Saturday, February 26, 2011

Uncertainty foci

1. The trough in question is still only half over the upper air network, thus there is uncertainty in its exact structure. It appears to be currently moving more south than east but that trend may be shifting to more east.

2. I found a website to scrutinize the 3 hourly soundings from the NAM. It turns out the cold air advection over OK around 00 UTC may actually be a reflection of a boundary layer deepening up to 550 hPa at KGAG! Thus while it is getting cooler aloft, it does not necessarily imply a forcing mechanism for ascent. Note that 3 hours later, descent is implied from the inversion yielding net warming in the same layer while the boundary layer significantly cools.  The exact role this feature plays remains uncertain.

3. Soundings from central OK show a very shallow moist layer and cap aloft which although weakens some remains strong until after 03 UTC. This is saying a lot since the previously mentioned odd double low level jet is clearly playing a big role in the development of deep moisture. Its even difficult to get moisture into KLZK under this scenario.

No comments:

Post a Comment