Friday 1.21 Forecast Improving

GSD is seeing signs from NOAA that there may be more moisture with this storm (okay--it's now officially a storm) than forecasters and computer models originally thought. Look at the radar and it's not hard to see why. That green blob over central US is coming our way. The timing of the storm is also earlier--8 or 9 pm tonight until about noon tomorrow. The two-hour delay would probably be the right call, but in lieu of that option we'll nudge the Confidence Index ten points higher.

Here's the most optimistic of the local snow forecast maps, courtesy of Channel 13:

Friday 1.21 Snow

GSD is reluctant to call the disturbance tonight a "storm" as the snowfall will be fairly light. The NWS has issued a Winter Weather Advisory, which is the lowest level of the storm alert hierarchy (Watch being next best, Warning better, and Blizzard best). Three to six inches for our area; we'll probably come in around 5 inches in the VB  and 6 in the Boro. Sounds like enough to cancel school, but remember that this disturbance will take about 18 hours to run its course.

By the way, people in the upper Midwest and Rockies mock us Easterners openly for all of our school delays and cancellations. You know what happens when it snows out there? They plow the roads and drive slower. How novel.

GSD is still extremely confident that there will be school tomorrow--rats!--but a delay is not out of the question, as the Super recently clarified to the GSD staff that delays are possible but harder to coordinate because of bus schedules. Tomorrow might be a great day to test the waters to see how the bus company handles a delay. The only problem is that it probably will be snowing at the same relatively light rate at 7:00 am as it will be at 9:00 am, which would appear to defeat the purpose of the delay.

If the storm does start to bend north and the Advisory becomes a Watch, we'll let you know.

Friday Fizzle

Here's the latest from the NWS:

MODELS CONTINUE TO BACK OFF ON FORECASTING A SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL
FOR THE REGION FOR THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY. GENERAL MODEL
CONSENSUS IS THAT THE SURFACE LOW WILL MOVE EAST OFF THE MID
ATLANTIC COAST LATE THURSDAY NIGHT...BUT NOT TAKE MUCH OF A
NORTHERLY TURN AS IT DEEPENS. THIS WILL RESULT IN MAINLY A LIGHT
SNOWFALL FOR THE FORECAST AREA

 We'll have a little snow but we're just going to have to suck it up and leg out this exhausting three-day week. It'll be tough but we can probably make it. (Sigh.)

As they say in these parts, it's going to get wicked cold for the weekend and after. Minus 7 Saturday night and plus 6 for a high on Monday. GSD double-dog dares you to stick your tongue to a flag pole.