Sunday, March 13, 2016

1726 Snow Squalls

The 240 degree winds that are also cold enough off Lake Ontario are quite rare. These are the conditions required to deliver Snow squalls to Singleton Lake. More typically, the winds are 250 to 260 degrees during cold outbreaks and this delivers the snow along a swath just south of Singleton Lake. However, the eye does not lie. I saw these clouds crossing the lake and knew that white out conditions would soon follow. I sketched the patterns very quickly and then went inside the studio to discover that a snow squall watch had just been issued minutes before. The following warnings for snow squalls and extreme cold were more than appropriate.

Notice the gravity wave clouds at the capping inversion of the snow squalls. These bands are perpendicular to the wind at cloud level. The snow squall bands are to the mean wind through the boundary layer adjacent to the ground. Note how the wind veers just a bit with height. That is real meteorology.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/snow-squalls-phil-chadwick.html
http://fineartamerica.com/blogs/1726-snow-squalls.html

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