Sunday, November 02, 2008

Everything but the kitchen sink


My 7-Day Outlook is probably one of the strangest I've seen. Sunshine and 70s for the first couple days of the week - that's near-record warmth. That will be followed by a big ol' weathermaker to round out the week, bringing us showers and thunderstorms. And then cold air will barrel into the Midwest, bringing us a chance of wet snowflakes and highs below normal in the 40s.

Just like that giant cut-off low a week ago, this week's large system is going to be a forecasting challenge. They typically move slower than originally depicted in the weather models, which is why the rain has been shoved back until Thursday. If the rain holds off until the afternoon, our chance of seeing a few thunderstorms will increase. In addition, the last few weather model runs have indicated this system may become pretty wound-up. That would mean that any snow showers would come in the form of wrap-around precipitation, along with gusty (and cold!) northwest winds. We still have some time to figure out the precise details. Let's just make the most of the bigtime warmth the next couple days!

Oh, wait, hold on. There's a kitchen sink, after all.

4 comments:

Justin said...

What exactly is wrap around precipitation? I seem to remember its the snow on the northwest end of a system... but what makes it different than just getting snow?

tony said...

I think wrap around just means that whatever precip is left from the storm wraps around the main low and comes at us instead of the main system directly affecting us. Basically if a storms main precip for us is rain, then the storm passes us and precip wraps around the low, that is wrap around. Sorry if I sound like I repeated myself there. Eric or justin, please correct me if I have that wrong.

Justin said...

Makes sense. Thanks tony

Justin Gehrts said...

Tony nailed it right on the head.

Also, wraparound precipitation tends to be fairly light because the bulk of the energy that gives the heavier rain/snow/whatever isn't nearby. It's essentially a nuisance leftover of a weather system.