Snow Day
Well, I feared it wouldn't happen at all this winter. The long-range models didn't give me much hope. But here it is: the eve of our first shot at snow. More pertinently, a snow day. Would that more people could have a profession that offers a day off at the first flakes of white stuff.
Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of confidence in tonight's and early tomorrow's forecast. From the looks of it, a few things need to come together just right to not only give us snow, but enough to pull the trigger on schools tomorrow.
One is temperature. As I write this, it's a balmy 38 degrees out there. Still half a dozen above what you need to stick, but it did drop a few degrees in the last hour since it began drizzling on my way home from Anna Kate's. Here's hoping evaporational cooling will do the rest.
Another is moisture. The risk of living within an hour's drive of the North Carolina mountains is a virtual certainty that they will get all the good stuff, leaving the southern Piedmont out to dry, so to speak. If enough moisture isn't allowed to downslope from the Charlotte area into the Upstate, we're going to end up with a dusting or nothing at all. Bare ground is a sorry sight to wake up to.
Finally, there's timing. Like I said, we got a few sprinkles this evening, which I'm hoping will take care of two things: moisten up the atmosphere and kickstart a cooling of temperatures. But if the low pressure center currently parked over our area spends itself too quickly or moves just a bit off shore before moist air from the Gulf can erode the dry air pocket over the Upstate, this will be a non-event.
I'll be up at 5 AM (roughly) to see what happens. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. :)
Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of confidence in tonight's and early tomorrow's forecast. From the looks of it, a few things need to come together just right to not only give us snow, but enough to pull the trigger on schools tomorrow.
One is temperature. As I write this, it's a balmy 38 degrees out there. Still half a dozen above what you need to stick, but it did drop a few degrees in the last hour since it began drizzling on my way home from Anna Kate's. Here's hoping evaporational cooling will do the rest.
Another is moisture. The risk of living within an hour's drive of the North Carolina mountains is a virtual certainty that they will get all the good stuff, leaving the southern Piedmont out to dry, so to speak. If enough moisture isn't allowed to downslope from the Charlotte area into the Upstate, we're going to end up with a dusting or nothing at all. Bare ground is a sorry sight to wake up to.
Finally, there's timing. Like I said, we got a few sprinkles this evening, which I'm hoping will take care of two things: moisten up the atmosphere and kickstart a cooling of temperatures. But if the low pressure center currently parked over our area spends itself too quickly or moves just a bit off shore before moist air from the Gulf can erode the dry air pocket over the Upstate, this will be a non-event.
I'll be up at 5 AM (roughly) to see what happens. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. :)
posted by david @ 7:01 PM
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