A Comparison of Two Banded, Heavy Snowstorms with Very Different Synoptic Settings

Abstract

Two banded, heavy snowstorms that occurred over the northern mid-Atlantic region are compared and contrasted. On 6?7 January 2002, a narrow, intense band of heavy snow was observed, along with several other weaker bands, embedded within a large area of moderate snow. On 19?20 January 2002, a single, broader band of heavy snow was observed, embedded within a broken area of light snow. The synoptic-scale settings associated with these two storms were strikingly dissimilar. In the first case, strong quasigeostrophic (QG) forcing for ascent was present just to the south of the heavy snowfall area. A highly amplified longwave trough was located over the Mississippi River valley, while a compact shortwave trough moved northward, up the east side of the longwave trough. The result was robust cyclogenesis off of the mid-Atlantic coast. In the second case, the relatively weaker QG forcing for ascent was located much farther southwest of the snowband. The flow aloft was much less amplified, with weaker cyclogenesis occurring off of the mid-Atlantic coast. Analysis of the frontal scale environments for both cases indicated that the snowbands were each associated with the collocation of midtropospheric frontogenesis and reduced stability. In the first case, evidence is shown that a layer of potential symmetric instability (PSI) was located just above a deep, sloping zone of frontogenesis, in the presence of deep near-saturated conditions. In the second case, evidence is shown that a layer of potential instability (PI), associated with rapidly decreasing relative humidity with height, was located just above a shallow, sloping zone of frontogenesis. In addition, it is shown that a particularly favorable thermal environment for snowflake growth and accumulation became collocated with the heavy snowband. It is hypothesized that the differences in the intensity and horizontal extent of the bands observed with these two events resulted from differing atmospheric responses associated with the areal extent of large-scale and frontogenetical forcing, moisture availability, degree of instability, and specific thermal profiles.