Offshore Wind Event/Cold Air in the Southwest
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Offshore Wind Event/Cold Air in the Southwest
It looks like we will have a major cold wind event in the Southwest this weekend...in Southern California, we will definitely have some advisories in place by Sunday night or Monday morning....Nevada and Arizona will get the brunt of the cold air....of course this depends on how far west the retrograding low in the GB goes....the 06 GFS actually has it getting to the coast which would give the SoCal coast a chance of showers w/very cold (for November) temps & rapidly falling snow levels---4K or less.
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- Aslkahuna
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Yep, looking for temperatures down into the 20's for my domicile here in SE AZ for lows. The wind will be the issue since if it drops off then the pneumonia hollows and areas down by the river could get down into the teens. For those not familiar with the highland grasslands of SE AZ, we are at 4500' and those low areas can get surprisingly cold in the Winter. Last winter, Douglas hit 8 above while down along the San Pedro it got down to -2F. Record low for our Valley is -6F though the mesonet station near the river may have hit lower than that. Willcox, a perennial cold spot has a record low of -10F.
Steve
Steve
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Steve
How often do you guys get snow or freezing precip out there?
Do you notice the GFS being out of sorts w/850 temps in California & the Southwest?
BTW, you gave me some good preliminary info on that snow storm that hit Los Angeles in 1949. I'm still working on a project to recreate that snow storm but its been a real bear to get some good info on it.
Do you notice the GFS being out of sorts w/850 temps in California & the Southwest?
BTW, you gave me some good preliminary info on that snow storm that hit Los Angeles in 1949. I'm still working on a project to recreate that snow storm but its been a real bear to get some good info on it.
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- Aslkahuna
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Freezing rain here is rare-I've only recorded it once since 1987 but there
have been a couple of other occasions elsewhere in the County. Sleet is very common. Snow is an interesting story since it does snow here frequently in the Winter but only small amounts locally. It's very hard to get a covering snow in Sierra Vista proper because of the Huachucas. We get a strong shadow effect from them with very cold storms since the cloud tops aren't much higher than the mountains and when the winds come off the mountains-which they do 90% of the time when it rains around here, we get downslope warming which raises the temperature above freezing. Consequently we get the snow when the front comes through and shifts the wind to the NW. Then the rain changes quickly to snow until the winds swing back to the SW about an hour or so later since the front is usually well ahead of the trough axis where we get our next chance for snowshowers. To get a good snow here requires that the ULL tracks over or just south of us with the surface low to the S and easterly low level flow bringing cold air in from TX.
About the January 1949 storm, you need to find a school Library that has the Daily Weather Maps archived for that time period-they probably would be on microfilm. It would have to be a school that had an established Met program back then of which there were not too many-the main one in the West being UCLA.
Steve
have been a couple of other occasions elsewhere in the County. Sleet is very common. Snow is an interesting story since it does snow here frequently in the Winter but only small amounts locally. It's very hard to get a covering snow in Sierra Vista proper because of the Huachucas. We get a strong shadow effect from them with very cold storms since the cloud tops aren't much higher than the mountains and when the winds come off the mountains-which they do 90% of the time when it rains around here, we get downslope warming which raises the temperature above freezing. Consequently we get the snow when the front comes through and shifts the wind to the NW. Then the rain changes quickly to snow until the winds swing back to the SW about an hour or so later since the front is usually well ahead of the trough axis where we get our next chance for snowshowers. To get a good snow here requires that the ULL tracks over or just south of us with the surface low to the S and easterly low level flow bringing cold air in from TX.
About the January 1949 storm, you need to find a school Library that has the Daily Weather Maps archived for that time period-they probably would be on microfilm. It would have to be a school that had an established Met program back then of which there were not too many-the main one in the West being UCLA.
Steve
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Storm Intensifying Rapidly
This cutoff low ended being a very strong system with excellent dynamics....the radar is beginning to light up over Los Angeles & San Bernardino counties. Also, this is a very cold storm w/snow mixing with rain as low as 3000 feet!! That is the lowest snow level I've seen in for us here in SoCal in November. There is snow at the Cajon Pass on I-15 and it is beginning to accumulate...people going to Vegas right now are getting much more than they bargained for. Speaking of Las Vegas, its about 45 out there right now and the higher elevations of the Las Vegas valley will see some snow tonight...in Arizona snow showers are rampant and I'm sure they will see rapidly dropping snow levels with this storm as well.....
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Hey Josh
This storm exploded like the Pacers-Pistons fight on Friday night!!! It seems to keep getting stronger & stronger....your area is getting lit up w/heavy rain, thunderstorms and lightning...look at this advisory from the San Diego NWS
...SNOW ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON TODAY FOR FOOTHILLS ABOVE
2500 FEET...
AREAS OF SNOW ACCUMULATION 1 TO 4 INCHES IN 12 HOURS ABOVE 2500 FEET.
LOCAL SNOW LEVELS OF 1500 FEET. AREAS OF NORTH WINDS 15 TO 25 MPH
WITH GUSTS TO 45 MPH. THE WINDS WILL MAKE DRIVING DIFFICULT FOR
MOTORISTS WITH HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES. PEOPLE SHOULD WATCH FOR BROKEN
TREE LIMBS AND DOWNED POWER LINES.
I have never seen the snow levels down to 1500 ft in November here...that almost reaching all areas of the Inland Empire & higher portions of Orange County.....its a chillly 45 here w/light rain.
...SNOW ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON TODAY FOR FOOTHILLS ABOVE
2500 FEET...
AREAS OF SNOW ACCUMULATION 1 TO 4 INCHES IN 12 HOURS ABOVE 2500 FEET.
LOCAL SNOW LEVELS OF 1500 FEET. AREAS OF NORTH WINDS 15 TO 25 MPH
WITH GUSTS TO 45 MPH. THE WINDS WILL MAKE DRIVING DIFFICULT FOR
MOTORISTS WITH HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES. PEOPLE SHOULD WATCH FOR BROKEN
TREE LIMBS AND DOWNED POWER LINES.
I have never seen the snow levels down to 1500 ft in November here...that almost reaching all areas of the Inland Empire & higher portions of Orange County.....its a chillly 45 here w/light rain.
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Tornado_Chaser2005 wrote:Im getting Santa Ana like winds over gusting to near 80 mph here now! with rain, it feels like my first hurricane!!!! Its unbelieable right now. I got pounded by lightning earlier. current temp here right now, is 37 with rain!! come on snow!
Found this ob- FAWNSKIN
Last Update on 21 Nov 5:20 PST
19°F
(-7°C) Humidity: 87 %
Wind Speed: NNW 3 G 71 MPH
Barometer: na
Dewpoint: 16°F (-9°C)
Wind Chill: 15°F (-9°C)
Visibility: Miles


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This Storm
Yeah this storm is/was a doozy...it looks like its snowing from the Cajon Pass all the way out towards Vegas....Tornado what city do you live in??? If it got down to 37, I'm sure you probably got some type of mix at some point....obviously no accumulation, but at 37 degrees there were probably some snowflakes mixed in there somewhere....but I don't blame you for being outside in that mess....
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I live just south of Ontario, very close to it though. It was wow. It rained, but then stopped. the radar still showed yellow and orange echos, but guess what? the wind was blowing so hard that the rain must have been traveling horizontal, not hitting my area at all, maybe areas downrange of the wind.lol
Tornado Chaser
Tornado Chaser
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Thats Crazy
It was a wild and crazy last 18-24 hours or so....not much rain and excitement out here on the coast, but it was awesome seeing all of that severe weather out there....I have never seen so much wintry weather on a SoCal map in November!!!!!! Tornado, the San Diego NWS hinted at some snow mixing w/rain as low as 1,000 ft early this morning...thats awful close to Ontario...I think Ontario is just under 1,000ft or maybe even slightly above.....I read one of your other post talking about a similar storm next weekend.....I had an eye on this one since last Tuesday, but I never thought it was going to be anything like this!!
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- Aslkahuna
- Professional-Met
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- Joined: Thu Feb 06, 2003 5:00 pm
- Location: Tucson, AZ
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It wasn't until Friday that the model consensus began to build for a ULL to dig into the SW like that. Initially, last Tuesday, they had the trough digging in east of us with a strong northerly jet and strong CAA. I see that this same trend is showing on a trough expected to dig NEXT weekend so we will have to watch that one through the week as well.
Steve
Steve
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Yup had damage here as well. Aero, yeah, looks like another twin system coming in next weekend possibly. anyway, this was one for the record probably. we had snow levels down to near 1,000 feet to see a snowflake. I live at 800feet, but it was all rain, very cold, but rain. lol its hard to believe that only 500 feet up , above me, had mixes of snow. anyway. a true record system this was. these come aroundl ike once every 50years or so to bring snow this far down in elevation. If the next one is the same, or colder, it may be the first time in recorded history to have this snow this low, in under a month.
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Tornado Chaser
What a storm!!! We get these low snow levels storms in SoCal once every 5 years or so....there were snow flurries in Woodland Hills where I worked 3 years ago...that was truly amazing & then it snowed briefly at the Pepperdine campus in Malibu two years ago...the difference though with this storm was that this one was a much more constant snow event w/Hesperia getting 9 inches!!! I can't believe I'm even typing those words....the Cajon pass must have been a mess. I gotta take a look at the GFS myself & I'll report back as well....
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