First off, today is Arbor Day and in recognition, how about a nice article from the U.S. Forest Service about the benefits of large urban trees. I have some very large trees in my backyard. As far as I can tell, they are the largest (and maybe the oldest) pine trees in all of Wausau. The trunks are about 4 feet in diameter – maybe a little larger. No doubt they provide a lot of benefits, but unfortunately in my situation, they do cause a little trouble as well. You know I like to garden. Well, the large trees limit the size of the garden space I can create in my backyard because they not only shade much of the yard but also block light rainfall from reaching ground level. Let us not even get into the raking required in the Fall and Spring. If the trees were not so large (and perhaps historic), they would have “gotten the axe” already. So what is a gardener to do? Thankfully I know a fellow in the country who allows me to grow a few things on his farm.

Secondly, this weekend is the BIG fishing opener on Wisconsin waters, or maybe I should say it is kind-of the fishing opener. As most people who enjoy fishing know, the regulations have changed and changed again over the last couple decades and you always have to check specific regulations pertaining to the body of water you are fishing on. For many species of fish and many bodies of water, the fishing opener has either already occurred or will happen at some later date. So if you were wondering why I didn’t make a big fuss about the fishing “opener” on TV or in the blog, this is why. It is also the case (much to the lament of many people who fish) that the number of people who fish has declined as a percentage of the population. It used to be something that everyone I knew did regularly, now it is maybe 50%. It is similar to our hunting heritage which I wrote about previously.

One thing to keep in mind if you are out on the waters tomorrow – wind. The southwest wind on Saturday will be 20 to 30 mph with gusts reaching 35 to 40 mph. This will make it difficult to maneuver or anchor your boat. Stay safe and good luck!

Per usual, I could write another few paragraphs, but time is short. I still have to work on the snowmelt contest. Unknown to many is that we usually end up hundreds of mailed in entries. We have to type them all in by hand. This usually takes a couple weeks, doing maybe 25 to 50 day. If you still haven’t entered, midnight tonight is the cut-off. No entries received after midnight tonight will be accepted. Rules are rules. Also, one entry per person, so if you already made your prediction – disregard the final sentence.

Go here to submit your last minute entry.

Have a good weekend! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Environment, Snowmelt 2010

I have been sorting through what seems to be endless snow melt contest entries that just keep coming in…ahhh.  It is so awesome how the entire community of North Central Wisconsin has gotten involved with this.  Friday however is the last day you can submit your snowmelt guess.

On to our first real threat for some severe weather in a while….

  As I write, a line of thunderstorms  have developed to our west, stretching from western Wisconsin to Iowa.  These storms have been borderline severe, producing gusty winds and generally small hail.  I will be keeping an eye on these storms as they continue to move Northeast.  I expect them to loose some of their punch by the time they reach say Clark, Taylor, and Price County.  Just some scattered showers will be possible later tonight along the Highway 51 corridor and points east.

A greater chance for severe storms arrive tomorrow evening.  Our atmosphere will be primed way more for storms by the time the cold front starts to slide in from the east.  The best mechanics for severe weather appears just south of here, but it will be close.  We will have to watch the storms Friday evening very closely.  Stay tuned.

Meteorologist Brian Niznansky

Posted under Storms

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I usually start out (or at least mention in) the Thursday blog post with the US Drought Monitor. While many areas of the country are improving or have at least seen some significant rain in the past week, Wisconsin’s official drought status has worsened. The total area of drought has increased from 43.9 percent to 52.5 percent meaning more than half of the state is experiencing at least “abnormally dry” conditions. I’ll bet you can guess which half of the state is in the drought. The worse news is that the area of “severe drought” has expanded from 9.8 percent to 14.1 percent. Unfortunately, the areas that do not have drought were the areas that had significant rain last weekend. That rain would have been more useful in the northwoods.

Is there any relief in sight? As Brian mentioned yesterday, we do have a chance (60%) of thunderstorms on Friday afternoon and evening and a couple of them might be on the strong side, producing high wind or hail. Stronger thunderstorms usually produce a good downpour, so there is some hope for minor relief from the drought. Tell you what, I could use some relief from watering my plants. I have only planted a few peas, beets, and other frost-tolerant plants but I have had to water 3 times already this Spring. I can’t imagine how much time I will spend watering if there is not much rain this Summer. Which got me to thinking, I don’t personally remember the severe droughts of 1988 or 1976 all that well, even though I lived through them. I wasn’t highly involved in tending the garden back then (the crops and cow pastures were poor) so I don’t recall having to water, but I am sure my mom and sisters would have liked to see some rain from mother nature. I can’t imagine how rough it must have been during the multi-year droughts of the early 1950s and the 1930s. Back then we didn’t have extensive irrigation systems nor as many deep wells.

Have a nice Thursday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Drought

The arrival of a cold front Friday could help fire up our first real severe threat of the season. 

But first a warm front will prime us tomorrow.  The warm front will of course warm us up, but more importantly it will bring in the moisture needed for strong thunderstorm development.  There is the slightest chance of a pop up shower along the warm front tomorrow, but I have kept it out of the official forecast.  Storms will likely fire up west of the area tomorrow.  A few these storms may hold together and reach central Wisconsin by Friday night, but will have lost most of their punch.

Friday will be more in the way of our turn.  We will have the needed moisture and an approaching front(trigger) moving in from the west.  But will we have enough instability for strong thunderstorms?  That is the biggest question.  Any sunshine we manage to see on Friday could really spike our instability or energy for strong storms to develop.  Right now it looks like that sunshine could be minimal.  So it is more likely we’ll see some much needed rain, minus the widespread severe weather….that would be nice.

With that said the Storm Prediction Center has us in a Slight Risk for widespread severe weather on Friday.

We will of course continue to Trak the storm potential here at Channel 9.

Meteorologist Brian Niznansky

Posted under Severe Weather, Spring, Storms

I was contemplating a new blog entry about AGW and the sometimes contradictory or surprising results from various studies, coupled with a look at how life and human society might adapt in a hypothetical situation where the temperature of the earth would go up a couple degrees, but I have too many other things going on today (school talk and filing snowmelt contest entries). It will have to wait until tomorrow or Friday.

Instead, I’ll share an article reviewing some of the possible technological marvels coming our way over the next decade or so. This piece is a review of a Michio Kaku speech given at ESC. Kaku highlights many of the things I have talked about in the blog as well as some medical advancements we can expect. Seeing that he mentioned cloaking, I might as well link to news of a recent research effort in this area - this time working in the visible range of light. Science fiction is becoming reality.

Another science fiction theme that is becoming reality is cryonic suspension. From the article:

Kaku also predicted that seriously injured people will, in the future, be treated by emergency medical technicians pumping ice-cold fluids into their bodies, placing them in suspended animation or “reversible death,” until surgeons can intervene to repair damage that would otherwise be fatal.

It hasn’t advanced to the point of being reversible, but cryonic preservation technologies have matured quite a bit. Many doctors now prefer to perform “cold surgeries” (cooling the patient down) – such as heart surgery - in order to increase the odds of survival. I was at a cryonics technology conference recently and even I was amazed at how close we are to Kaku’s vision.

On to the present weather. It still looks like our best chance of significant rainfall will be on Friday – a 60% chance. There is a slight chance of rain over the weekend but overall Saturday and Sunday should be decent with high temps in the 60s. If we don’t get any significant rain in most of the area, then the drought situation will of course get worse, especially for the northern half of the state. I have been speculating that as El Nino weakens that we will see an increase in rainfall, and that is still a possibility, but the US Drought Outlook is a bit more pessimistic, saying the drought in northern Wisconsin will persist. Keep your fingers crossed for more rain.

Have a nice Wednesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under Drought, Science

We have seen some gorgeous days but with such a dry airmass in place we are also seeing very cold nights! We dipped into the 20′s up north last night and it is likely we will see the same numbers if not colder tonight! Because of that we have: 

A FREEZE WARNING is in effect for Marathon, Menominee, and Shawano counties.

 A FROST ADVISORY is in effect for Adams, Clark, Jackson, Juneau, Portage, Taylor, Waupaca and Waushara and Wood.

Notice that none of the northern counties are included in the advisories.  This does NOT mean they will not see a freeze it means that we normally could see a freeze this late in the season for that area.  The advisories for counties north of Marathon will start to come up in about a week or so.  To get a better idea look at the average last freeze from this map. 

If we look way up north it is common to see a freeze overnight until the end of May! 

The other kicker has been the unseasonal spring we have had.  This has helped some of our plants bloom early which could be devastating when we see a freeze overnight.  Also many people have gotten out early to start their planting.  Please make sure to cover or bring inside any sensitive vegetation that you have, we sure don’t want it to get ruined this early.

For those of you who like the rain and are really looking forward to another rainy day well one is in the forecast!  The best shot is starting to pan out on Friday. If it plays out like it is right now I think a good quater to half an inch could be possible with higher isolated totals.  It seems two bands could move through with moderate showers in the bands and light showers in between.  The first should come in the overnight from Thursday into Friday with the second some time Friday afternoon/evening.  The timing will be worked out with in the next two days.  Also if it continues to pan out I think totals could also be bumped up.  Stayed tuned for the latest!

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under forecast, Freeze

I have often mentioned the great opportunity that lies within the AGW and Peak Oil stories. Necessity is the mother of invention. Anyone one of us could be the next Bill Gates if we develop the technology that helps clean up our energy production. Thus I often cover some of the latest and greatest inventions and developments in the field of alternative energy (I also do this to demonstrate that solutions to our pollution problems are closer than we think and the future environment  is not doomed). Just over the last few days I found quite a few interesting articles. Peruse them at your liesure:

Y-Carbon has invented better thin film ultracapacitors. These could replace batteries in many applications and help speed the adoption of solar power.

University of California, San Diego researchers have developed a cheaper solar concentrator for photovoltaic cells. The next best thing to increasing the efficiency of solar cells is to decrease the cost.

From the Georgia Institute of Technology, a new nano-composite made of silicon and carbon has been found to increase the performance of lithium-ion batteries (used in most electric vehicles).

Researchers at MIT continue to improve the usability and performance of lithium-air batteries. This type of lithium battery could deliver 3 times the electricity of regular lithium-ion batteries.

Redwood Systems has found that supplying power to LED lights through cables is 50 to 80% more efficient than using regular wiring.

Wind power (notoriously intermittent) could be stored in large underwater balloons, according to Seamus Garvey.

Solar plane could circumnavigate the globe by 2013.

Project Better Place has three electric taxis with swappable batteries running in Tokyo.

There are dozens of other stories each day, each one seemingly coming from a large university or company. I keep waiting for the day I can report on someone in Northcentral Wisconsin developing a new way to conserve energy or produce a new source of clean energy. I am sure there are some inventors and entrepreneurs in the area. Perhaps I should go to the places (houses & businesses) where people are using alternatives and see how it is working out for them. Do any of the readers today, know of any interesting implementation of alternative energy in Northcentral Wisconsin. Is anyone ordering a Bloom Box? Does anyone have solar panels on their house? Does anyone have any new energy saving techniques or devices you would like to describe. Just leave comment. One simple device I though about the other day would be a large parabolic mirror to focus light on my house during the winter. If it was just a reflector and not a solar cell, then it could be built pretty cheap (I am assuming a material other than glass – which could get expensive), although I am unsure of how much benefit could be derived. The idea is to have the reflector (maybe 10 feet by 10 feet) sit on the north side of the house and reflect light onto the house during the winter, and maybe even reflect the light through a north facing window. The coldest days in the winter are usually sunny as well. If it could knock a small percentage off my heating bills and only cost a couple hundred to set-up, then I think it might be worth it. Some potential drawbacks: 1. ice and snow build up on the reflector. 2. potential damage to siding due to extra amounts of reflected light.

In any case, let me know of any new innovations you have heard about in the area.

Have a good Tuesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Alternative Energy

Since this is the last week to enter the snowmelt contest I want to mention it a couple more times in the blog. The deadline is midnight on April 30th (Friday night). You can submit your guess here. You can do it today, or maybe wait until Friday. I have one of our skycams zoomed in closer on Rib Mountain and will continue to do so throughout the week in order to give you a better look at how much is left. Some additionalinformation: A young fellow Payton and his father were up on Rib Mountain over the weekend to get a close up look at the remaining snow. They took a look at most of the snow piles and came up with an average depth of 16 inches and a maximum of about 44 inches. This is less than what was up there last year at this time (last years snowmelt date was a record late one – June 24th). This year it might be a record early melt. It depends on the weather over the next few weeks. If it is warmer than normal, then the snow will melt pretty quick. If it is cooler (things looks near normal for the next 7 to 10 days) then maybe it will be a more normal melt date, which is usually between June 5th and 10th. Good luck everyone.

Picture By Deb Janko

The snow might melt early this year and there are other signs of Spring coming out earlier this year (Brian covered some of these in an earlier blog post). I see some of the trees are getting leaves and flowers. I also have Spinach up in my garden already which makes it the earliest I have had spinach over the last decade or so. On the wildlife front, Deb Janko from the town of Merrill sent in a nice picture of nesting bluebirds.

What would make this Spring even more spectacular is if we could get some heavier rainfall in more of the area. Most of the viewing area around Marathon county and further north only received one to two tenths of an inch over the weekend – just enough to wet the whistle. In Wausau the official total at the airport was 0.15 inches. A few spots had a lot more rainfall. There was one persistent band of rain that affected east central Wisconsin and stretched into the eastern part of our area on Sunday morning. It produced 1.19 inches of rain in Green Bay. Our StormTrak9 weather watchers also reported some nice amounts.

Marianne in Scandinavia: 1.1″

Paul & Char in Stevens Point: 0.55″

Bruce & Pat in Polonia: 0.77″

Mary & Scott in Almond: 0.68″

Joan in Plainfield: 1.0″

Mary in Whiting: 0.65″

The next chance of rain will come late Thursday and during the day on Friday. If we are lucky, the rain could be a half inch or so. Until then, I’ll have to keep watering.

Since tornadoes proved their deadly nature once again this weekend (in the southeast) and we just ended our severe weather and tornado awareness week in Wisconsin, how about a simple list of tornado facts to peruse. The explanation of how tornadoes form leaves a little bit to be desired but the other facts are fairly interesting. The one thing that most people do not know is that the vast majority of tornadoes that occur in the world – occur in the United States. I once heard a quote (but cannot now find the reference, so don’t quote me as a fact) that over 90% of the world’s tornadoes occur in the U.S.

Lastly, a little eye-candy for your Monday. We now have a satellite monitoring the sun in high definition. Some of the first video released is stunning. Take a look at this one.

Have a nice Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Environment, Snowmelt 2010, Spring, Viewer pictures

From Thursday through Saturday our severe weather season took an active turn.  The United States had started out as one of the most quiet severe weather season on records but the past few days it definitely took a dramatic twist.  The Jet Stream which plays a key role in severe weather finally became active over the Plains and Southeast leading to days with 20 plus tornadoes. 

Yesterday was the worst with 40 plus tornadoes being reported across a spread of several states including Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas.  So far the hardest hit area was Yazoo, MS were a tornado killed 10 people. For latest check out this story.  Right now meteorologists are researching whether or not it was one tornado that caused all the damage or a cluster of tornadoes.  Preliminary data shows there was at least one EF3 with winds of 160 mph, with a width of one and half miles.  Final reports of the tornadoes, damage and categories to which they will be named should be out by Tuesday.   

Also I wanted to comment on a statement one of my weather watchers made yesterday.  They said that yesterday was not dreary that it was a perfect day because they enjoy overcast and rainy days.  I just want to say that by definition when a meteorologist says dreary it means, gray and lack of brightness aka the sun.  That in no way implies that it was an awful day it just is describing what the day was like-gray.  Everyone enjoys their own weather and I hope whatever you like that you will see in the days ahead!

And last but not least, this is a neat slide show of spring flowers!

Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Severe Weather, Spring, Storms, Travel

Finally some rainfall! I was reading Justin’s earlier post about the fact that rain comes sometimes when we don’t want it aka the weekends.  I have to admit I like the sunshine but the rain is so needed in this area that I can take a few rainy days for the better good of everyone.  We have had various totals around the area from a few hundredths to over a half an inch in some cities south of 29.  Some of us will luck out and others will get what we need, a nice dosing. 

Speaking of rain I was just up visiting my family around the Boston area.  I was talking to some about their recent flooding.  I know a few of my famil ymembers had to literally pump out their basements so  I was talking to them about their experience dealing with the drenching rain they saw, some almost 20 inches in 24 hours.  They talked about how lucky they were compared to friends whom had just finished their basement and it was completely destroyed in the flooding.  I also noticed how much everything was in bloom up there.  I felt the difference in rain really made it feel more like spring in the northeast compared to here.  I hope the rain we see today will help to liven everything up a bit!

On the topic of things being beautiful today is the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Telescope.  Many people know what the Hubble telescope is but for those who don’t I can almost guaranteeyou have seen something shot by it.  For the past 20 years we have seen breath taken images of places in space we didn’t even know existed thanks to the Hubble.  This telescope, has let us find numerous discoveries including Pluto’s two new moons.  For the top 10 list of what Hubble has discovered check out this link. 

During its time in space the telescope has had to be repaired and service five times the last being in 2009.  The last repair occurred in 2009 and should last for at least the next 5 years without having to be touched. 

For everything Hubble you can check out its official site.  Espcially check out the gallery! Here is just one I enjoyed seeing.

On a very sad note we saw deadly tornadoes across the south today.  I will make sure to do an update on what happened for tomorrows blog.

Have a good night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Drought, Flooding, Severe Weather, Space, Travel, Uncategorized