Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Marquette, MI
Issued by NWS Marquette, MI
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920 FXUS63 KMQT 201748 AFDMQT Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Marquette MI 148 PM EDT Mon May 20 2024 .KEY MESSAGES... - Strong storm system will bring rain and thunderstorms late Tuesday into Tuesday night. - Windy conditions develop behind the system on Wednesday. && .SHORT TERM /THROUGH TONIGHT/... Issued at 148 PM EDT Mon May 20 2024 Light rain showers continue across the U.P. and end from west to east this afternoon as a low pressure continues to travel from southern Wisconsin/northern Illinois to northern Lower Michigan the rest of today through tonight. With the SPC mesoanalysis page showing pathetically low lapse rates and CAM soundings showing almost no CAPE to work with, expect at most just a rumble or two of thunder across the central and east the rest of today. With the light rain taking its time to get into the far eastern U.P. this afternoon, min RHs have dropped down to as low as 40% at the Newberry airport. However, now that RHs are beginning to recover, expect the upward trend to continue. Likewise, with light southerly winds dominating today, the warmest temperatures thus far have been near the Lake Superior shoreline, with some spots even getting into the upper 60s. Expect the U.P. to be pretty rain-free by tonight as very localized and weak sfc high pressure moves across the area. As this occurs, we could see some areas of fog and low-level cloud cover develop across the entire Upper Peninsula; with visibilities dropping down to 1/4 mile or less in some areas, be careful if driving late tonight and early Tuesday morning. With the areas of cloud cover across the area tonight, low temperatures are expected to get to around 50. While there was a low chance earlier of a dying MCS moving into far western Upper Michigan late tonight, the CAMs have trended away from this solution entirely now; at most, we will see some light rain showers move into the far west near Ironwood late tonight/early Tuesday morning now (and even that is a fairly low (10%) chance). && .LONG TERM /TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY/... Issued at 513 AM EDT Mon May 20 2024 An active pattern will continue across the Upper Great Lakes in the coming week as an amplifying mid-upper level trough over western North America allows for a series of shortwaves to eject ne from this trough to support more rounds of rainfall for Upper Mi. Beginning Tue, After a period of dry weather late tonight into Tue morning behind today`s shortwave and associated bout of rainfall, another stronger shortwave is expected to eject ne from the western CONUS trough and continue to deepen on Tue as it lifts through the Plains and reaches the Upper Mississippi Valley Tue night. The deepening of the system aided by strong upper divergence from a coupled upper jet structure (right entrance region of a 130 kt jet max over northern Ontario and the left exit region of a 110 kt jet max over the Southern/Central Plains) is reflected in healthy 12hr 500mb height falls of 150m predicted by the models over the Upper MS Valley/Upper Great Lakes region late Tue night/early Wed. At the sfc, models indicate the associated low pres will deepen to between 985-990mb as it approaches and then lifts across western and northern Lake Superior on Wed. While this low track passing to the w of Upper MI will support the widest coverage of heaviest rainfall over MN and nw WI, moderate to locally heavy rainfall will still be possible across Upper Mi during the period of strong isentropic ascent/strong 850mb theta-e advection to the e of the low track Tue night. Precipitable water also increases to around 1.5 inches or near the climatological daily max for the day at ~200pct of normal. Expect widespread showers and scattered t-storms across the area as mid-level lapse rates steepen across the area. Elevated CAPE values around 1000 j/kg as depicted by the fcst models may even result in a few strong to marginally severe storms given the very strong shear profile noted on fcst soundings. However that said, believe SPC`s slight risk of SVR issued for late Tuesday into the southern UP may be a bit overdone considering we will be in an unfavorable e-se flow ahead of the approaching low for much of the day and with the strongest forcing from the system probably not arriving until after sunset, expect convection to be most likely elevated. GEFS probabilities show a 40-80pct chc of at least a half inch of rainfall from this system with the highest probabilities w and se. Models show shower coverage diminishing significantly for Wed as we get into the dry slot and q-vector divergence/subsidence behind the system as it lifts north. Some areas may see dry weather for much of or all of the day, especially e half. The biggest impacts from this system may end up being strong winds. ECMWF EFI/Shift of Tails continues to increase into Wed with Upper MI mostly around 0.9 range now, suggesting a climatologically strong wind event for this time of year based on last 20 years of model climate. The EPS probabilities basically shows a 80-100% chance that the entire fcst area will see wind gusts exceeding 40 mph Wed afternoon into Wed evening with a 10-30 pct chance of western U.P. higher terrain areas seeing high wind warning criteria gusts of 50 knots or greater. While winds for this fcst were increased from what NBM indicates, they are not as high as the median from the EPS and will likely need to be bumped up more. There will still be time to reevaluate for higher winds in later fcsts. For now, will mention the potential for higher wind gusts on Wed in the HWO product. As the low lifts across northern Ontario toward James Bay on Thu, isolated showers will remain possible under lingering cool, cyclonic flow. Thu should be the coolest day of the week with highs in the lower 50s to the lower 60s F warmest s central. Another shortwave trough lifting through the Plains into central Canada late week will send a sfc low pressure trough/frontal boundary into Upper Mi late Friday/Fri night which could linger over the area into Sunday bringing yet more opportunities for showers. && .AVIATION /18Z TAFS THROUGH 18Z TUESDAY/... Issued at 112 PM EDT Mon May 20 2024 KIWD continues to flirt between high-end IFR and low-end MVFR this afternoon through this evening as rain showers have currently stopped here. Meanwhile, low-level cloud cover behind the light rain showers early this afternoon will drop the VFR cigs at KCMX and KSAW to MVFR. Moving into the overnight hours, areas of FG and low-level cloud cover look to develop over Upper Michigan. This FG/low-level cloud cover has a good chance (60%) of dropping conditions down close to airport mins across the terminals late tonight. Moving into Tuesday morning, expect conditions to slowly improve to IFR and MVFR across the TAF sites, with rainfall possibly moving back over KIWD near the end of the period as an impressively strong low pressure lifts towards far western Lake Superior. Beyond the TAF period, expect LLWS across the TAF sites Tuesday night. && .MARINE... Issued at 513 AM EDT Mon May 20 2024 Weak pressure gradients will keep winds less than 20 knots across Lake Superior into Tuesday morning. Deepening low pres will then lift toward western Lake Superior, reaching the lake Wed morning. Expect e to ne winds to ramp up late Tuesday as the low approaches. NE winds will increase to 25-30kt over western Lake Superior by late Tue afternoon, reaching gales of 35-40 knots by Tue evening. Winds increase further Tue night. Probabilistic guidance indicates a 50-80 percent chance of reaching gale gusts later Tue night into Wed across w and central Lake Superior. Although, model probabilities were low (generally less than 20%) for gales over the east half of the lake, I did bump up the gusts to 35 to 40 knots late Tue night into Wed due to a 60 to nearly 70 kt southerly low-level jet moving across the area at that time east of the low track. Gut feeling is despite the strong stability depicted over the lake by model soundings, believe that some of this wind will be realized near the sfc of the lake over higher platform observing stations. In short, decided to issue Gale Watches for LSZ162 00Z Wed-00Z Thu, for LSZ263- 264 04Z Wed-06Z Thu and for LSZ265>267 06Z Wed-21Z Wed. It is worth noting that some of the models that track a deep low just w of Lake Superior into northern Ontario show a potential for higher end westerly gales across the lake Wed into Wed night, especially across the w half. Will be something to monitor. At any rate, west- northwest winds should gradually diminish to 20 to 30 knots late Wed night into Thu and fall generally to 20 knots or less late Thu night into Friday while gradually becoming easterly. && .MQT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Upper Michigan... None. Lake Superior... Gale Watch from Tuesday evening through Wednesday evening for LSZ162. Gale Watch from late Tuesday night through late Wednesday night for LSZ242>244-263-264. Gale Watch from late Tuesday night through Wednesday afternoon for LSZ245>251-265>267. Lake Michigan... None. && $$ SHORT TERM...TAP LONG TERM...Voss AVIATION...TAP MARINE...Voss