It Snowed Again! Love Clippers, They Bring Bands of Random Snowflakes!! NAM Delivers ...How Bout That!

 

Not very picturesque but if you want to see flurries..

...you have to look for something dark!

I read every forecast discussion with every possible scenario and model discussions that did not agree and I really did believe we'd get snow flakes this morning in Raleigh and we did. I decided to go to Whole Foods during the "window for flurries" and sit outside with a cup of coffee and wait until I saw them. And, "whoa" there they showed up; cute fine little flakes falling on the sleeve of my warm black hoodie real tangible proof I was not dreaming! This is awesome, daytime snowflakes falling randomly in fast moving bands of weather with the fast moving Clipper. Love them, we are more likely to be sure to get something with these set ups than the "turn over to snow after the rain" or "turn over to rain after the snow" set ups when we are forecast to get a large winter storm. As the local weather people say there were "no impacts" as we won't have accumulation and it's in the low 40s though it feels colder and we get snow because it's a Clipper. Winter Weather is fascinating!

1 model said mostly Virginia.

1 model said maybe NC

Most said the border area would get snow.

People hate to hear this but...

...sounds like the NAM won this one.

I've lived here a long time. I studied the Miller A, Miller B and even the Miller C Storms. I wanted to understand why it's so incredibly hard to predict what the Raleigh Durham area will get 24 hours out before we are expected to have Winter Weather and no one is sure but we prepare anyway. Compared to how we are expected to be sure where a tropical wave will make landfall in 10 days when it has not yet even become an Invest! Doesn't seem quite fair... People complain to me the NHC was "off with Hurricane Melissa" because it dawdled longer and went West a long time and apparently they were not really paying attention to models that did infer it most likely could do that and it made landfall where they said it would! We even said it would have Rapid Intensification and "where" it would do RI and still there are people insisting they were told it would only be a Cat 2. Oh..okay.....  I learned in the 2020s not to argue with people. I even explained online and in the blog that it may become a Major Cane rivaling Hurricane Wilma! I even properly forecast that looking back we may say one day "like Hurricane Melissa" vs Hurricane Wilma as I am sure that will happen in the years to come. 

And, I knew we'd get snow today of some sort from a random few flakes to off and on snow showers. And, I'm happy. If not this year when the cold is in place when? And, with the parade of "Clipper" systems it was a sure bet we'd get "something" and we did. The pattern in the Raleigh area is usually we get a chance but it's a miss and then we get a chance of snow flurries and we do or we don't though there's some nearby somewhere. Then we get some flurries again (usually in the dead of night) and then eventually we get real storms, with some accumulation of either sleet, snow and ice or all three often called a Lasagna Storm! You put your boot down into the snow, there's a "CRUNCH" sound and your boot then sinks into the bottom layer. If you know you know. And again many years recently we have been snow deprived with not even a random snow flurry shower :(

And it snowed again!

It's almost embarrassingly how child like I sound...

...when I see snow.

Lived here 16 years ....by the way.

Not a recent S FL transplant.

But it's always blows me away.

And went to school in NYC.....

...so have seen winter.

But it's so much prettier in Raleigh!

The cute part is I live not that close to an elementary school, but close enough that in the winter I can often hear the bell for recess. I can also hear the train whistle blow in the winter, but rarely in the summer and I do understand why .....so another reason I love Winter. I was standing out on the balcony watching the snow flakes falling and heard what sounded like pigs squealing for children at a Petting Zoo and then I giggled and realized it snowed while the kids were out at recess in the schoolyard and they were screaming with joy. Funny how snow brings out all the haters or the lovers. I'm a lover.

I love snow and winter weather the way some people love a person or a food or their favorite group in concert! I obviously love tropical weather like that too......   I'm a weather person.

I wanted snow this December. I wanted snow for the holidays and that's still a moving target far away with rumors of hot weather in late December, tho Chanukah has 8 days so all I need is one of those days to verify with snow and I get my wish. My birthday is at the end of December ....that would be a nice present and then there's New Year's Eve! 

Lastly, a little less giddy but honestly want to explain the reason I follow Allan Huffman on Patreon is he is a good meteorologist, he especially knows the Raleigh area well and as I always say on the blog find a meteorologist who specializes in your local area. There are some good ones, but I followed him a while back during Hurricane Season and he's extremely accurate both with landfalls and with snowfalls! I follow very few people, currently he is the only one! 

He posted 2 scenarios on X.

This was the one that eventually moved into NC.

I like how he explains.....

...he doesn't dumb it down.

He shows details.

Details matter.

I like Mets that don't dumb things down...

...yet explain in a way people understand!

I had never heard the phrase "snow grains"...

..yet have wondered what I was seeing.

Sometimes here you see "flurries"

but they look fall fast like sleet.

But they are not sleet.

So you live, you learn!

Learned something today!

And saw snow falling :)

Find a good local weather expert!

You'll never be sorry.

Sweet Snowy Dreams,

BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on X

Ps Dabuh being very precocious today; too many ways to even try and explain ;)  LOL