Posted on Leave a comment

Meteorologist Mark’s Wx Blog for Wed., Feb. 3

Headlines 

A very active pattern emerging again

Snow Friday morning

Chance snow Saturday night

Cold for Sunday

Meteorologist Mark’s Wx Vlog 

48-Hour WX

Seven-Day Forecast

Daily Forecast Summary

Today: Skies gradually clearing out. Sunshine by afternoon.

Thursday: Mostly cloudy, with rain and snow developing overnight. Transitioning to all snow by Friday morning. Light accumulation possible. Windy.

Friday: Chance of mainly morning snow. Light accumulation possible. Windy.

Saturday: Partly to mostly sunny. Light snow quickly develops overnight. Light accumulation possible.

Sunday: Mostly cloudy, with snow flurries and/or snow showers, mainly in the morning.

Monday: Mostly sunny and cold.

Tuesday: Mostly cloudy, with a chance for rain and/or snow. (Stay tuned)

48-Hour Precip Forecast

The bulk of tomorrow’s precip should come after sunset.

Meteorologist Mark’s Wx Concerns

The latest data now has us potentially getting one to two inches of snow areawide. Because this is a bit of a change from previous days’ guidance, my confidence is low. If trends continue, my confidence will increase for 1-2 inches of snow areawide. Stay tuned. Much of this snow should occur late Thursday night and Friday morning.

Conversely, guidance is trending lower with Saturday night’s snowfall. That could change, so stay tuned!

Meteorologist Mark’s Snow Day Forecast

As more data comes in today, the chances for a snow day may increase! Stay tuned!

Meteorologist Mark’s Wx Discussion

I’m a bit impressed with the guidance that shows snow for Friday morning. Those situations are a challenge to forecast…..cold air and precip playing cat-n-mouse again, but this morning’s guidance suggest, and it’s certainly believable, that any precip we get will fall into cold air in place and never fall as plain rain in the first place. We’ve had this cold air for some time now! It should always mix with snow. That makes the changeover to snow much easier. With a cold ground in place, accumulation will also come easy. I’ll keep an eye on it.

Saturday night’s situation is also a challenge. The moisture is just so limited. However, if that moisture can increase, then we’ll see more snow. I’ll watch it.

All guidance is shifting gears now and the coldest air of next week should stay just to our north. That change in the forecast pattern also weakens a gulf storm that could have brought us significant snow or ice. I’ll keep watching this closely, as well, as we are still many days out and things could still change. I will say that my confidences in significant wintry precip was at about 60% yesterday. Today, it’s at about 20%.

On This Day in Wx History

1998- A surprise snowstorm brings treacherous driving conditions, school closures, and widespread power outages to the Cumberland Plateau. Interstate 40 is closed at Monterey for 18 hours, due to the heavy snow. Traffic is backed up for 13 miles. Winds gust to 50 mph at times during the snowstorm. Approximately 100,000 electric customers lose power. TEMA reports damages of about $5 million.

Almanac

Yesterday’s National Temperature Extremes

High: 85° at Gila Bend & Goldfield, Arizona

Low: -9° at Peter Sinks, Utah

Today’s National Wx Hazards

A wintry mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow impacts the Upper Midwest today. What a mess! Meanwhile, light snow can be found across New England, while another storm system brings more mountain snows to the northern Rockies.

Tomorrow’s National Wx Hazards

The wintry mess in the Upper Midwest slides east. Very heavy snow will threaten northern Wisconsin. Elsewhere, a mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow will overspread an area from Minnesota to Pennsylvania. Cold air trapped in the mountains of the southern Appalachians will lead to the potential for freezing rain there, too. More snow flakes are flying across portions of Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, becoming heavy snow in northern Idaho.

 Weather Shots

The next time you complain about our winters just remember that at least we don’t have cold lizards falling from our trees! Hahaha! Cold overnight temps can leave Iguanas rather helpless, causing them to even fall from the trees they’re sleeping in. Yikes!

NASA Nerdology 

The script art for the Friendship 7 spacecraft was designed by Cecelia Bibby, an artist employed by NASA contractor Chrysler Aerospace. Glenn insisted that the individual who came up with the design must personally paint his capsule. What an honor! Can you imagine being the one to paint that capsule?

You all have a great day and keep lookin’ up!

Please feel free to “Follow” me on Social Media!

Facebook @meteorologistmark

Twitter @meteo_mark

Instagram @MeteorologistMark

Leave a Reply