Articles | Volume 25, issue 17
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-9999-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-9999-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Synthesis of surface snowfall rates and radar-observed storm structures in 10+ years of northeastern US winter storms
Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
current address: Karen Clark and Company, Boston, MA 02116, USA
Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
Matthew A. Miller
Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
Mariko Oue
School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
Charles N. Helms
Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USA
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
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Atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) are air oscillations in which buoyancy is the restoring force, and they may enhance precipitation under certain conditions. We used 3+ seasons of pressure data to identify GWs with wavelengths ≤ 170 km in the Toronto and New York metropolitan areas in the context of snow storms. We found only six GW events during snow storms, suggesting that GWs on those scales are uncommon at the two locations during snow storms and, thus, do not often enhance snowfall.
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Atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) are air oscillations in which buoyancy is the restoring force, and they may enhance precipitation under certain conditions. We used 3+ seasons of pressure data to identify GWs with wavelengths ≤ 170 km in the Toronto and New York metropolitan areas in the context of snow storms. We found only six GW events during snow storms, suggesting that GWs on those scales are uncommon at the two locations during snow storms and, thus, do not often enhance snowfall.
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Mariko Oue, Pavlos Kollias, Sergey Y. Matrosov, Alessandro Battaglia, and Alexander V. Ryzhkov
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Observations collected during the 25 February 2020 deployment of the VIPR at the Stony Brook Radar Observatory clearly demonstrate the potential of G-band radars for cloud and precipitation research. The field experiment, which coordinated an X-, Ka-, W- and G-band radar, revealed that the differential reflectivity from Ka–G band pair provides larger signals than the traditional Ka–W pairing underpinning an increased sensitivity to smaller amounts of liquid and ice water mass and sizes.
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Short summary
This study investigates how radar-detected snow bands relate to snowfall rates during winter storms in the northeastern United States. Using over a decade of data, we found that snow bands are not consistently linked to heavy snowfall at the surface, as snow particles are often dispersed by wind before reaching the ground. These findings highlight limitations of using radar reflectivity for predicting snow rates and suggest focusing on radar echo duration to better understand snowfall patterns.
This study investigates how radar-detected snow bands relate to snowfall rates during winter...
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