January 9-12 Potential Winter Storm

There appears to be the risk for a storm system to impact the East US, particularly the Northeast, in the January 9-12 timeframe.

Tropical Tidbits

We'll first go over the forecast of the storm, and then get into it at a more analytical level. This forecast panel shows the 18z GFS forecast of precipitation type and intensity, as well as mean sea level pressure contours and 1000-500mb thickness values for the early morning of January 11th. We see a strong storm system just offshore the Northeast, producing widespread moderate to heavy rain right along the coast from New Jersey on northeastward, with light snow located in inland New York into east Pennsylvania. This solution could give copious amounts of rain and/or snow to the East Coast.

As expected, the internet is biting hard on this storm, given it could be the first real wintry system for the East this winter. Not to burst anyone's bubble, but below explains why I'm not expecting a real snow threat with this storm, and why not to bite on any forecasts yet.

Tropical Tidbits

This graphic shows us the 500-millibar vorticity values, forecasted for 12z (6 AM CST) today, Monday. That red box, all the way out near the Aleutian Islands, encompasses our storm system. That's right, the system that people are looking at is currently hundreds of miles away, closer to Russia than mainland United States. That's the first sign that we shouldn't take any model guidance at face value right now. Heck, the latest 00z GFS run came in and showed the storm pushing well out to sea, not even affecting most of the East US. I just chose to show that 18z GFS graphic so I could show what I'm talking about, and to make a few points, like this one.

Additionally, check out all the pieces of energy out ahead of our main system. If you count closely, just looking at this graphic, I can identify at least three separate storm systems downstream of our system of interest near the Aleutian Islands. Three systems is a lot for model guidance to sort out, and it doesn't help that one of those systems is also well out at sea, not even close to the radiosonde network which would help model accuracy. In sum, models are going to suffer a lot with this storm, both with the distance the storm is from the U.S., and how many systems are downstream of our storm itself.

Tropical Tidbits

This next point is specifically for the snow enthusiasts in the Northeast already getting excited for this storm. This is the 850-millibar temperature forecast for the morning of January 9th. At this point in time, our system is located somewhere in the South Plains, though it is not well-shown on this map. That's alright though, because we're looking at this image for the temperature spread across the Central and East US. All colors green and warmer are temperatures above freezing at this layer of the atmosphere (about 5,000 feet off the ground). That means that most areas east of the Mississippi River, save for Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire, should be comfortably above freezing in the couple of days, even several hours prior to the storm actually beginning to impact the East (if it does at all).

For a good snow set-up, no matter where you may live, you want an established cold air mass before the storm begins. We saw that guideline in play with our last storm system, which dumped copious amounts of snow in the Plains into Iowa and Wisconsin, even laying down a few inches of sleet near Chicagoland. It was all that sleet and freezing rain that fell because there was no antecedent cold air mass. This go-around, we also will be lacking a pre-established cold air mass, and that really concerns me with snow prospects.

CPC

While I'm not set on the idea of a snowstorm, I am open to the concept of this actually being a storm for the Northeast. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) will be negative when this storm occurs, albeit only slightly negative. This should encourage the storm to curve up the coast, though just how much 'encouragement' there is remains in question. It's completely plausible the storm goes straight out to sea, as the 00z GFS portrayed, and it's also possible it curves up the coast. I'm not confident in it going one way or the other right now, but both solutions are plausible.

To Summarize:

- There is the chance for a wintry storm system in the Northeast between the January 9-12 timeframe.
- Personally, I see a very realistic chance that this storm produces more rain than snow as a result of no antecedent cold air mass.
- Model guidance should not be trusted this far out.
- This storm could plausibly go out to sea rather than up the coast.

Andrew