METR 360

January 2015 Boston Blizzard

From NWS-BOS, picture by Sarah Levy
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/live-blizzard-set-to-wallop-no/41251974

http://weather.rap.ucar.edu/upper/

METR 360

Fall, 2015

Syllabus

Sample Exams (these are the exams given last year)

Lecture Topics

Norwegian Cyclone Model Review
Lecture PowerPoint	Schematic of a mature cyclone
	(following Bjerknes and Solberg)

Fronts
Lecture PowerPoint	Cold front: features and schematic cross section
	Warm front: features and schematic cross section
	Margules' formula for slopes of fronts
	Analyzing fronts

Stability
Lecture PowerPoint	Sample skew-T log-P diagrams:	Examples (from NCAR-RAP):
	Stable lapse rate	Albany (Abs. stable)
	Absolutely unstable lapse rate	Flagstaff (Abs. unstable)
	Conditionally unstable lapse rate	Miami (Conditionally unstable)

Upper Air

Lecture PowerPoint

Air Masses

Cold Air Damming PowerPoint

Guidance
Lecture PowerPoint	Decoding NAM MOS (from NWS)
	Decoding GFS short range MOS (from NWS)
	Decoding GFS extended range MOS (from NWS)

Waves in the Westerlies (Rossby waves)
Lecture PowerPoint	Here are some places to view hemispheric upper air maps and see the waves:
	300 mb from Unisys
	Univ. Wyoming (choose Northern Hemisphere and uncheck Observations box)
	Penn. State (can be animated, click box)
	Ensemble hemispheric 500 mb forecast, next two weeks

Vertical Motion

Lecture PowerPoint

Potential Vorticity (cyclogenesis)
Lecture Powerpoint	Blizzard of 1888 (from Kocin article)
	Snow totals
	March 9-10 surface maps	March 11-12 surface maps	March 13-14 surface maps
	Summary of Potential Vorticity conservation (cyclogenesis)

Jet Streams

Lecture PowerPoint