DekeArndt's Blog

With all of the (certainly justified) hype surrounding this week's one-two punch of Alberta Clippers, the precipitation forecast for the event is shockingly humble:

With the exception of some potent lake-enhanced snowfalls along the eastern shores of each Great Lake, the precipitation forecast is downright ordinary. In fact, it's a little underwhelming.

Why could such a powerful storm system deliver such brutal cold and such puny snowfall?

Question asked, question answered.

It has very much to do with that brutal cold, and the not-quite-as-brutal cold that the early-week storm put into place. Simply put, the colder air gets, the less moisture it can "hold" (note: I put "hold" in quotes because some folks get really irritated at this not-exactly-accurate description). Anyway, semantics aside, very cold air has a lower capacity for conveying moisture.

This week's one-two punch means that super-frigid and super-dry air is replacing pretty-frigid and pretty-dry air. And overall, there's just not that moisture to work with ... in either air mass.

Bottom line: it's cold.

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