Do you live in the Capital Region of NY? Namely in the area around the confluence of the Mohawk River with the Hudson? If so you may be interested in a weather pattern we learned about recently called Mohawk-Hudson Convergence. On this past Tuesday we had a minor snow storm come through the area and the weather service and local news channels forecasted the end of the snow by Wednesday morning. However, by Wednesday morning, although the bulk of the storm across the region had pulled out, a blizzard was occuring in the captial region, mainly falling in the areas of Albany, Troy, Waterford, and East Greenbush. The snow fall was the result of what is called Mohawk-Hudson Convergence. It occurs when air currents moving east through the Mohawk Valley converge with currents moving down the Hudson Valley. The result can be heavy localized snowfall.
Here is what the weather service had to say that morning about it:
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBANY NY
650 AM EST WED JAN 2 2008
.SYNOPSIS...
A STORM IN THE GULF OF MAINE WILL DRIVE THE COLDEST AIRMASS OF THE WINTER SEASON ACROSS OUR REGION TODAY INTO THURSDAY VIA A GUSTY NORTHWEST WIND AND A FEW SNOW SHOWERS OR FLURRIES ALONG THE LEADING EDGE OF THE COLD AIR. BY EARLY THURSDAY...TEMPERATURES WILL BE CLOSE TO ZERO IN MANY PLACES...EXCEPT WELL BELOW ZERO ACROSS THE HIGHER TERRAIN NORTH AND WEST OF ALBANY. ARCTIC HIGH PRESSURE WILL CREST TO OUR SOUTH BY FRIDAY MORNING. THEN...THE HIGH WILL DRIFT EAST AND BECOME PARKED OFF THE EASTERN SEABOARD.
.NEAR TERM /UNTIL 6 PM WEDNESDAY EVENING/...
THE POLAR FRONT HAS SLIPPED TO OUR SOUTH. COLD AIR IS BLEEDING INTO THE REGION. WE HAVE SOME MOHAWK/HUDSON CONVERGENCE TAKING PLACE. A NORTHEAST WIND IS FOUND AT KGLF WHILE A NORTHWEST WIND IS TAKING PLACE AT KRME AND KALB. THE SURFACE PRESSURE AT GLENS FALLS IS HIGHER THAN AT ALBANY OR POUGHKEEPSIE. THE "S" SHAPED ISOBARS ARE CLEARLY EVIDENT. THESE ARE ALL INDICATORS OF A SYNOPTIC SETUP FOR MOHAWK/HUDSON CONVERGENCE TO ENSUE...PER RESEARCHED BY CSTAR. INDEED THE RADAR HAS INDICATED LIGHT RETURNS (MAINLY FLURRIES) DEVELOPING RIGHT AT THE CONVERGENCE OF THE MOHAWK/HUDSON VALLEY...WORKING
SOUTHWARD AND EASTWARD INTO THE TACONICS HILLS. EARLIER RETURNS WERE WELL OVER 20DBZ...BUT HAVE NOT GENERALLY WEAKENED CLOSER TO 15 DBZ (MORE LIKE FLURRIES)...BUT STILL OCCASIONALLY PULSING INTO THE SNOW SHOWER THRESHOLD.
WRGB Meteorologist Mike Augustyniak, conducted his Master's Thesis research on the topic. To learn more about it and to view some radar images of the pattern here is a link to his research page: http://www.atmos.albany.edu/student/augustyn/research_index.html
