Strengths and Limitations
Thickness values are widely used to forecast surface high and low temperatures, since these values are proportional to mean temperatures in layers of the atmosphere, and since operational numerical models have so much difficulty with surface temperature forecasts. At a given location, depending on the season and cloud cover, typical values of thicknesses derived from empirical studies are utilized to get an estimate of daily maximum or minimum temperatures.
Thickness values are also used to forecast precipitation type. For example, the critical rain/snow threshold is a 1000-500 thickness of 5400 m (540 dm), with higher critical values in higher elevations, and lower values in maritime regions.
Caution: threshold thickness values are used as one tool, and do not consider other important factors like latent cooling, precipitation rate, cold advection, cloud depth, etc.
For more information on using thickness values to forecast precipitation type, see Topics in Precipitation Type Forecasting / Partial Thickness Analysis (http://meted.ucar.edu/norlat/snow/preciptype/preciptype_thickness.htm)