Veronica Dolan and Christina Persch Utah Verification Veronica Dolan and Christina Persch

Fun Facts Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics Home of Rainbow Bridge, which is the world’s largest natural bridge (290 feet above the floor of Bridge Canyon and 270 feet long) Jello capital of the world

Synoptic SEtup (3/28 @ 12Z)

Synoptic SEtup (3/28 @ 18Z)

Synoptic SEtup (3/29 @ 00Z)

Synoptic SEtup (3/29 @ 06Z)

Synoptic SEtup (3/29 @ 12Z)

Forecast challenges Data sparse areas, particularly the southeast Snowfall amounts Precipitation analysis in constant state of fluctuation while going through verification Wind chill analysis Severe wind analysis

Categories Not Considered 11. Icestorm 14. Blowing Dust 16. Smoke 19. Extreme Chill 21. Nuisance Flood 22. Flash Flood 23. Stream Flood 24. River Flood 26. Thunderstorm 27. Severe Thunderstorm

Verification Procedure METAR Data CooP/CoCoRahs Mesonet!/Mesowest Public Information Statement (snow/some precip amounts/some wind) Total QPF/Snowfall Analysis

Total QPf

24 hour snowfall analysis

Flurries CoCoRaHS, public information sheet Filled in gaps with 24 hour snowfall amounts

Snow Shower CoCoRaHS, public information sheet Filled in gaps with 24 hour snowfall amounts

Snow Squall CoCoRaHS, public information sheet Filled in gaps with 24 hour snowfall amounts

Light Snow CoCoRaHS, public information sheet Filled in gaps with 24 hour snowfall amounts

moderate snow CoCoRaHS, public information sheet Filled in gaps with 24 hour snowfall amounts

heavy Snow CoCoRaHS, public information sheet Filled in gaps with 24 hour snowfall amounts

Very heavy snow?

Very Heavy snow

Blizzard Mesonet for wind, METARS for visibility Took elevation into account

High winds Mesonet Mesowest

Severe winds Mesonet Mesowest

Blowing and drifting snow METARS, looked over verifications for snow

Fog Took elevation into account, although some ASOS stations did verify

Wind Chill Mesonet Looking at mountains, but temps and corresponding wind speeds weren’t enough to drop it like it’s cooollld

Freeze/Frost METARS and mesonet/mesowest

Lightning PSU E-Wall (US Lightning Hourly)

Temp >= 60°F Mesonet/Mesowest

Temp <= 40°F Mesonet/Mesowest

P>=0.25" CoCoRaHS, QPF Analysis, Mesowest

Lessons Learned “We really wanted to verify a lot of zones but the data just didn't support it” Gaps in data can cause difficulties QPF/Snowfall Analysis were a good starting point for for snow and rain CooP/CocoRahs was also a good starting point however, mesonet was a major source for data and the public information sheet backed up those verifications