StrataQ

Hi, First time I have plucked up enough courage to post, I thought I would start here rather than the model thread. I live just east of Sudbury in Suffolk and we to have outbreaks of snow but not settleing and as a newbe I would be interested in your thoughts as to why the precipitation does not show on the radar,I presume because it is too light. I pushed the boat out and bought a subscription last week. I have spent most of my working life working with computer models and satellite images and I am familar with the problems associated with sampling a complex pattern on a regular grid of cells, let alone the complexities of the energy balancing equations, so I am not entirly suprised by the stops and starts of the recent modelling. With regard to the front comming in mid week from past bitter experience I would be happier if the low stayed south. I only remember once in the last 30 years when a similar situation produced a sustained snow event the front stalled around the middle of the country and stayed there for several days before the easterly air flow pushed it back. The setup was close to our region but not close enough. I also have some sympathy with the view expressed on the model thread of having all this information and constant GFS update being more trouble than it is worth and going back to magnetic symbols and synoptic charts, happy days! Surley the models show the trends and specific detail is not always accurate even with the t24 time frame, some seem to take the latest GFS output as correct, rather like beleiving the result a calculator displays. Also regarding specific detail even forcasting for a region is fraught with difficulty in a showery situation be it snow or rain or any combination therof I think we should remember and I am as guilty as any for this this a forcast is just that a forcast and is also generalised over a wide area it is impossible to forcast the appearance of rain in No 41's garden making the washing damp let alone a snow shower, the best we can expect is to forcase the occurace of snow showers and the approxamite area. It's difficult but not impossible and with the help of a good web site great fun, I have enjoyed reading the posts for many years and now having made my first post I hope to in future be able to contribute assuming work does not get in the way!