Other Pages

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Spring Storm to Bring Snow, Severe Weather

This was an extremely difficult forecast to make, and a map would be pretty difficult to illustrate my thoughts. Ice will be a bigger concern than I expected- with ice accumulations of about .25-.5" across Michigan, with the worst ice occurring somewhere between Detroit to Lake Orion. Areas around Ann Arbor will be getting more rain then anything else. Towards northern Michigan, temperatures will be cold enough to support a very good snowfall, with accumulations of 8"+ Possible. In Ontario, the axis of snow should be from Owen Sound to London, with accumulations around 2-4" on the borders of the snow axis, and about 4-8" in other areas. It wouldn't surprise me if areas towards Hamilton got over 8-12", because more precipitation will be falling there. South of Hamilton should get a mix of ice and rain, with warmer temperatures keeping the precipitation from being snow.

Selected cities forecast:
Detroit, MI- 1-2" snow, .2-.4" ice
Pontiac/Lake Orion, MI: 1-2" snow, .3-.6" ice
London, ONT: 2-5" snow, glaze of ice
Owen Sound, ONT: 1-3" snow
Toronto: 4-7" snow
Hamilton, ONT: 6-12" snow
Toledo, OH: T-1/2" snow, minimal ice
Cleveland, OH: T-1" snow, minimal ice


Another thing to watch is severe weather across central and southern Ohio. The SPC has placed those areas in a risk of severe storms:
As you can see, the current threat appears to be from a Cincinnati to Marietta line, along with areas in Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia. People in Dayton, Columbus, and Newark should also pay attention to the weather tomorrow, and listen for watches and warnings to be issued.

All types of severe weather are possible tomorrow, as these storms will develop along a very strong warm front. You can tell where the warm front is currently, as there is a 15-20 degree difference from Cincy to Dayton. This will slowly move northward tomorrow, bringing a moist and unstable airmass to most of Ohio. Some decent destabilization should be able to occur tomorrow, and in a very sheared environment. Although Hodographs aren't very curved (supporting supercells/tornadoes), discrete cells, and scattered bowed segments are likely to occur in the risk area tomorrow afternoon. These storms will be capable of large hail, damaging winds, and a few tornadoes. These storms will also be racing east at 40-60mph, and if tornado warnings are issued, could create some very dangerous travel conditions.

After tomorrow, a cold airmass really settles in and overtakes the area for several days. There is still a potential for snow in Ohio during this period, but any specific details are unknown at this point. I will have an update on both the snow and severe storms either later tonight or tomorrow morning.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are now being filtered due to Blogger receiving an increasing amount of spam. If you have any type of blogger ID, your comment will be posted. I apologize for any inconvenience