The Blizzard of '93

I. Orlanski and J. Sheldon: Stages in the Energetics of Baroclinic Systems; Tellus, 1993

Advanced storm diagnostics developed at GFDL provide important insights into the evolution of intense storms, such as the so-called "Blizzard of '93", which roared up the east coast of the U.S. on 13-14 March 1993, setting new records in terms of snowfall, temperatures, and sea-level pressures. The figure bellow illustrates some of these diagnostics as applied to a simulation of the Blizzard using the GFDL mesoscale dynamical model. The lower surface shows the model terrain, and the red contours depict sea level pressure. The color-shaded plane above shows a measure of the energy of the storm at a level approximately 9 km above ground. The vectors in the plane indicates a transfer of energy from upstream disturbances to the energy center associated with the develop ment of the surface cyclone. (for more details)