Sunday, January 5, 2014

January 24-28 Potential Apps Runner / Nor'easter Winter Storm

There is the potential for an "Apps Runner" or Nor'easter winter storm around January 24-28, as a storm begins to traverse the Bering Sea in a favorable position.

This is the ECMWF 500 millibar anomaly forecast for the afternoon of January 5th, the day this post was published. You can see the deep negative geopotential height anomalies over the southwestern portion of the Bering Sea, and I drew a line outlining a rough track of where this storm system is projected to go in the next few days. Around January 6, the storm begins to cut north across the central/eastern Aleutian Islands, and then turns a little northwest to swirl in the Bering Sea. This is a telltale sign that we may be in for an Apps Runner or Nor'easter winter storm, as Joe Renken's Bering Sea Rule describes.

The Bering Sea Rule states that by watching storm systems make their way across the Bering Sea, one can identify where and when a storm system will show up in the United States. The general timeframe is 17-21 days after a storm appears in the Bering Sea, a storm will appear in the United States. This rule is already in use with the January 17-21 potential Colorado Low, and now it looks like the Eastern US might encounter some stormy weather if the Bering Sea Rule verifies correctly (which it has, when used previously).

The storm in the Bering Sea skirts in the southern portion of the waters across the January 5-6 time period, before cutting north on the January 6-7 time period. If we extrapolate that time frame 17-21 days out to use the Bering Sea Rule, we end up with roughly a January 24-28 period that we should watch for a potential winter storm. The reason I am labeling it as a possible Apps Runner or Nor'easter is because of how far east it cuts north. Joe Renken indicates that the further west storms cut north in the Bering Sea, the further west they end up 17-21 days later in the United States. In this case, our storm system here cuts far enough east that an Apps Runner or Nor'easter scenario does seem viable. The Bering Sea system is also displaying traditional characteristics of a Nor'easter scenario, where the storm moves in the southern waters of the Sea before cutting north quickly. A Nor'easter forms in a similar fashion, where the energy traverses the Southern US before shooting north along the East Coast.

To sum up:
There is potential for a winter storm over the January 24-28 time period, and indications are it could affect the Ohio Valley via an Apps Runner, or the Eastern Seaboard by way of a Nor'easter storm system.

Andrew

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Andrew, Whats your thought on how January going to pan out with storms? Looks to be off to a good start. Thanks JT

Anonymous said...

hey what is your confidence level right now with this storm?

Brandon from Fb :)

Anonymous said...

Big post coming out? It must be pretty bad.