SO WHAT HAPPENED? WHERES MY SNOW? The average viewer doesnt hear too much about what Im about to discuss. Mainly because its a little technical and confusing to someone that doesnt have a meteorological background. So Im going to try to make this as easy to understand as possible. Obviously everyone has heard of a Noreaster before. But did you know there are actually two different types of Noreasters? They are Miller Type A and Miller Type B. The Miller Type A Noreaster is fairly easy to forecast. Its a storm thats already developed hundreds of miles away in the Gulf Of Mexico. Because its so far away as its developing, a forecaster has plenty of time to determine whether or not its going to be a hit up the coast, or a miss out to sea. Usually the most challenging aspect of this type of Noreaster is actually just trying to pin point the rain/snow line. But a Miller Type B Noreaster is a whole different kind of animal. Its the kind of storm where time is not on the forecasters side. Its a last minute situation where one area of low pressure approaching from the west weakens (as it hits the Appalachian Mountains) and transfers its energy to a secondary area of low pressure developing closer to the coast. This is a much more difficult storm to predict because the entire forecast depends on where this secondary area of low pressure develops and how quickly it intensifies. In other words its a storm that is developing rather than one that has already developed. If the storm is already past us while in that developing process we miss out. Sort of like what were seeing with this storm this morning. But if everything comes together quicker and closer to the coast its a hit and the storm brings big snows. So in trying to keep this short and simple, that was what we were faced with this time around. It was a Miller Type B Noreaster that was showing explosive development on the modeling. It was a train wreck of a storm from day one. At no point in time did any of the modeling come to an agreement. I think the Action News weather team did an excellent job handling this storm. We were all very cautious with this and mentioned numerous times that this was a very low confidence situation. I know this is very disappointing to the snow lovers and I know some of you may not be very happy with the outcome right now. But with the incredible amount of snow that was being projected on the modeling at one point, you had to make the call that most meteorologists made including us here at channel 6. Look what happened just two weeks ago with the sneak attack ice storm. We had four huge pileups and three fatalities that day. So Winter Storm Warnings and Blizzard Warnings absolutely needed to be issued with this. I will always lean on the side of my viewers being prepared for something and not have it hit rather than not knowing about something and have it surprise you. Going back to bed now. Still feel lousy. I hope Im not getting sick. :(
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 12:44:20 +0000
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