Section Menu

Case 1 - Melting Snow Aloft » Idealized Profile

Case 1 - Melting Snow Aloft » First Law of Thermodynamics in an Eulerian Framework

Case 1 - Melting Snow Aloft » Is It Important?

Case 1 - Melting Snow Aloft » Isothermal Layer Example

Case 1 - Melting Snow Aloft » Example: Cotswolds, UK, 01 November 1942

MCase 1 - Melting Snow Aloft » Example: Boston, MA, April 1953

Case 1 - Melting Snow Aloft » Example: Seattle, WA, 26-27 December 1974

Case 1 - Melting Snow Aloft » Example: Albany, NY, 04 October 1987

Case 1 - Melting Snow Aloft » Which Models Account for Cooling Due to Melting

Case 1 - Melting Snow Aloft » Hypothetical Examples

Case 2 - Melting Snow at the Surface » Idealized Profiles

Case 2 - Melting Snow at the Surface » Representation of Melting at the Surface

Case 2 - Melting Snow at the Surface » Representation of Melting at the Surface Continued

Case 2 - Melting Snow at the Surface » Example: Central North Carolina, 19 November 2000

Case 2 - Melting Snow at the Surface » Example: Central North Carolina, 18 UTC,19 November 2000

Case 2 - Melting Snow at the Surface » Example: Central North Carolina, 19 UTC, 19 November 2000

Case 2 - Melting Snow at the Surface » 2m Eta Temperature Forecast

Case 3 - Freeing Aloft - Sleet (IP) » Idealized Profile

Case 3 - Freeing Aloft - Sleet (IP) » Model Representation

Case 4 - Freezing Rain at the Surface » Idealized Profile

Case 4 - Freezing Rain at the Surface » Limiting Processes for Freezing Rain

Case 4 - Freezing Rain at the Surface » Thermodynamics

Case 4 - Freezing Rain at the Surface » Example 1: Quebec, January 1998

Case 4 - Freezing Rain at the Surface » NCEP Eta Representation

Case 4 - Freezing Rain at the Surface » CMC Representation

Case 4 - Freezing Rain at the Surface » Example 2: North Carolina, 21 February 2001

Summary » Cases of Heavy Melting Snow Aloft

Summary » Implications for the Modern Forecaster

You have reached the end of the lesson. Please complete the quiz and share your feedback with us via the user survey.

Bibliography

Bernstein, B. C., 2000: Regional and local influences on freezing drizzle, freezing rain, and ice pellet events. Wea. Forecasting, 15, 485-508.

Bosart, L. F., and F. Sanders, 1991: An early-season coastal storm: Conceptual success and model failure. Mon. Wea. Rev. 119, 2831–2851.

Bourgouin, P., 2000: A method to determine precipitation types. Wea. Forecasting, 15, 583-592.

Chen, F., K. Mitchell, J. Schaake, Y. Xue, H.-L. Pan, V. Koren, Q. Y. Duan, M. Ek and A. Betts, 1996: Modeling of land surface evaporation by four schemes and comparison with FIFE observations. J. Geophys. Res., 101, 7251–7267.

Chen, F., Z. Janjic and K. Mitchell, 1997: Impact of atmospheric surface-layer parameterizations in the new land-surface scheme of the NCEP mesoscale Eta model. Bound.-Layer Meteor. 85, 391–421.

Cober, S. G., J. W. Strapp, and G. A. Isaac, 1996: An example of supercooled drizzle drops formed through a collision-coalescence process. J. Appl. Meteor., 35, 2250-2260.

Cortinas, J., 2000: A climatology of freezing rain in the Great Lakes Region of North America. Mon. Wea. Rev. 128, 3574–3588.

Ferber, G. K., C. F. Mass, G. M. Lackmann, and M. W. Patnoe, 1993: Snowstorms over the Puget Sound lowlands. Wea. Forecasting, 8, 481–504.

Findeisen, W., 1940: The formation of the 0°C isothermal layer and fractocumulus under nimbostratus. Meteor. Z., 57, 49–54.

Fujibe, F., 2001: On the near-0°C frequency maximum in surface air temperature under precipitation: A statistical evidence for the melting effect. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 79, 731–739.

Gedzelman, S. D., and E. Lewis, 1990: Warm snowstorms: A forecaster's dilemma. Weatherwise 43, 265–270.

Hanesiak, J. M., and R. E. Stewart, 1995: The mesoscale and microscale structure of a severe ice pellet storm. Mon. Wea. Rev., 123, 3144-3162.

Huffman, G. J., and G. A. Norman, Jr., 1988: The supercooled warm rain process and the specification of freezing precipitation. Mon. Wea. Rev., 116, 2172-2182.

Kain, J. S., S. M. Goss, and M.E. Baldwin, 2000: The melting effect as a factor in precipitation-type forecasting. Wea. Forecasting, 15, 700–714.

Keeter, K. K., and J. W. Cline, 1991: The objective use of observed and forecast thickness values to predict precipitation type in North Carolina. Wea. Forecasting, 6, 456–469.

——, S. Businger, L. G. Lee, and J. S. Waldstreicher, 1995: Winter weather forecasting throughout the Eastern United States. Part III: The effects of topography and the variability of winter weather in the Carolinas and Virginia. Wea. Forecasting, 10, 42–60.

Lumb, 1960: Cotswolds snowfall of 1 November 1942. Meteor. Mag., 89, 11–16.

——, 1961: The problem of forecasting the downward penetration of snow. Meteor. Mag., 90, 310–319.

——, 1963: Downward penetration of snow in relation to the intensity of precipitation. Meteor. Mag., 92, 1–14.

Matsuo, T., H. Sakakibara, J. Aoyagi and K Matsuura, 1985: Atmospheric cooling around the melting layer in continuous rain. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 63, 340–346.

McGuire, J. and S. Penn, 1953: Why did it snow at Boston in April? Weatherwise, 6, 78–81.

Moyer, B. W., 2000: A climatological analysis of winter precipitation events at Greenville-Spartanburg SC. Eastern Region Technical Attachment 2001-01, Bohemia, NY, 6 pp.

Rasmussen, R. M., B. C. Bernstein, M. Murakami, G. Stossmeister, and J. Reisner, 1995: The 1990 Valentine's Day arctic outbreak. Part I: Mesoscale and microscale structure and evolution of a Colorado Front Range shallow upslope cloud. J. Appl. Meteor., 34, 1481-1511.

Rauber, R. M., M. K. Ramamurthy, and A. Tokay, 1994: Synoptic and mesoscale structure of a severe freezing rain event: The St. Valentine's Day ice storm. Wea. Forecasting, 9, 183-208.

Rogers, E., D. G. Deaven, and G. J. DiMego, 1995: The regional analysis system for the operational “early” Eta model: Original 80 km configuration and recent changes. Wea. Forecasting, 10, 810–825.

——, and co-authors, 1996: Changes to the operational “early” Eta analysis/forecast system at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction. Wea. Forecasting, 11, 391–413.

Stewart, R. E., 1984: Deep 0°C isothermal layers within precipitation bands over southern Ontario. J. Geophys. Res., 89, 2567–2572.

——, 1985: Precipitation types in winter storms. Pure Appl. Geophys., 123, 597–609.

——, 1992: Precipitation types in the transition region of winter storms. Bull. Amer. Met. Soc. 73, 287–296.

——, and P. King, 1987: Rain–snow boundaries over southern Ontario. Mon. Wea. Rev., 115, 1270–1279.

Wexler, R., R. J. Reed, and J. Honig, 1954: Atmospheric cooling by melting snow. Bull. Amer. Met. Soc. 35, 48–51.

Zhao, Q., and F. H. Carr, 1997: A prognostic cloud scheme for operational NWP models. Mon. Wea. Rev., 125, 1931–1953.
.
——, T. L. Black, and M. E. Baldwin, 1997: Implementation of the cloud prediction scheme in the Eta model at NCEP. Wea. Forecasting, 12, 697–712.

Contributors

COMET Sponsors

• Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA)
• Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC)
• National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS)
• Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (NMOC)
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS)
• National Weather Service (NWS)

Project Contributors

Principal Science Advisor/Audio Narration

• Dr. Gary M. Lackmann — Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences — North Carolina State University

Canadian Model Advisor

• Andre Plante — MSC

Project Meteorologist/Instructional Design

• Dr. Patrick Market — University of Missouri-Columbia

Project Lead/Multimedia Authoring

• Dan Riter — UCAR/COMET

Audio Editing/Production

• Seth Lamos — UCAR/COMET

Computer Graphics/Interface Design

• Heidi Godsil — UCAR/COMET

Illustration/Animation

• Steve Deyo — UCAR/COMET
• Dan Riter — UCAR/COMET

Software Testing/Quality Assurance

• Michael Smith — UCAR/COMET

Copyright Administration

• Lorrie Fyffe — UCAR/COMET

Data Provided by

• MSC
• NWS — NOAA

COMET HTML Integration Team 2021

• Tim Alberta — Project Manager
• Dolores Kiessling — Project Lead
• Steve Deyo — Graphic Artist
• Ariana Kiessling — Web Developer
• Gary Pacheco — Lead Web Developer
• Justin Richling — Web Developer
• David Russi — Translations
• Tyler Winstead — Web Developer

COMET Staff, Summer 2002

Director

• Dr. Timothy Spangler

Deputy Director

• Dr. Joe Lamos

Meteorologist Resources Group Head

• Dr. Greg Byrd

Business Manager/Supervisor of Administration

• Elizabeth Lessard

Administration

• Lorrie Fyffe
• Bonnie Slagel

Graphics/Media Production

• Steve Deyo
• Heidi Godsil
• Seth Lamos

Hardware/Software Support and Programming

• Tim Alberta (Supervisor)
• Carl Whitehurst

Instructional Designers

• Patrick Parrish (Supervisor)
• Dr. Alan Bol
• Dr. Vickie Johnson
• Bruce Muller
• Dr. Sherwood Wang

Meteorologists

• Dr. William Bua
• Patrick Dills
• Kevin Fuell
• Jonathan Heyl (Student)
• Dr. Stephen Jascourt
• Matthew Kelsch
• Dolores Kiessling
• Wendy Schreiber-Abshire
• Dr. Doug Wesley

Software Testing/Quality Assurance

• Michael Smith (Coordinator)

Systems Administration

• Karl Hanzel
• James Hamm
• Ken Kim
• Max Parris (Student)

National Weather Service COMET Branch

• Anthony Mostek (National Satellite Training Coordinator)
• Brian Motta
• Elizabeth Mulvihill Page
• Dr. Robert Rozumalski (SOO/SAC Coordinator)

Meteorological Service of Canada Visiting Meteorologists

• Peter Lewis
• Garry Toth