Alert archive / Idaho / Mesoscale Discussions in 2004

Mesoscale Discussion 2

January 1, 200410 counties in Idaho; 7 counties in Utah; Lincoln County, Wyoming

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at Jan 1, 2004, 5:05 PM MST for 10 counties in Idaho; 7 counties in Utah; Lincoln County, Wyoming. It was in force for 115 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Jan 1, 2004, 5:05 PM MST (00:05 UTC)
Expired: Jan 1, 2004, 7:00 PM MST
In force: 115 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

Counties Bannock County, ID, Bear Lake County, ID, Bingham County, ID, Bonneville County, ID, Caribou County, ID, Franklin County, ID, Fremont County, ID, Jefferson County, ID, Madison County, ID, Teton County, ID, Cache County, UT, Morgan County, UT, Rich County, UT, Summit County, UT, Utah County, UT, Wasatch County, UT, Weber County, UT, Lincoln County, WY

The radar

The Pocatello radar (KSFX), 108 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:05 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

The nearest sounding before it

Salt Lake City I, UT (KSLC), launched 00:00Z, 0.1 hours before the alert went out and 208 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 1371 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 77 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 507 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 520 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

839 
ACUS11 KWNS 020006
SWOMCD
SPC MCD 020005 
WYZ000-UTZ000-MTZ000-IDZ000-020200-

MESOSCALE DISCUSSION 0002
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
0605 PM CST THU JAN 01 2004

AREAS AFFECTED...WASATCH  MOUNTAINS AND WYOMING RANGE

CONCERNING...HEAVY SNOW AND NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS 

VALID 020005Z - 020200Z

SNOWFALL RATES OF 2 TO 4 INCHES PER HOUR ARE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE
WESTERN SLOPES OF THE WASATCH MOUNTAINS AND WYOMING RANGE THROUGH AT
LEAST 04Z. STRONG WLY WINDS OF 30 TO 50 MPH WILL ALSO RESULT IN
BLIZZARD LIKE CONDITIONS.

EXTREMELY MOIST WLY FLOW LOCATED AHEAD OF A STRONG
SHORTWAVE...CURRENTLY MOVING ACROSS ID...IS RESULTING IN STRONG
OROGRAPHIC LIFT ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS OF NRN UT/SERN ID AND WRN WY.
THE OROGRAPHIC LIFT IS BEING ACCENTUATED BY THE LARGE SCALE LIFT
ASSOCIATED WITH THE APPROACHING SHORTWAVE TROUGH. ALSO...A COLD
FRONT...EXTENDING FROM NEAR BOI TO OWY...IS MOVING EWD AT 50 KT AS
STRONG PRESSURE RISES SPREAD IN FROM THE WEST. THE SNOW RATES ARE
EXPECTED TO INTENSIFY THIS EVENING AS CONVECTION ASSOCIATED WITH THE
FRONT MOVES INTO THE MOUNTAINS AREAS...ESPECIALLY BETWEEN 02 AND
04Z.

AFTER THE FRONT PASSES THROUGH THE AREA...THE SNOW RATES MAY
DECREASE SOMEWHAT AS THE DYNAMICAL LIFT WEAKENS. HOWEVER...STRONG
OROGRAPHIC FLOW SHOULD MAINTAIN SNOW THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT.

..IMY.. 01/02/2004

...PLEASE SEE WWW.SPC.NOAA.GOV FOR GRAPHIC PRODUCT...

ATTN...WFO...RIW...TFX...SLC...PIH...

44511216 44881106 43481015 41751064 40301074 39871176
40901187 42441218 43661255

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Idaho, 2004 Mesoscale Discussions in Utah, 2004 Mesoscale Discussions in Wyoming, 2004 Every mesoscale discussion in 2004

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.