Can you use gridded NUCAPS fields to diagnose the rain/snow line?
900-mb Temperature fields (color-shaded; the 0ºC line is in black) derived from NOAA-20 NUCAPS profiles, 0624 UTC on 13 February, along with 0600 UTC METAR observations (Click to enlarge)
Gridded NUCAPS fields include a wide range of thermodynamic variables. The plot above shows the 900-mb temperature field. Is it possible to use this data to diagnose a rain/snow transition line?
Over southern New England, the relationship between 900-mb temperatures and surface precipitation observations seems robust: snow is restricted to most (but not all!) places where 900-mb temperatures are cooler than 0ºC. and rain falls where temperatures exceed 0ºC. Where terrain might be an influence in trapping cold air near the surface — the Catskills, for example, or the Alleghenies over New York and Pennsylvania, the relationship is not so straightforward. This data source warrants future investigations on its utility in these situations.