In this particular case, the spatial resolution of the precipitation field would have been extremely useful for the forecast of this event. However, snowfall amounts and duration of the event would have been overforecast in some locations. The wind fields were generally good, and thus would have given forecasters a bit more information for aviation and public forecasts as well. As an aside, had the MM5 model guidance been available in three or six hour output, as opposed to hourly, and the model had correctly predicted the break in the precipitation, it still may not have been seen by the forecaster. This has direct implications in how operational model information is packaged and sent out to the field, and what we can really expect from future nationally run operational mesoscale models.
Hourly output is vital for getting the most information from any high resolution model.
Since any mesoscale model is only as good as the initial guess and boundary conditions which drive it, it is important for a meteorologist to know if the information going into a mesoscale model is accurate. With numerical model guidance in the field still generally available only in six hour intervals and not even at the native grid resolution, it is very hard for a forecaster to make this important decision. In this case, even with a simulation that far surpassed forecasters typical expectations, the mesoscale run had errors not only due to biases in the MM5 model itself, but also from the Eta-48 model which drives the model simulation. Even with these problems, mesoscale models have a place in the operational NWS office. Model placement of precipitation, near surface wind flow patterns, and mountain waves are only three features which are very dependent on model resolution.