Will it be snow? Will it be rain?
Or will it be something in between? Forecasters out at Sterling haven't figured it out yet, so we'll just have to give the computers more time to chew on the forecast for the coming week.
The one thing they seem sure about is that the single-digit cold ... even the temps in the teens ... appear to be behind us for the time being. Instead, we're looking at cold air descending from the north and west, with warmer, wetter air to our south.
In between, we're icing in the Oreo cookie, looking at a series of fast-moving disturbances, tracking along the jet stream path that marks the boundary between the two.
What we get is some cold air, with quick little storms passing by. But only the depth and intensity of that cold air, and the amount, duration and track of the storms will determine whether we get snow, or rain, or some nasty mix. Here's how a struggling meteorologist at Sterling put it in its discussion earlier today, referring to the Wednesday/Thursday forecast:
"ANY PRECIPITATION THAT FALLS WILL BEGIN ITS DESCENT AS SNOW.
QUESTION WILL BE IF LOW LEVEL TEMPS ARE ABOVE FRZG IN A LAYER DEEP ENUF TO
CAUSE A CHANGE TO RAIN. A CHANGE WOULD BE MOST LIKELY TO OCCUR SE OF DC.
ANOTHER QUSTN IS...IF DAMMING DOES SET UP...COULD THERE BE SOME FREEZING RAIN
ON WED AND WHERE? I WISH I WERE GOOD ENUF TO NAIL THESE PROBLEMS
DOWN NOW...BUT W/ THESE EVENTS SVRL DAYS AWAY I`M GOING TO REMAIN IN
SOMEWHAT OF A BROAD BRUSH MODE...AND LEAVE POPS [PROBABILITIES FOR PRECIPITATION]IN THE 20-40 [PERCENT] RANGE."
Anyway, here's the forecast. And here's how AccuWeather.com sees it. Stay tuned.
Comments
Since Mr. Roylance works for a newspaper I would think he should know how to spell properly and use correct punctuation instead of the messy report above. Perhaps he thinks his column is cute or impressive when actually it is only annoying to try to decipher.
FR: I assume the commenter is referring to the section of the post in capital letters. Actually, that is a cleaned-up version of the National Weather Service discussion as it appeared on the NWS Sterling website . These discussions are frequently written in a sort of telegraphic shorthand, a style originally intended only for fellow meteorologists. I cleaned this one up quite a bit so it would be intelligible to us non-meteorologists, but tried to leave some of the flavor of the original where I thought it would be understandable. I left it in capitals letters, and with quotation marks to try to make it clear it came from forecasters, and not me. I also added translations in brackets to further help clarify what they are saying. The effort was apparently lost on this commenter. My apologies. Here is a sampling of how these discussions usually appear: "AS I WROTE IN MY DSCN YDA...U.S. IS MOVG INTO A PD OF FAST ZNL
UPPER LVL FLOW. MONDAY WL BE THE "DAY IN BTWN SYSTEMS" BEFORE A
MORE SIGNIFICANT WX MAKER MOVES INTO THE RGN FOR TUE AND WED.
XPCTG PLENTY OF CLD CVRG TMRW...TEMPS RANGING FM THE L30S N AND W
TO A40 IN ALBEMARLE.-"
Here's a translation of the above: "As I wrote in my discussion yesterday, the U.S. is moving into a period of fast, zonal, upper-level flow. Monday will be the 'day in between systems' before a more significant weather-maker moves into the region for Tuesday and Wednesday. Expecting plenty of cloud coverage tomorrow, with temperatures ranging from the low 30s in the north and west sections of the forecast area, to above 40 in Albemarle in southern Virginia."
Posted by: annoyed reader | January 25, 2009 1:17 PM
Annoyed Reader, here's a quick primer on punctuation. The quotation mark - " - is used to indicate that the words therein are not those of the writer.
Also, you should review the rules on proper comma usage when choosing an introductory prepositional phrase:
"Introductory elements often require a comma, but not always. Use a comma in the following cases:
-After an introductory clause. (Does the introductory element have a subject and verb of its own?)
-After a long introductory prepositional phrase or more than one introductory prepositional phrase. (Are there more than five words before the main clause?)"
Both of these apply to your phrase. I found your comment "annoying to...decipher."
(The ... is an ellipsis. It indicates that I chose not to repeat your infinitive "to try", because I assumed you did not really mean that the trying was annoying, but rather that the deciphering was so.)
Posted by: J-Red | January 25, 2009 6:37 PM