• Looks like our DeLorean hit 88 miles per hour a little too hard! A recent style update went sideways, sending us back to a retro look for a bit. We've parked that faulty future theme for now while we tinker under the hood.
  • Welcome to TalkWeather!
    We see you lurking around TalkWeather! Take the extra step and join us today to view attachments, see less ads and maybe even join the discussion.
    CLICK TO JOIN TALKWEATHER

Severe WX Severe Threat 17-18 March 2021

warneagle

warneagle

Member
Messages
4,458
Location
Arlington, VA
Special Affiliations
  1. SKYWARN® Volunteer
A thread for the potential severe weather event this coming Wednesday. I might need to go back and add Thursday since there's some potential for trouble along the east coast before this moves off shore, but for now, the SPC hasn't outlined a threat area so I'll just include 17 March in the thread title.

1615650049848.png
 
I live right on the edge of the highlighted area in West Central Georgia. It will be interesting to see if/how these risks areas change in the coming days.
 
KevinH said:
I live right on the edge of the highlighted area in West Central Georgia. It will be interesting to see if/how these risks areas change in the coming days.
Click to expand...
SPC is painting a broad area for today and wasn't trying to be too geographically exact. Seeing what the models are suggesting, quite probable the zone expands in the coming days.
 
Clancy said:
SPC is painting a broad area for today and wasn't trying to be too geographically exact. Seeing what the models are suggesting, quite probable the zone expands in the coming days.
Click to expand...
And possibly upgraded to 30% in some areas. For now, at MINIMUM, I say a SLIGHT/ENH risk for Wednesday.
 
KevinH said:
And possibly upgraded to 30% in some areas. For now, at MINIMUM, I say a SLIGHT/ENH risk for Wednesday.
Click to expand...
very quite possible if models hold, you will see a 30 percent zone being introduced by monday at least, and i say that will run from the very far sw tennessee down towards ms and north and central alabama.
 
Clancy said:
SPC is painting a broad area for today and wasn't trying to be too geographically exact. Seeing what the models are suggesting, quite probable the zone expands in the coming days.
Click to expand...
Yeah, and I'd expect them to add one for Thursday as well once the models are in better agreement.
 
The 12Z GFS flattens the Omega-block axis over the Aleutians late on Wednesday, which leads to downstream impacts vis-à-vis the long-wave pattern, including a deeper low over the Gulf of Alaska and greater shortwave ridging over the Great Lakes. This, in turn, leads to a weaker mid-level feature over the Ozark region vs. the 00Z run, and also leads to a surging cold front that threatens to limit the northward extent of the SIGTOR threat, given that mid-level flow runs more parallel to the boundary along the upper Mississippi Valley (i.e., eastern MO/western IL). This could also undercut the warm sector to some extend and confine the main SIGTOR threat to mesoscale features over eastern MS/north-central AL. 00Z looked more ominous in terms of a lower-amplitude synoptic-scale pattern favouring a wider-scale SIGTOR threat northward to the Ohio Valley. I think that the overall warming of the Pacific basin over the past decade, coupled with recent -AMO trends (weakening AMOC) in the North Atlantic, has made low-amplitude, progressive patterns less likely, even during -ENSO/-PDO setups, hence the dearth of major, widespread tornado outbreaks, for the most part, since 2011–12, especially over the Plains. So events like Palm Sunday 1920/‘65, Super Outbreaks ‘74/‘11, Super Tuesday ‘08, et al. will be harder to come by for the most part, due to AGW being reflected in the absorption of heat and fresh water by the major ocean basins, especially the Pacific and the North Atlantic.
 
Last edited:
Casuarina Head said:
The 12Z GFS flattens the Omega-block axis over the Aleutians late on Wednesday, which leads to downstream impacts vis-à-vis the long-wave pattern, including a deeper low over the Gulf of Alaska and greater shortwave ridging over the Great Lakes. This, in turn, leads to a weaker mid-level feature over the Ozark region vs. the 00Z run, and also leads to a surging cold front that threatens to limit the northward extent of the SIGTOR threat, given that mid-level flow runs more parallel to the boundary along the upper Mississippi Valley (i.e., eastern MO/western IL). This could also undercut the warm sector to some extend and confine the main SIGTOR threat to mesoscale features over eastern MS/north-central AL. 00Z looked more ominous in terms of a lower-amplitude synoptic-scale pattern favouring a wider-scale SIGTOR threat northward to the Ohio Valley. I think that the overall warming of the Pacific basin over the past decade, coupled with recent -AMO trends (weakening AMOC) in the North Atlantic, has made low-amplitude, progressive patterns less likely, even during -ENSO/-PDO setups, hence the dearth of major, widespread tornado outbreaks, for the most part, since 2011–12, especially over the Plains. So events like Palm Sunday 1920/‘65, Super Outbreaks ‘74/‘11, Super Tuesday ‘08, et al. will be harder to come by for the most part, due to AGW being reflected in the absorption of heat and fresh water by the major ocean basins, especially the Pacific and the North Atlantic.
Click to expand...

I'll reserve judgement on next Wednesday until it gets closer, but I've observed the phenomenon you're talking about. For example, the last three Marches have brought the Jacksonville (AL), Beauregard-Smith's Station, and Nashville-Cookville tornado events. All very significant and destructive to be sure, but in each case it was really only one cell that was able to go gangbusters on the day.

If this is climate-change related (which I suspect you are correct that it is), it just seems surprising that it occurred so abruptly and so thoroughly, like the flip of a switch. I mean, I could see it as a general trend over time, but every system, every spring for the last almost-decade? Especially coming right after 2011.
 
The performance of severe setups post-2011 has certainly been mixed, though this upcoming threat certainly doesn't seem like one to sleep on, regardless.
 
Casuarina Head said:
The 12Z GFS flattens the Omega-block axis over the Aleutians late on Wednesday, which leads to downstream impacts vis-à-vis the long-wave pattern, including a deeper low over the Gulf of Alaska and greater shortwave ridging over the Great Lakes. This, in turn, leads to a weaker mid-level feature over the Ozark region vs. the 00Z run, and also leads to a surging cold front that threatens to limit the northward extent of the SIGTOR threat, given that mid-level flow runs more parallel to the boundary along the upper Mississippi Valley (i.e., eastern MO/western IL). This could also undercut the warm sector to some extend and confine the main SIGTOR threat to mesoscale features over eastern MS/north-central AL. 00Z looked more ominous in terms of a lower-amplitude synoptic-scale pattern favouring a wider-scale SIGTOR threat northward to the Ohio Valley. I think that the overall warming of the Pacific basin over the past decade, coupled with recent -AMO trends (weakening AMOC) in the North Atlantic, has made low-amplitude, progressive patterns less likely, even during -ENSO/-PDO setups, hence the dearth of major, widespread tornado outbreaks, for the most part, since 2011–12, especially over the Plains. So events like Palm Sunday 1920/‘65, Super Outbreaks ‘74/‘11, Super Tuesday ‘08, et al. will be harder to come by for the most part, due to AGW being reflected in the absorption of heat and fresh water by the major ocean basins, especially the Pacific and the North Atlantic.
Click to expand...
The effect of global warming on tornado activity was complicated. Much warmer Pacific Basin indeed but much warmer Gulf Of Mexico also, which can bring more moisture to the land when there is a system.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top