Extended Forecast Discussion
NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD
200 AM EST Thu Feb 09 2023
Valid 12Z Sun Feb 12 2023 - 12Z Thu Feb 16 2023
...Stormy flow with a series of deepened closed lows in split
southern stream flow from the West to East Coast...
...Guidance/Predictability Assessment...
The GFS/ECMWF/UKMET/Canadian solutions now seem better clustered
than normal Sunday-Tuesday and a composite offers a fairly
detailed and energetic depiction of the main features. Model and
ensemble forecast predictability remains above average into next
Wednesday/Thursday, but slowly growing forecast spread likely
suggests that minority inclusion of ensemble mean guidance may
smooth out some detail consistent with individual uncertainty.
Leaned the blend at these loner time frames toward the slower and
more amplified southern stream flow depiction of the
ECMWF/Canadian and ECMWF ensembles given recent history and long
standing bias with closed lows in separated flow.
...Weather/Hazard Highlights...
The recent lead upper trough trend to become deeper and with a
slower track seems to have reached a crescendo, but the resultant
solution continues to favor a significant coastal storm up the
Southeast/Mid-Atlantic coast this weekend to off New England
Monday. This system will usher in significant wind and wave
threats, along with potential for heavier precipitation as
moisture wraps in around the central low pressure. The enhanced
rains over portions of the southeastern Mid-Atlantic offers some
potential for localized areas of flash flooding/ponding, so the
WPC medium range experimental Excessive Rainfall Outlook (ERO)
maintained a Day 4 "Marginal" Risk. There also remains potential
for some wintry weather on the far inland northwest periphery of
the amply wrapped back precipitation shield.
Across the eastern Pacific and West Coast an upper-level
trough/low amplification in splitting flow should lead to modest
precipitation along the California coast and into the Southwest.
The closed trough/upper low track from southern California Sunday
to over the Southwest/northwest Mexico Monday is then forecast to
trek across the Southern Plains Tuesday before ejecting more
rapidly northeastward over the east-central U.S. and out through
the Northeast Wednesday/Thursday. With moisture streaming
northward from the Gulf ahead of this system there may be a
renewed threat for enhanced rainfall over the Southern Plains/The
South early next week, with broader amounts then downstream over
the east-central to eastern states. Overtop, the progression of a
northern stream upper trough and surface system with reasonable
amplitude from the northern Rockies through the Northeast
Sunday-Tuesday offers limited wintry precipitation potential
across the northern tier and seems mostly out of sync for phasing
with the much more energetic and separated southern stream flow.
Upstream, there is a strong guidance signal for dynamic system
digging sharply into an unsettled West by early next week within a
renewed southern stream. This still seems likely to support
widespread precipitation across the Northwest next early week and
spreading more earnestly across the Intermountain West/Southwest
and Rockies through next midweek to include rapid cooling with
enhanced interior/mountain snows with closed low development.
Expected system emergence over the south-central U.S. starting
next midweek will likely renew a heavy rainfall pattern over the
region and then into the east-central U.S. with increasing lead
Gulf inflow and cyclo/frontogenesis. Cold Canadian air digging
southward on the backside of this system could meanwhile offer a
pattern favorable for heavy snow focus on the northwest periphery
of the expanding precipitation shield out from the Rockies to
across the central Plains and vicinity toward perhaps the Upper
Midwest.
Schichtel
Additional 3-7 Day Hazard information can be found on the WPC
medium range hazards outlook chart at:
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/threats/threats.php
WPC medium range 500mb heights, surface systems, weather grids,
quantitative precipitation, experimental excessive rainfall
outlook, winter weather outlook probabilities and heat indices are
at:
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/medr/5dayfcst500_wbg.gif
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/medr/5dayfcst_wbg_conus.gif
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/5km_grids/5km_gridsbody.html
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/qpf/day4-7.shtml
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/#page=ero
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/wwd/pwpf_d47/pwpf_medr.php?day=4
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/heat_index.shtml