Jump to content
Snow?
Local
Radar
Cold?

xioni

Members
  • Posts

    37
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by xioni

  1. is the mean trough retrogressing xioni ? i see the mean trough still well to our west whilst the mean ridge, currently nw russia/scandi slowly retrogresses to sit nw europe/iceland by day 10. My take on the latter stages of the ecm ens mean is another stand off developing but with blocking much closer to the uk and possible undercutting (maybe not close enough to our locale to generate frontal precip but possibility of a stiff flow east of south with chance of embedded cold pools courtesy of energy dropping around the back of the block - of course could just be a stagnant weakish flow).

    I see what you mean, but the problem is that more and more members of the ECM ensemble push that ridge further south (over W.Europe), which means that essentially the ridge replaces the current cold trough. That together with the increasing solar insolation can result to a pretty warm setup (e.g. gfs06 op run, which was very warm for the UK).

    If anything the pattern might end up even flatter (with the ridge over France and Spain)

  2. The word "Retrogressing" has been mentioned many times recently but the reality is the model output has only really hinted at this without any conviction.

    You will also find that come this time of year members begin to seek some warmth and sunshine even from those members who enjoy the cold, snow. Must admit even im tipping that way!

    The pattern is retrogressing but not in a good way, the ensembles now have the mean trough west of Europe in the 240-360h window.

    I agree with your other comments, in fact the way the models are currently trending I'd put money in 20C being reached in early March

  3. Oh good - that means we can sit under some real cold then!

    How will this mild second half feb manifest itself? I was just thinking the de bilt ens are convincing re extended cold?

    the ecm ens mean has an upper ridge iceland. It doesnt look less cold to me?

    Irony is fine, but take a look at today's ensembles: the warming/retrogression trends continue and now the ECM ens mean shows at least normal temps from the 14th onwards. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if the models settle on a warm outlook in the next 48 hours.

    I am a cold & snow fan but I prefer to call it how I see it.

  4. We can use MJO forecasts to help us understand what the tropical component might be 'adding' to the GWO. At the moment the general trend is for the MJO to head into phase 4 (avoiding the +NAO phases 2/3), which couples us nicely with the GWO signal, extratropical and tropical signals as one. With the heat content in the middle part of the Equatorial Pacific really quite high, conditions are ripe for increased cloud cover and tropical forcing on both the western and central tropical Pacific.

    This would be consistent with net addition of westerlies, and, in conjunction with previous westerly wind propagation, we should see the whole dynamical synoptic model driven towards the high AAM base state (MJO phases 4-5-6-7- 8 ), where mountain and frictional torques are generally positive. That gives us a reasonable signal for the next 2 weeks to be oscillating between phases 4 and 8 given that overall angular momentum has fallen but generally levelling off.

    I think your assessment of both the MJO & the GWO are wrong and I think you had done the same mistake back in mid-Dec. The Pacific convection and the heat content near the dateline are currently both high as you say, but there are already strong signs that the Pacific convection is declining, while the Indian Ocean convection is taking over. That's why I think we are going to see a phase 2-3-4-5 circuit of the MJO during the rest of Feb and this is what most models have started showing.

    The GWO is always more difficult to predict as it involves extra-tropical features, but a low AAM state (phases 2-3) is easier IMO during the next 2-3 weeks.

    Overall these teleconnections suggest that a warm pattern for W.Europe is more likely than a cold one during 20Feb - 10Mar, while cold risks increase again in mid-March if the convection returns to the Pacific.

  5. Great post and I hope you are right, but I think you might be underestimating the risk of tropical convection returning to the Indian Ocean in early Feb with the AAM tanking/

    In fact and despite the favourable stratosphere, I think there is at least 50% chance of the MJO progressing into phases 3-4-5 by mid-Feb, which would give us another spell of ~zonal weather similar to late Dec and early Jan.

  6. anyone else picking up on GFS long range trend, very sharp movement of the residual vortex from Canada towards Sberia ? The whe stratosphere seeming to move at once. Once again, parallels with many a sharp outbreak of very cold episodes, the most graphic I can think of showing this type of evolution was 1987.

    The timing of this very interesting, about the same time our downwelling from first warming (and 10 day from second warming) is due to hit the lower levels.

    and why would that move of the vortex be good for us unlike the move in December?

  7. The ensemble mean isn't vague in the sense that it shows the pattern you describe above but the spread in the ensembles is so vast that this mean is almost worthless, since, as SK points out, very few of the perturbations actually look like the mean.

    http://www.meteociel...&mode=1&ech=348

    This is pretty much to be expected though, given the changes taking place at the stratospheric level and the fact that it is very far into FI.

    I see what you and bluearmy mean, but if you go to 384hours, ~15 out of 21 ensemble members have a trough southwest of the UK, which is a bit surprising:

    http://www.meteociel...&mode=1&ech=384

    For me with the latest models, the chance of cold weather before 18 Jan looks <40%, but it's probably >50% during 20-30 Jan due to the SSW and the potential dateline convection.

  8. Thereafter, 06z and 12z GEFS mean becomes increasingly vague and is characterised by some fairly rapid developments over the Arctic field with a number of ensembles amplifying both the Alaskan and Atlantic ridges.

    Sorry but I don't think it's vague at all, at 340-384h it shows a weak -NAO/AO pattern but with a big long-wave trough in the Atlantic (west of UK/France) keeping the cold air in Scandi and Russia. ECM ensemble has also trended in that direction today. They both also show more record breaking warmth for the East coast of the US with a trough/ridge pattern for them (Dec was exceptionally warm there).

    I am not saying these ensembles will be right, but it's not fair to call them vague. To me it looks that until/unless the MJO moves into phase 7, the hunt for cold might continue for quite some time

  9. After struggling with it, this EC run doesn't really bring the cold pool into the UK and has the Atlantic trying to move in at the end, but who can trust it so far out...

    I expect a slightly better EC ensemble tonight

    Worth also mentioning that this run has some extremely low temps in France and Benelux during Sun-Tue above the snowfields, surface temps there come close to Feb last year!

  10. Many keep saying that there is still time for changes and it's true, but most of the model changes so far this week are poor for cold weather.

    We seem to have confirmation of a cold variable pattern, a fair amount of high latitude blocking but not of the right intensity and location, which leaves us with plenty of potential.

    Could most of Dec go on like this with some great FI setups which never materialise?

  11. Looking at the 500mb charts from NOAA shown by IF and the issue from ECMWF-GFS this morning. I am holding off making any predictions today as I want, as always, a couple of days data before deciding.

    Yes the block in high latitudes is there but what is not there compared to their outputs 2-3 days ago is the pronounced ridge south of 60N giving a flow north of west into the UK. There is a tendency on all 3 over the past 24 hours to show a W'ly type of flow into the UK south of 60-65N. Nor is the previously pretty solid way in which all 3 dealt with the trough over and east of the UK helping to reinforce this pattern.

    Like I've just said I am not giving a forecast just observing. The NAEFS for 00z is not yet available.

    that's the problem with relying too much on mean charts far out, they can still change suddenly.

    In fact, the trend since last Tue/Wed has been for a weaker ridge to our west. The ridge we are going to get later this week is much weaker and less expnasive than what the ensembles and the NOAA charts were showing during most of last week

×
×
  • Create New...