cold air up in Canada hell and then some. The cold air up in Canada will slide east out to sea, there will be no such animal as Greenland Blocking this winter on the North American continent. That was LAST YEAR, not THIS YEAR. The 34C airmass in Canada is very cold I'll grant you, but I've heard of worse.
Winter ain't over with, by a long shot. The West is going to get BURIED by snow, people are gonna unfortunately perish and I regret that deeply, I do not want that, but that's the Rockies for you. They are life threatening in the winter. There will be excessive rain in California, Oregon, Washington. There will be mudslides and flooding. Homes will be lost. People will be caught in some of these mudslides. The West has been in a severe drought for 5 to 7 years and it may just be getting ready to end, beginning in this winter.
The Northern Plains will be super-cold at times. The Midwest and upper Northeast will be cold at times; they will see some snow at times. The south, southeast and MA will be average to slightly above average in temps, just as we are already witnessing now. There will be rains from time to time.
No winter aint over with. But it is going to be A LOT DIFFERENT than we all wanted it to be, A LOT DIFFERENT than it was last year.
JEB
That's fair, DT.
You DID forecast the Pac Jet, and it has obtained. Thanks for the heads up.
As for my temperature forecast for Jan for DC, it may in fact flat out suck donkey crap.
I still say that the MA will have no severe cold/severe snow winter. Even you understand the power of the Pac Jet this winter.
The East will have an average to slightly above average winter, especially when you crank in a mild February. There will be a few cold snaps in DC this winter, highs in the upper 20s to mid 30s and lows in the upper teens, but they will be nothing to write home about. This winter was pretty overrated. I got overexcited; there were a few of us that got overexcited when December unfolded as colder and snowier for a couple weeks.
But the Mid Atlantic will experience an average to slightly above average winter temperature-wise. Rainfall will be average, except drier during suppressed periods when its a little colder in January. No 2003-2004 winter here.
I probably should have included more 37/30 days in my jan temperature forecast, and maybe a couple 28/23 days too, but it won't be anything to remember. The storms will go south of us if it manages to get that cold, and at any rate, the cold won't last, it will be short-lived. DC will be lucky to see another 3 to 8 inches this winter. South of there, mostly rain.
We need to stop getting too excited about storms projected on the models more than 72 hours out. There will be no super cold wave south of the northern Plains/northern Rockies/northernmost northeastern states.
Winter is not over, but it will be milder than progged.
JEB