There is reason to celebrate today!

Is it because the fall color is in full swing and quite vibrant this year? Well, that is one reason.

Is it because a new habitable exoplanet has been discovered and it is only 20 light years away!? That discovery tripped my trigger, but I doubt too many others would celebrate.

Is it because dry and mostly pleasant weather (except tomorrow and Saturday) is on the horizon? This means river levels will continue to return to normal. This is certainly good news and something I would celebrate at least a little. I was out in the countryside yesterday hoping to do some trout fishing before the season closed but I couldn’t find a stream that was not flooded. Most of them were still a foot or more above normal.

What I was referring to in the beginning of the blog is the status of the drought here in Wisconsin. Many of you are probably thinking right now – what drought? I know it doesn’t seem like we have been experiencing drought for at least 2 or 3 months now, however, it takes awhile for the official drought status to catch up with the reality on the ground (because it is a multi-factorial calculation). This week’s update of the US Drought Monitorindicates Wisconsin is 99.9 percent drought free. Don’t ask me where the speck of remaining abnormally dry conditions is located. It is too small to show up on the graphic but perhaps it is in Florence county since that is where some of the last remaining dry conditions were located last week.

Have a nice Thursday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Drought, Fall Color, Space

This last weekend I got a chance to take in my first Beef o Rama in Minocqua.  Beef o Rama…more like Beef o Awesome…ok I’m a dork but it really was a blast.  If you have never been or heard of Beef o Rama, check this out.  Over 40 area organizations or businesses cook a huge beef roast just the way they want.  Many also decorate and put their roast and roast stations in a theme setting.  It is amazing to see the creativity that comes out of this event!  What a good time. 

I was lucky enough to be a judge.  So Melissa Langbehn and I along with 3 other judges sampled all 40+ roasts.  I have to admit, I didn’t think I was going to ever eat beef again but I got over it.  Now of course we judged on taste but we also judged on the overall appearance, theme, and decoration.   Some bribing and schmoozing was also allowed. 

Century 21 took home the top prize.  They had a Mardi Gra theme to their beef presentation.   Their beef roast was so tender and delicious.  They also provided a unique dipping sauce.  I also have to admit they did some pretty good bribing as well, that happened to involve a bottle of Baileys:)

Once the judging is done, a Minocqua fire engine then leads the parade of beef.  All the roasts are then lead down Oneida Street to Torpy Park, where they are then all sliced and sold as sandwiches.

Here are a number of pictures I snapped…enjoy!

Meteorologist Brian Niznansky

Posted under Uncategorized

I can’t believe that it is almost October, and that some places up north are almost to peak for fall color!  Fall officially started a week ago but across the area it has felt like fall the entire month of September.  Fall is such a gorgeous time of the year with the leaves changing colors.  I have talked about this a few times but I can truly say the season I probably missed most living in Florida and Texas was fall.  The natural beauty that fall brings really is spectacular.

Last year I wrote an article about why leaves change.  That is always a common question that people seem interested in.  So if you want to know the answer you can check out this link.  I’ll give you a clue, it has to do with the sun!

If you haven’t had a chance to get out and experience the colors for yourself you can look at this link to find out how far along your colors are! The site also has great ideas and maps on where to go to see the leaves.  I know that I am going to head up to Rib Mountain soon, before it’s to late!

Here is the map of colors across the state:

Last but not least! We saw our next Tropical Storm today, Tropical Storm Nicole.  But she was very short lived.  She was only a tropical storm for around 7 hours!  Her last advisory was just issued so she is no more.  One thing she did though bring LOTS of rain to Florida.

Have a great day tomorrow in enjoy the beautiful fall weather! I will on the golf course!

Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Fall, Fall Color, Tropics

Could you use a year of free car washes? Or $100 to spend at the R-storesof Northcentral Wisconsin? Yes? Then don’t miss your opportunity to enter the first snowfall contest. You can enter here. You have until midnight Friday night to enter. Typically, the 1st inch of snowfall falls sometime in November. However, if you wanted to take a chance (and increase your odds of winning one of the top prizes) then you might want to think about a date in October or in December.

Alternative Energy News:

If you are following the development of electric vehicles you are probably as disappointed as me about the delays that have occurred thus far. Some of these cars were supposed to be on the road already. Well, good news, it looks like there will be 4 models for sale before the end of the year (a good chance anyway). Take a look at the offerings here. One car that I have not profiled too much here in the blog is the Coda. It is nice to see another offering from a different company, however, the price of the Coda is still out of my range (and most of the people I know). If I can’t get something in the “well under $20,000″ range, I would rather ride my bike. Looks like I will be putting quite a few more miles on my bike.

Forecast:

It still looks like a good chance of a killing frost Sunday morning so if you have any sensitive plants outdoors, be sure to make plans to bring them in or protect them.

Have a good Wednesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Alternative Energy, forecast

Geese aren’t the only thing heading south this week but so is the water.  Water which has been bottled up in various water ways from last week’s heavy rains continues to filter to our neighbors to the south.

The Wolf river is now over flood stage in Outagamie County.  And the Wisconsin River crested at a record level of 20.66′ this afternoon in Portage!  The old record was 20.50′ set back int 1938.   The good news is it looks like the sandbag level held just north of Portage, preventing a major flooding disaster.

Here is a great write up from the NWS on the heavy rain and flooding, including several pictures…

In this write up there is actually a really cool timelapse of the Black River rising in Black River Falls.

-watch the stairwell in the background get ripped off!!

Meteorologist Brian Niznansky

Posted under Flooding

Hey everyone! Lots going on at Newsline 9 these days.  We have a new partnership that we are in the works on, I don’t think we are allowed to reveal the details just yet but it will be a great way for you to receive more information from us and just another way to get the forecast you need.  We will let you know what exactly that is in the up coming days.

I also wanted to direct you to my “Have You Ever Wondered Page?” I wrote another article on the site about snow to rain equivalent.  This is a question that gets asked often.  How many inches of snow would fall with the rain we saw or vice versus.  I will give you one clue… it depends on the temp! For more information head over to my page.

Other news… you only have 3 days to get your nominations in for our FIRST snowfall of the year contest.  Your nominations have to be in by Oct 1st, so don’t delay! You can win lots of prizes including R Store gift cards and car washes.  It is really simple to enter just head over to this link. Remember you are picking the first one inch of more of snow in the Wausau area.  We will go off of the National Weather Service data once we start to see that snow falling. 

Last but not least we may see our next storm in the Atlantic sometime over the next day or so. Right now it is Tropical Depression 16.  As I was talking to my folks today they said they were “getting ready for the rain”.  This storm will move across the Peninsula and eventually up the Carolinas and could even hit New York this weekend.  It has already brought over 6 inches in some areas of Florida! Seems like they are dealing with the amount of rain we saw last week.  For the totals you can click here.

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under First Snowfall 2010, Flooding, forecast, Tropics, Weather History, Weather NEws, Winter Weather

Judging by the weather charts it looks quite likely that we will have our first official frost (32 or lower) in Wausau coming this Sunday morning. If the temps drop to 32 in town then it will likely be a killing frost out in the countryside and in the northwoods. This is important for 2 reasons. First, farmers and gardeners will need to wrap things up for the season or take necessary precautions. Secondly, and very important, is marking the point at which we can start talking about Indian Summer. Even though we have experienced some light scattered frost over the last week or two, I don’t think is was widespread or hard enough to be THE first frost for the area. For a more in depth discussion about the sometimes nebulous definition of Indian Summer here in Northcentral Wisconsin check out this past blog entry. If we do have a hard frost on Sunday morning, we could have our first official Indian Summer day by next Tuesday. Right now I am forecasting high temps in the upper 60s for next Tuesday. If we would happen to see the mercury reach the low 70s then it could be an official Indian Summer day (“nice” with high temps at least 10 degrees above normal).

Other than the potential for Indian Summer weather early next week the temperatures will be at or below normal, as has been the case through most of this month of September. I wonder if we are feeling the effects of La Nina already. The last couple of times there was a La Nina temperature pattern in the Pacific ocean, we did experience below normal temperatures. Perhaps La Nina is the reason why Arctic sea ice did not shrink to a record low areal extent this year. The lowest amount of sea ice usually occurs in early September. Since I did not see an explosion of media hysteria about sea ice earlier this month I just assumed there was not a new record. Just checked, and sea ice was lower than last year but greater than 2007 and 2008. Of course, most of the blame for the current lower amounts of sea ice have been placed upon anthropogenic global warming (AGW), however, the arctic has been ice free at different periods in the past. Plus, natural events/changes do have noticeable significant effects on the climate. If AGW is substantial then we might expect arctic sea-ice to remain low or get lower over the next few years, but sun cycles, volcanoes, and ocean cycles such as La Nina could temper things a bit or cause sea ice to expand.

As a side note, it is nice to see more climate reporting focusing on all aspects of the climate rather than only AGW. For years (I would say decades), anytime anyone mentioned solar cycles, cosmic rays, volcanoes, or a plethora of other natural climate forcing mechanisms (well known or theoretical), they would be met with derision  – which is probably an understatement. It seems this unprofessional and many times vulgar attitude stemmed from the idea that “big oil” had to be confronted and that anyone who questioned AGW theory (even with solid data to back it up) was a “tool of big oil” or a “flat-earther”. No dissent was allowed. Well-meaning skeptics were lumped in with non-scientists and conspiracy theorists and were often threatened. Predictably, this led to an insular culture within the cadre of top climate scientists, some unethical behavior (see Climategate), and clearly erroneous predictions (last IPCC assessment). Now it seems, the reporting about our climate future is getting a little more rational and open and this is a good thing. Recent articles have mentioned the limits of predictability (of large climate swings), ice caps are not melting as fast as thought, and – gasp – the effects of the sun on climate. Even as climate reporting gets more rational (and most likely more accurate), don’t think that AGW is not at least a small factor in the earth’s climate future. One look at how humans have changed the surface of the earth should give you an idea of how much we affect things around this planet.

Have a good Tuesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under AGW, Climate Change

Thanks to everyone who sent in photos of the flood event that occurred late last week. We were able to show many of them on the air and it helped document how the flooding was so widespread. Here is one last picture that might give you a chuckle. It was taken by Cynthia Johnson along the Rib River in Taylor county. During this flooding event the street sign was no longer adequate. An interesting side note is that I have been down this road in the past. On many maps it is shown as a through street which it is not.

Flooding along the Rib River

The road ends at the Rib River. It is fairly shallow at this location and when I was there it looked like people with big trucks and/or ATVs still cross through the water. I was fishing on that day and ended up at the dead end. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME: I took a chance and drove my tiny car across the river. The water was a little more than a foot deep and I was probably quite lucky that my car did not get stuck or floated a bit down the river. There was little danger of drowning since the river doesn’t get more than 2 or 3 feet deep along that stretch, but it sure would have been a pain-in-the-you-know-what if I had gotten stuck. It would have been costly to call in a tow truck.

I went fishing this past weekend and I was blocked quite often by flooded roadways near the Wisconsin river. This time, I did not attempt any foolish crossings since the rivers were dangerously high. For trout fishing, the high water ruined that chance of catching a fish in most of my favorite spots. On the big water, such as the Wisconsin River, the fishing was surprisingly good. I stopped by the Castle Rock dam in southern Adams county and people were catching all kinds of fish. Dan, the fellow that owns the bait shop by the dam said that the fish come toward shore out of the current to get food. Due to the high water, there is a lot of new territory for the fish to forage in and they take advantage. I saw pails full of bass and people hooking a couple muskies. For musky fishing, I don’t know if there is a better place than the Castle Rock dam. Throughout the year, there are a handful of 40 inch plus muskies caught every week! Dan has all the proof in pictures. It is also a good spot to catch large 20 inch plus brown trout – a reason I keep coming back.

Some other odds and ends:

Be sure to enter the “First Snowfall Contest”. You can enter real easy here: http://waow.upickem.net/upickem/registration/login.asp?contestid=21669

Once again there are some great prizes provided by the R-Stores(25 different locations!) of northcentral Wisconsin. Just think how much ice melter you will be able to buy at the R-Store if you win one of the gift cards. If you want to take a bit more of a chance (and perhaps increase your odds of winning the random drawing) then pick a date in October or December. Otherwise our first inch of snow usually comes in November. One entry per person. Good Luck.

I have recently spent a little blog time knocking down a couple forms of alternative energy (primarily grain ethanol and biodiesel in general, and wind energy a bit) and it was about time I got around to space solar energy. The idea is to put solar panels in space and then beam the energy down to earth for use. It is doable with enough money (the large initial investment is a big drawback) and the technical hurdles are not that bad. Here are a couple of articles with different approaches: article one and article two. The one part of the equation many people are not talking about is the environmental aspect. I am quite sure that environmental organizations will put an end to this idea because of the requirement of “beaming” energy down to earth. A large percentage of the energy will be absorbed by the atmosphere. I suspect many people will be unnerved about the air being hit with a additional beam of radiation from space all day long.

CPC Outlook:

Due to my recent vacation and the flooding, I was not able to get to the CPC long range outlooks released last week.

Feb-Mar-Apr Forecast

The most interesting change for our area is that there is now a bit higher chance of colder than normal temps for our area late in the Winter and in early Spring. Also of note is the forecast for a greater chance of warmer than normal weather in October. This should be great for getting out to see the Wisconsin Fall colors. You had better act soon though. The colors are peaking in the northwoods this week! It seems the colors are turning almost a week early this year.

October Forecast

I was out for a drive yesterday and took a few pictures. I hope to share a few of these pics tomorrow.

Have a nice Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Alternative Energy, CPC Outlook, First Snowfall 2010, Flooding, Viewer pictures

What a few days it has been.  I have to say the one impressive aspect I noticed over the past few days was how communities have come together to help those in need and made an effort to do whatever they could to help the flood victims.  It is really unfortunate that it we had to deal with the devastation but at least for us it looks like the worst of it is over.  We are now in the recovery mode. 

In our area we are down to only minor flooding in Wisconsin Dells and in Black River Falls. 

 In Black River the current stage is 48.37 as of 7pm.  They are still under a Flood Warning and will be until they can get below the Flood Stage of 47. So by tomorrow morning they should be able to break that boundary and reduce the flooding even more. 

In Wisconsin Dells the Wisconsin River is at 17.26 with their Flood Stage at 16 feet.  This area and Portage is being watched carefully with evacuations in place.  They could deal with moderate to major flooding over the next couple days.  It could be until Wednesday before they see the relief that the rest of us have seen.

The runoff from the rivers that crested are now feeding into the Mississippi.  This means we could see more flooding now from the excess of water in the Mississippi.  If you look at all the graphs on this page you can see all the rivers that feed in go down to below flooding potential while all the places where the Mississippi is are in forecasted in the upward trend.  This means through the week it is likely we will see more flooding in places like La Crosse, and McGregor, Iowa.  So while it may be over for some of us it may just be beginning for others. 

Thank you to so many people for sending in pictures.  I put a montage together, you can check it out here.

This week is going to be a week like no other- nothing but sunshine and seasonal temps! This will be a nice break from the rain. 

Have a good one! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Flooding, forecast, Viewer pictures, Weather NEws, Weather Safety

Hi everyone just a quick blog tonight. 

 I am working on a package to show viewer photos that we have received from all the flooding.  It will be on the news tomorrow night. We are still seeing flooding around the area but the good news is that the rivers have crested and are receding so we will begin to see improvement.  The other good news is that we will see a DRY forecast for it looks like the next week.  For more info on the flooding you can check out the warnings or our website.

Here are the levels of the rivers tonight:

Black River  53.47′   -Moderate flooding

Yellow River  13.7′   Minor flooding

Wisconsin River at Rothschild  25.81′  Minor flooding

Big Eau Pleine River  7.61′  No flooding

Although it is not October yet it may feel like winter tonight.  We are going to see temps dipping into the upper 20′s to low 30′s around the area.  Because of this we have a FREEZE warning in effect for the Northwoods and almost everyone else is under a FROST Advisory. For more details you can check out this link.

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Fall, Flooding, Freeze