Abstract
Background:The 26 December 2003 snowstorm was a rare and long-lived weather system that affected east Idaho. Light snow began falling Christmas night, became steadier and heavier during the next day, and tapered off during the morning on the 27th. Snowfall estimates of 20.3-38.1 cm (8.0-15.0 in) were observed over a 24-hour period on 26 December 2003 in the lower part of the Snake River Plain, paralyzing local communities and transportation centers with snowdrifts and poor visibilities.Methods:The Weather Research and Forecasting Unified Environmental Modeling System was used to conduct a sensitivity study of five precipitation microphysics schemes at two grid scales during the event.Results:A comparison of the model accumulated total grid scale precipitation at 12-km and 4-km scales with the observed precipitation at several stations in the lower plain, indicated small negative biases (underprediction) in all of the schemes. The Purdue-Lin and Weather Research and Forecasting Double-Moment 6-Class microphysics schemes contained the smallest root mean squared errors.Conclusion:The Purdue-Lin and Weather Research and Forecasting Double-Moment 6-Class schemes provided several insights into the dynamics of the snowstorm. A topographic convergence zone, seeder-feeder mechanism, and convective instability were major factors contributing to the heavy snowfall in the lower plain.
Highlights
The 26 December 2003 snowstorm brought widespread snowfall to east Idaho
What was the performance of several Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) precipitation microphysics schemes at verification points in the lower part of the Snake River Plain? Did the model grid scale and terrain resolution modulate precipitation amounts in these schemes? Based on the most verifiable schemes, what were the physical processes that contributed to the localized heavy snowfall in the lower plain? These research questions are fully addressed in Section 5 of the manuscript
In order to understand the physical processes associated with the precipitation microphysics schemes in this snowstorm, the larger-scale dynamics are explored followed by smaller-scale processes
Summary
The 26 December 2003 snowstorm was a rare and long-lived weather system that affected east Idaho. Snowfall estimates of 20.3-38.1 cm (8.0-15.0 in) were observed over a 24-hour period on 26 December 2003 in the lower part of the Snake River Plain, paralyzing local communities and transportation centers with snowdrifts and poor visibilities
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