[Simulated (OP)]

Well lets see if I can get this to be explained right. BP oil refinery and some other stuff they do there has been around for 30 years now. And every winter its the same thing. A big huge snow storm is coming our way. It gets to the Indiana/Ohio line and either Pewters out or splits right in half and goes around us and connects back together again and gets strong after it passes. The same thing everytime. I ain't kidding either. Next time just watch the weather channels maps. haha.

And a few years ago we had a really really really big ice storm.

Could bp be messing with our snow?

[paul.fr]

Sim, are you in Ohio?

[Simulated (OP)]

Yes

[paul.fr]

do you live near:

eastern half of Cuyahoga County, all of Geauga, Lake and Ashtabula counties. Some of the major municipalites in this area are Euclid, Bedford, Solon, Lyndhurst, Ashtabula, Jefferson, Conneaut, Andover, Chardon, Burton, Chesterland, Chagrin Falls, Madison, Painesville, Mentor, Willoughby and Kirtland.

or here:
western half of Cuyahoga County, Lorain and Medina counties, plus the portions of Summit, Portage and Trumbull counties north of Interstate 80. It includes the cities of Cleveland, Bay Village, Westlake, Lorain, Strongsville, Oberlin, North Ridgeville, North Olmsted, Brook Park, Medina, Broadview Heights, Brecksville, Brunswick, Twinsburg, Hudson, Aurora, Garrettsville, and North Bloomfield.

no need to state your exact location, but if you live in ot near one of the above, just indicate either the first or second groups.

[Simulated (OP)]

um defentlyu the other side of ohio lol ah 30 miles from the state lines i mentioned

[paul.fr]

um defentlyu the other side of ohio lol ah 30 miles from the state lines i mentioned

so is that near group a or b?

anyway, Ohio gets plenty of snow. Have you heard of the Ohio snow belts?

The first list of places are in the primary snow belts and get between 60 and 110+ inches each year, the second list is the erm...secondary snow belt and gets 40 to 80 inches of snow per year. Outside these belts, Snow still falls yearly but obviously not as much.

Ohio gets it's snow through lake effect (or generated) snow. I could explain what that is but i bet wiki does it better, if you can't find it on wiki i will explain.

[Simulated (OP)]

Um we are like 2 hours from cleveland. and groub b is like way south of us.

[paul.fr]

http://www.dot.state.oh.us/snomap.htm

[Simulated (OP)]

Haha I tottally don't agree with that map at all. We are the allen/putman section. Bp is in allen county.

I'd say we get 15 not 30 lol

[Simulated (OP)]

Alright last week we got this lake effect storm system. And well it did its circlular motion thing and the tail of it was way down near cinncinatii and it was odd again. The radar showed allen and putnam counties in a big no snow bubble. I know this is vage and not very um organized or w/e, but BP has to be messing with the snow

[paul.fr]

Ryan, do you have a radar or anyother "weather" forcast picture of the storm? such as a pressure / isobar chart. Even a link to your local weather forecast page may help.

Back to the BP question.

I doubt that the plant is acting in such a way as to affect a weather front from moving in.

[Simulated (OP)]

Alright. I"ll be sure to save the picutre of the radar Paul.

[paul.fr]

Sim,
do you have higher than average rain fall?

[Simulated (OP)]

Yes. Infact just last week the park got flooded worse then it does in the summer. But when there is a snow system coming we don't get rain its just a blank spot over us on the radar.

We also got alot of ice that one year..

[paul.fr]

OK. I have no idea about the structure of an oil refinery, but it is possible that it gives off enough heat to affect a very localised area resulting in higher precipitation. Saying that, i still doubt it would affect such a large area.

If there are cooling towers, then this could lead to increased precipitation and a maybe a local temperature being a degree or two higher than the surrounding 'countryside', but again not on such a large scale that you think.

[paul.fr]

This is the kind of effect i am thinking about.
Water balance in a city

The effect of a city on air humidity, precipitation and fog formation is uncertain.  Some cities have more days with fogs and a higher frequency of cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds than the surrounding non-urban area.  These phenomena are all favoured by high air humidity and the presence of large amounts of air pollution serving as condensation nuclei. In addition, cloud formation is enhanced by convection which is more intense in the city because of the urban heat island effect and fogs develop because the wind speed in the city is low.  Cities are found in all different geographical locations and the local conditions mean that all cities have different climates.  In addition, the presence of huge factories or power plants may affect the urban climate by, for example, emitting air pollutants, heat and huge amounts of water vapour from cooling towers into the air.

Cumulus Clouds
Cumulus formation is often preceded by hazy spots out of which the clouds evolve (top left photograph). The clouds in their early stages of formation are depicted in the photograph at top right. When completely formed, the clouds have clear cut horizontal bases and flattened or slightly rounded tops (centre photographs). At this stage of development they are known as fair weather cumulus. In the photograph at bottom left the clouds have been frayed by a fairly strong, turbulent wind.

Over land, on clear mornings, cumulus may form as the sun rapidly heats the ground, or may result from the transformation of stratus CL6. Near coasts, cumulus may form over the land by day in a sea breeze and over the sea during the night in a land breeze.

Cumulus in the last stages of dissipation, (bottom right) is also coded as CL=1. If at least one of the cumulus clouds present in the sky shows moderate or strong vertical development, the code CL=2 is used.

cumulonimbus
The characteristic shape of these clouds can only be seen as a whole when viewed from a distance (top photographs). The tops of these massive clouds show a fibrous or striated structure that frequently resembles an anvil (2nd row left), plume or huge mass of hair (2nd row right). They may occur as an isolated cloud or an extensive wall (3rd row left) and squalls, hail and/or thunder often accompany them.

Underneath the base, which is often very dark, pannus clouds CL7 frequently form and, in storms, these may be only a few hundred feet above the earth's surface and they can merge to form a continuous layer. There may be rugged cumulus (3rd row right) or a dense horizontal roll at the shower's edge. Mamma may form, especially on the underside of the projecting anvil (bottom left) and may appear particularly prominent when the sun is low in the sky. Virga may often be seen (bottom right). A whole variety of other clouds such as dense cirrus, altocumulus, altostratus, stratocumulus, cumulus and stratus may also be present.

If the cumulonimbus passes nearly or directly overhead, the characteristic top is lost to view. Consequently an observer, seeing only the under surface, may confuse it with nimbostratus, if a watch has not been kept on the sky. By convention, the cloud is reported as cumulonimbus if accompanied by lightning, thunder, hail or other precipitation of a showery nature. CL9 is used when it is impossible to differentiate between CL3 and CL9. Cumulonimbus most frequently develops from large cumulus CL2. They sometimes develop from altocumulus castellanus CM8, when the base is unusually high and can be embedded in altostratus or nimbostratus. Cumulonimbus can disintegrate into dense cirrus CH3.

Pictorial Guide to Cloud Types

[Simulated (OP)]

That looks like alot let me take sometime and view it all. Thanks for the info Paul

Hum. at first glance most of that has to do with cities/populated areas. I live about 15 miles from the plant (a rough guess) out in the middle of no where. the plant is it town thouhg..

[paul.fr]

Sim
also read Urban heat islands first noted by Luke Howard

[Simulated (OP)]

Thanks Paul. I've glanced at all of it, but I can really sit down and read it until this weekend when I have more time to get on the computer.

[Karen W.]

Sim
also read Urban heat islands first noted by Luke Howard

Paul that is really interesting wiki article I had no idea that simply building on the land and using it had anything to do with the rise or fall od temperature in or around a city.. That is fascinating! Thank you!