#2759 Postby Cerlin » Thu Feb 04, 2021 2:34 pm
One thing to note about these massive arctic air masses is that they usually favor dry air, especially in la niña years. However, our combination of -AO, neutral PNA, MJO transitions, NAO...etc...result in the presence of more moisture for our region (at least, that’s what I’m lead to believe—I’m not an expert so forgive me if I’m wrong), which means IMO that models won’t likely have a good handle on precipitation (hence why ensembles are heavily favored here). Especially for the first half of the system, watch out for warm noses as the sharp gradient front comes in—this could favor a widespread ice storm a la February 2011 if conditions are right. This could also be a big win for Central/Southern Texas again—it can be difficult to overcome dry air with sub 20° temperatures, which when coupled with gulf moisture might result in higher QPF availability in the South.
Of course I could be completely wrong, but at least from my experience, this is what my take is on the situation the models are grappling with.
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Graduate Meteorology Student at the University of Oklahoma!
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