Meteorologists aim to provide the public with helpful guidance on impending snowstorms, including projected snow totals. However, predicting snowfall amounts precisely poses inherent difficulties even just one day in advance.
Multiple interconnected factors influence snowfall forecasts and last-minute changes frequently occur. Appreciating the obstacles meteorologists face when forecasting snowfall helps the public set reasonable expectations and make sound preparations when snow is expected.
The Evolving Puzzle of Factors Impacting Snowfall Projections
Reliably anticipating snow amounts requires assembling a complex, constantly changing puzzle. Meteorologists must accurately predict multiple variables five days to a week ahead of a potential storm.
Most significantly, forecasting a possible snow event’s eventual track, moisture content and temperature days before its arrival proves especially tricky. Subtle forecast adjustments of any of these elements dramatically alters snow projections.