Severe Weather

I feel like having a weather blog that doesn't make reference to this would be inappropriate. Thirty-three Reported Tornadoes, At Least Nine Dead, Serious Damage from Tornado Outbreak." 'Nuf said. In the meantime, New England is in for that massive amount of snow that had been predicted for this region, same goes for the Rockies, and the jets and fronts have decided to keep the deadly weather coming. Happy leap year folks.

Wednesday, Feb. 29

It has indeed been an active day in weather. It may not have been as meteoric a storm as some had predicted in Eau Claire, or even in the Upper Midwest, but it brought about quite a bit of strange and unfortunate weather that has made headlines the country over. Let us begin today by looking at Eau Claire.

The temperature was a mild 35° F at 7:00 PM tonight, making for the second mild day despite the incoming cold front. There was a hardly a mere whisper of wind when I checked, but NOAA and Wunderground assure me that there is in fact light wind from 5-10 mph. The sky was overcast, and the barometric pressure was at 998 mb -- on the rise after a dip at around noon as the center of the Low Pressure air mass passed directly overhead. Most noticeable about today's observation was the humidity, for the second straight day one can almost taste the air. The humidity almost lends a summer-like atmosphere to the mild temperatures.

The graphs below from Wunderground show a nice correlation between pressure and wind speed/direction, and I decided to include them today to illustrate the way in which air masses move over space, and how air flows into the center of low pressure. As the center of low pressure passes over us and grows further away, wind directions and then speeds change.

Tuesday, Feb 28

Tut Tut, it looks like snow folks! We have already accumulated about a half of an inch and it looks like more is on the way, although the weather outside at about 7 looked as though the snow/freezing rain was letting up. The wintry mix outside is awful, so avoid the roads if at all possible. It's not just snowing out there folks, this stuff is nasty. The winds are gusting at around 14 mph out of the East, which means that the Low pressure system to our Southwest has yet to pass us. Because the system is so massive, we should expect snow (or at least overcast skies) well into tomorrow.

Meanwhile, there seems to be severe weather to the south. Look at the strength of the pressure systems that are moving around the country right now! There is a single continuous line of fronts that moves all the way across the bottom of the contiguous states! Also note that there appears to be some thunderstorms forming in the south, so it should be an interesting night for weather.

Monday, Feb. 27

Today has been a fairly böring day for weather, tonights's observation brings a 27°F temp with clear skies and a light breeze of 10 mph. There is a strong mass of Low pressure moving in from the west, which weather agencies had predicted would bring a great deal of snow (rumor had it school was to be cancelled), however predictions have been reassessed and the current predication is for less snow - but worse driving. A small mix of freezing rain will likely make me happy that I don't work tomorrow.

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ED: Wednesday Feb 29

I wasn't planning on putting up an image tonight, because the weather was so boring, but I saw Tyler DeBruin had this image up so I decided to steal it. There are three things I like about it. 1) It shows the earth as a globe which is a projection that i always enjoy even though I find it ironic that someone would try to solve the issue of mapping a 3d surface in 2d by just providing a shot of the globe which limits the area that can be displayed. 2) The map gives a really good shot of the lake effect around Chicago and Toledo. 3) For no apparent reason, Canada is completely excluded from the weather. This is a recurring theme and its becoming something of a pet peeve of mine.

Saturday, Feb 25; and Sunday, Feb 26

Sunday - Feb 26 7:15 PM

I began my return trek at 6:00 today so was able to view up-to date stats at shortly after seven today to go with my observation. The clouds are a blanket overhead, and have been since about noon. The winds are even stronger today, I can even notice a couple of gusts pushing against the side of my car down the interstate. They are 20 mph form the SW. The ambient temperature is 32°F, but with the winds it feels like 22°. The winds are caused by a high pressure front moving in from the West, some are forecasting massive amounts of snow, but given our history this month I am somewhat skeptical of anything big happening. We shall see.

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Saturday - Feb 25 7:00 PM

Today (as on Sunday) I took my observations and then drove home to Hudson. Internet at home is sketchy at best - not having the patience to load the entire blogger site I opted to merely write out my observations and get to them today. So it was chilly with again 23° F temps with a moderate breeze that picked up in the late afternoon (later determined to be 10 mph, thanks to my new favorite thing). Nothing much had happened with the weather today that was noteworthy, other than the breeze making my life of sweeping exceedingly difficult. The skies were clear in Eau Claire, but by 8:30 in Hudson the sky was overcast. As I drove west through the changing weather I had the opportunity to see clear skies turn to scattered clouds, then drop and turn into an overcast sky which was neat. Something else that was interesting was that as I approached Hudson, the west grew lighter and lighter. At first, I hoped that I was seeing the last vestiges of the sun, and could expect to see more light at my observations soon. But no, it wasn't. The light was merely pollution from the metro.

Friday, February 24

I decided to step away from the surface maps on this one, while I do love them they are a bit tough on the eyes and I have used them one time too many. Our friends at wunderground help to visualize what has been happening in the last few days meteorologically -- High pressure over the plains has been pushing a moderately strong low over da U.P. and Eau Claire has been stuck in between. The temperature last night may have felt cold then, but tonight is far colder at 23°F. I would expect clear skies, knowing that Eau Claire is heading for High pressure, however the weather tonight is cloudy, it seems that there are more clouds in the west but it is somewhat difficult to tell. The wind is coming out of the west today, so I expect temperatures to remain cool in the immediate future and the skies to remain clear. The winds should die down as well.

Thursday, Feb 23

This night was one of the coldest this week, and the clearest; it was a surprise to be walking under the stars after such an overcast day. As a region of high pressure from the West fights off Lows heading East, the sky cleared up and the barometric pressure sits around 29.6 in (about 1004 mb). The temperature is 32° F, and winds are chilly but light at ~3.5 mph, from the North.

Wednesday, Feb 22

The weather for Wednesday at around 7 was 31°F with winds of 5 mph out of the West. The cold front is beyond us now, and we are experiencing clear skies which is typical of High pressure. However, the pressure as recorded at UWEC is only 998 mb which is not especially high. I felt fortunate not to have to shovel/sweep any snow today because all of it had melted (although I did have to lay out some salt, as some small collection pools of runoff from the roof freeze over when the temps cool, so if you're out and about be watching for that on the roads.

Tuesday, Feb 21

The snow which had been expected for so long did fall last night, and there was a light dusting of snow this morning. However, only 1.5 inches fell, and the rise in temperature after dawn (which peaked at 36°F) caused all of the snow on the roads to melt very quickly. Very little accumulation remained on the ground by the time of this observation (a little later tonight due to scheduling conflicts). At 8:15 it was 33°F with a moderate wind of 10 mph out of the West. It was overcast, but the clouds were higher than they had been last night so I am tempted to call them stratoculumus by comparing them to my cloud chart, but then it is also hard to tell because it is dark (although not as hard as you might think, perhaps as a result of light pollution).

Monday, Feb 20 (and weekend Sat Feb 18/Sun Feb 19))

Tonight the weather has strong winds. A strong low front centered near Omaha is pushing cyclonic winds towards us with gusts of roughly 15-20 mph. The sky is entirely overcast, and the weather services are expecting snow tonight but as of yet no snow has fallen. The temperature is 42° F and the dew point is 20°, snow is very likely to arrive tonight from the west. The sky is dark, since it was light out this morning at about 6:30 (though the sun rose at 7:00), I had hoped for a whisper of sunlight this evening. I will have to be patient, but I expect to see a sunsets before DST kicks in (I'm not going to check because that would spoil the fun).

Sunday saw the temperature peak at 39°, but by the time of my recordings it has dropped down to 30°F, with a 5 mph breeze from the S. The same low-pressure system that brought this warm air will soon bring precipitation, and the NWS predicts snow tomorrow.

On Saturday at 7:00 it was 30° F with no discernible breeze (although the internet tells me there is one), as the prevailing High pressure that had been dominating headed east while a massive low pressure system from the West and South replaces it. Cyclonic winds are pushing warm air in from the South, which will last through the weekend and we can expect to see another mild day tomorrow, followed by some storms on Monday or Tuesday.

Wed, Feb 15

It's 19°, and... foggy? wierd for nighttime. The sky has a few cumulus which are thicker in the North East. The temperatures were a bit colder all day long. There is no wind, which would take away the fog if there was some. weather.com recorded a high of 41° today, all that condensing air now that the sun set and temps are low is probably the cause for this fog.

Monday, Feb 13

The weather was cold this evening, but warmer than it was at the end of last week at 30° F. There was light snow, with less than a half inch accumulated. A light breeze from the south, clocked at 10 mph by UNISYS. The area is caught between two stationary fronts over quebec/ottawa and the great plains, which are funneling air from the south to the north being pushed by a warm front of maritime tropic air.

4 images

This is my top image from the assignment, as it gives the largest amount of raw data, and allows me to make my own predictions knowing that the data I have been given is 100% the most accurate data available.

I like this image because it make makes it very easy to see how temperatures this January are unusual across the country, however I wish it used counties instead of states.

This image is much like the last one, but instead of the year's difference it shows a day's difference. It is easy to read, looks nice, and with a quick glance I can see exactly how much I need to bundle up.

Finally, the usefulness of this map cannot be overstated. I am glad that I stumbled across it, and am probably going to use it every time I head home. I hate traffic.

Wednesday, Feb. 9

Today the temperature was around 24° F in Eau Claire at around 7:00 this evening, with only a whisper of a breeze no more than 5 mph from the southwest. The sky is clear, the stars above twinkling as they freeze their bums off. The weather is on its way down into colder temperatures this weekend, which would be appropriate for this time of the season.

On a side note, I realized that my times were off... so I'll fix that soon...

Tuesday, Feb 7

The weather was colder this evening than it was yesterday, at around 23 degrees. There was hardly any breeze whatsoever, although weather.com calls for a slight breeze of around 5 mph. The sky is partly cloudy, the stars are shining through patches of stratus which become thicker to the north.

Closing time...almost.

I have decided to make my observations at 7:00 in the evening. This is shortly before the 7:30 closing time where I work but perhaps more interesting as I will have the opportunity to watch the sunset change over time. I have also come to realize that these are daily reports, so I will start to do that too. Anyhow, weather tonight was cold, after a mild day the temperature was right above freezing at 35 F. I would estimate that the cloud cover stood at roughly 50%, perhaps a little more. There was a very slight breeze, and the sun had gone completely down.