The day has finally arrived to unveil the top 3 weather events of the year in Northcentral Wisconsin. Before we get into the list, I have another weather event to discuss and that is a WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY in effect for most of the area for this afternoon and evening. The only counties NOT included in the ADVISORYat the time of this writing (morning) are Juneau, Adams, Waushara, Waupaca, Shawano, and Menominee. Temperatures have fallen a little below freezing and will not recover too much by late afternoon when the rain will begin and thus some of the rain will fall as freezing rain. Be very, very careful driving home from work this afternoon or heading out to New Years Eve parties this evening. Freezing rain is the worst type of precipitation during the winter season because it causes the most accidents. Later tonight the temps will plummet and it will remain very cold over the weekend so watch out for ice on sidewalks and parking lots.

Now on to the top weather events of 2010. For numbers 10 through 7 check here. For numbers 6 through 4 check here.

3. October 26th and 27th wind storm. This wind storm was not associated with severe thunderstorms but with a large area of low pressure. Wind gusts topper out at 60 to 65 mph in the area and caused a lot of power outages. By itself, the wind would have ranked much lower on the list. What is special about this event is the low pressure system that caused the high wind. It produced the lowest pressure ever recorded in the continental United States. The center of the storm system was in Minnesota (where the record occurred) but it was close enough to Wausau to produce the second lowest pressure ever recorded here. Whenever you are dealing with an all-time U.S. weather record, and the storm in in our neighborhood, it has to go high on the list.

2. Flooding on September 23rd and 24th. Flooding rains of 3 to 5 inches hit much of Northcentral Wisconsin (some spots had 7 to 9 inches) on the 23rd and the after effects were felt quite widely on the 24th and following days.

The Raging Wisconsin River

 The high rain totals were in areas south and west of Wausau. We had some amazing pictures from the Yellow River in Wood county, the Rib River in Marathon county, and the Black River in Clark and Jackson counties. Check out this cool time lapse of the Black River rising to record levels in Black River Falls. Here is a neat picture of the Rib River in Taylor county. Here is another page of blog posts with a recap of the flooding. Also helping this event get close to number one for the year is the fact that is was a record rainfall of 3.38 inches in Wausau on the 23rd.

1. Above normal precipitation in 2010! I hope this doesn’t seem too anti-climactic but I consider it the most important weather event of the year because we had previously spent 7 years in a row with below normal precipitation in Wausau and most of Northcentral. It was seven years in a row with significant periods of drought affecting everything from farmers to fishers. If you remember back to the beginning of the year you will recall that there was a severe to extreme drought in the northern half of the state. The state did not become drought-free until a little while after the flooding mentioned in #2. As many people “in-the-know” would tell you, the low water levels were getting to be worrisome. I talked to several people whose wells had gone dry and who had to drill deeper to find water. Another year or two of dry weather and we might have experienced water restrictions in area communities. Nearly everyone was familiar with the affect of the dry weather on area lakes. Several reservoirs had literally “dried-up”. Most natural lakes were down 2 to 4 feet before recovering a little this year. A few of my favorite trout streams were nearly unfishable due to low water. About 5 years ago, Carter creek in Adams county dried up completely. The dry weather also made it tough for gardeners, just ask my wife about how much we had to water the plants back in 2009. During the last 7 years we missed out on about 45 inches of precipitation! This year in Wausau we had 38.10 inches of precipitation – thus far – and this is nearly 5 inches above normal. Now we just need 6 or 7 more years with precipitation 5 inches above normal and we will catch up. While that would be nice, not everyone would be happy. I remember talking to a few folks this summer (farmers and gardeners) who were trying to grow crops on heavy clay soil and they were not happy. The excessive rain drowned out some of the crops. The mosquito population increased a bit as well this year and will continue to do so if we have successive years of adequate or above normal precipitation. I don’t think people are prepared for the onslaught of mosquitoes that will come with more years of wet weather. Those 7 years of dry weather kept most of the biting insect population waaaay down – well below what should be expected for Wisconsin. We have been spoiled.

For more big weather events in the entire state of Wisconsin, check out this page from the NWS in Milwaukee.

Stay tuned on Monday for the final numbers of 2010. We already know that precipitation was above normal, but what about the temperatures? The warmest of the year? The coldest?

Lastly in today’s post a few other yearly-end and year-forward articles for your reading pleasure:

If you only have time to read one of these this would be the one: Duh! The most obvious scientific discoveries of the year. These are things  that are common sense to most of us, but were the focus of rigorous study none-the-less.

Potential scientific breakthroughs to look forward to in 2011. Not a great list, mostly things that have been expected for a while now.

The top eight space mishaps of 2010. Number 1 is the Japanese venus probe missing the planet. Perhaps it can study the sun instead, since it might be orbiting it for a few years. This is an unfortunate “loss” for JAXA, but they have many successful space missions under their belt and I wish them much success in the new year.

Things to look forward to in private space travel in 2011.

Have a happy new year! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Science, Space, Top 10 List, Winter Weather

Time to continue the countdown of Northcentral Wisconsin’s top ten weather events. Check yesterday’s post for numbers 10 through 7. Today I will cover 6, 5, and 4 and tomorrow you get the top three.

6. Pittsville wind storm July 14th. Check here and/or here for a previous in depth analysis of the storm. This was actually more than a “Pittsville” storm but that is where the most significant damage occurred. During the day, we had 3 different waves of severe thunderstorms and the damage in Pittsville occurred with the 3rd wave. The storm that produced widespread damage had previously produced sporadic tornado touchdowns in Jackson and Clark counties. When it hit Pittsville it had transformed into a strogn strait-line wind storm. There were many power outages, trees down, and structures damaged, not only around Pittsville but most of northcentral Wisconsin. We also recorded a record rainfall of 2.70 inches in Wausau on that day. Since this was the most significant severe weather event of 2010 and probably the biggest since 2007, it probably should have ranked higher. Anyway,

5. No Snow in March. Even though this is a “non-event”, it ranks quite high on the list because it was the first time in Wausau’s weather history (and all of Northcentral Wisconsin) that we have not received any snow in March. We didn’t even have a trace! March is known by many as the month when we have the “tournament storm”. It is usually a volatile month and some of our biggest snowstorms in the past have occurred in March. This year was as quiet as a mouse – when it comes to snowfall. It was also the 4th warmest March we have recorded in Wausau.

4. December 11th blizzard. This was one of the bigger snowstorms to hit Northcentral Wisconsin in recent years. It produced 13.5 inches of snow in Wausau, 12.8 of which fell on the 11th. 12.8 inches is the second most Wausau has ever recorded in a single calendar day. Snow totals were as high as 20 inches in parts of Taylor county while most locations were in the 8 to 12 inches range. The snow, wind, and cold paralyzed much of the area for 2 days. Perhaps this storm could have ranked lower, but it was fresh in my mind since it occurred only a couple weeks ago. Check this page of previous blog posts for more stats  and pictures regarding this snowstorm.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the top 3 weather events and a summary of 2010 statistics.

Some other year-end and year forward articles:

Wired magazine picks their top science breakthroughs of 2010.

Top environmental stories of the year (a lot of doom and gloom). Perhaps the biggest story is that environmental Armageddon did not occur.

The top six spaceflight stories of 2010. I hope next years list includes private/commercial astronauts making their way into space.

Have a nice Thursday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Science, Technology, Top 10 List

According to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the 12-month stretch from December 2009 through November 2010 has recorded the warmest global average temperature on record.  Reasonably accurate records of temperature using standards goes back about 130 years.

The average land and ocean combined temperature anomaly for the period was .65 Celsius (or 1.17 F) above the 1951-1980 global mean, topping the previous warmest 12-month period of +.62 Celsius during 2005.  Coming in third place is the year 2007 with an anomaly of +.61 Celsius.   It’s interesting that the top three warmest 12-month periods have all occurred this decade.

Below you will see the GISS chart showing the temperature departure from normal broken down by Hemisphere.  Notice how Canada and Siberia were especially warm.

The graph below shows the general upward trend of 12-month running mean temperatures since 1880.

I’ve read in several places that the 2010 global temperature (Jan. – Dec.) will probably rank in the top 3 warmest calendar years.  We won’t know for sure until sometime in January when the data all comes in.

Posted under Climate Change, Environment, Science

As promised, today I will start counting down the top ten weather events of 2010 in Northcentral WI, as decided by….me. I don’t have a specific formula for determining the top ten. I just go by my perception as the year rolls by. Some of the questions I aks myself are:  How much impact did the event have? How does it compare to historical records? How many people did it affect? The thought just occurred to me that I should put a list of weather events in the blog before the end of the year and then have people vote on the top weather events. Perhaps we can do it that way next year. Thanks for all of those who left comments about the top weather events. Ray brought up one event that I had forgotten about and that eventually made my list and that is the May snowstorm. Thanks for the reminder. With all that said, let us get started:

10. 46 tornadoes in Wisconsin. Since this is the second most tornadoes ever recorded in Wisconsin during a calendar year, some of you might think this deserves a higher rating. I didn’t give it a higher rating be cause hardly any of the tornadoes occurred in our viewing area. From the preliminary data, it looks like less than 5 occurred in Northcentral Wisconsin. In fact, it might have only been 3 (which will be covered later in the top 10 list). The most positive aspect of this very active tornado year is that most of the tornadoes were weak and short-lived and nobody was killed by a tornado. It just goes to show you that Wisconsinites take severe weather and severe weather safety seriously.

9. Snow fall (2 to 4 inches) on May 7th and 8th. There are several aspects to this event that demands its inclusion on the top 10 list. First of all, accumulating snow in May is unusual, even for Wisconsin. The snow was heavy enough to bring a few trees and branches down around the area, causing power outages. The snow caused 15 million dollars damage to the state’s ginseng crop. Also, we hadn’t seen any snow since late February (blame El Nino) so many people had gotten it in their heads that winter was definitely over. Lastly, even though it is very unusual to have such heavy snow so late in the Spring, we did not break any records for snowfall. In Wausau we had 2.4 inches on the 7th and and 0.50 inches on the 8th. The record snowfall on the 7th is 2.5 inches and the record on the 8th is 1.5 inches. Here is a previous blog post about the snow – with pictures.

8. July 20th wind storm. A line of severe thunderstorms on this day produced powerful downburst winds that were measured at 90mph and estimated to have reached 100 mph.

July 20th Damage

Perhaps I rated this one a little higher than other events because trees were knocked down on my street and in my neighborhood on the north side of Wausau. When you are in the action, it certainly sticks in your mind. Power was out at our house for 14 hours. Chainsaws could be heard for several days after the storm. This same storm system also caused some damage in Wittenberg including roof damage to the high school. Many viewers took dramatic pictures of the dark clouds and damage on that day. I have included one here. Check these blog posts from July to read more about the wind storm.

7. Iron County/Springstead Tornado. Tornadoes always rank high in year-end lists and this was one of the few in our area.

Arial View of Iron Co. Damage

This tornado in Iron county was part of a group of severe storms that also produced 2 tornadoes in Ashland county. What made the Iron county tornado so interesting (and rank high on the list) is that it was the first tornado reported in that county since 1970. Tornadoes are much more rare in northern Wisconsin. The Iron county tornado, while fairly weak and short-lived, was especially scary because it struck after dark in remote parts of the Turtle-Flambeau flowage area. The tornado tore down trees in a primitive campground just north of Springstead. It was very fortunate that none of the campers were killed. One person was seriously injured and had to be evacuated for treatment. You can find more blog analysis and pictures about this tornado in our July blog roll.

Coming tomorrow – numbers 6, 5, and 4. They only get bigger!

Some other year-end reviews:

The year in computing as reported by Technology Review.

The year in web as reported by Technology Review.

How about one of my favorite subjects – Electric Vehicles. Check out what to expect in 2011 (hopefully a lot more than what was promised in 2010).

And a final reminder to be careful of ice this weekend. All the rain and snowmelt that occurs over the next two days will freeze up on Saturday turning sidewalks and parking lots into skating rinks.

Have a good Wednesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under Science, Severe Weather, Technology, Top 10 List, Tornadoes

The Wisconsin DNR has issued an Air Quality Watch for southeast Wisconsin Wednesday into Thursday morning.    You may have noticed this type of thing issued in your area at various times the past few years.   We see it more often in the summer when we have a humid, stagnant weather pattern without much wind.   In winter, it occurrs when we have had a prolonged period with a low level temperature inversion which tends to trap the air and pollutants in the lowest few thousand feet of the atmosphere.  They do this when unhealthy levels of ozone and particulate matter are expected.   The technical discussion of such matters listed below is taken directly from their website.

Groups that are most sensitive to ozone and PM2.5 include:

• Active children who spend much of their time outdoors
• Active adults who spend much of their time outdoors
• People with asthma or other respiratory diseases
• People with heart disease (PM2.5 sensitivity only)
• Older adults (PM2.5 sensitivity only)

At high levels, everyone should be concerned about ozone and PM2.5 exposure affecting their respiratory health. Ozone and PM2.5 can affect human health in many ways:

• Irritate respiratory systems and cause coughing and difficulty breathing
• Reduce lung function
• Aggravate asthma
• Cause permanent lung damage
• Aggravate or cause chronic lung diseases such as emphysema and bronchitis
• Reduce the immune system’s ability to fight off bacterial infections in the respiratory system
• Irregular heartbeat (PM2.5 only)
• Nonfatal heart attacks (PM2.5 only)
• Premature death in people with heart or lung disease (PM2.5 only)

Environmental Health Impacts

• Ground level ozone and particle pollution are major components of smog, which reduces visibility in addition to affecting human health.
• Ground level ozone and particle pollution damage non-living things. Ozone affects rubber, textiles, and coatings like paint and dyes. Particle pollution can damage statues, monuments, and buildings made of stone and other materials.
• Ozone injures plant leaves and slows photosynthesis, the process by which plants make their food. Ozone damage leads to reduced plant growth and survival and increased susceptibility to diseases, pests, and drought. Leaf discoloration and spots are visible symptoms of severe ozone stress. Ozone impacts the production of agricultural crops and commercial timber and also diminishes the aesthetic value of natural and landscaped vegetation.
• Fine particle pollution is often acidic, causing acid rain and making lakes and streams acidic. Deposition of nitrogen-containing particles may change the nutrient balance in lakes and rivers, affecting the diversity of ecosystems or damaging forests or crops

Ozone

• Ozone (O₃) is a colorless gas found both in the Earth’s upper atmosphere and at ground level. Ozone can be good or bad, depending on where it is found.
• Ozone occurs naturally in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, 10 to 30 miles above the Earth’s surface, forming a layer that shields life on Earth from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. Because of this protection, stratospheric ozone is sometimes called “good ozone.”
• While stratospheric ozone protects us, at ground-level, where we inhale it, ozone is harmful to health. Ozone is created by a chemical reaction between nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the presence of heat and sunlight.
• The highest ozone levels in Wisconsin typically occur from mid-May to mid-September, especially in hot hazy weather with southerly winds.
• On March 12, 2008, EPA announced that the 8-hour ozone standard had been lowered to 75 ppb from 85 ppb in response to better data about health impacts.

Particle Pollution

• Particle pollution is composed of solid particles or liquid droplets that are suspended in air.
• There are two size ranges for particle pollution that are a concern in Wisconsin: coarse particles (PM10) have a diameter of 10 micrometers or less, and fine particles (PM2.5) have a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less. For reference, the average human hair is 70 micrometers in diameter, 30 times larger than the largest fine particle.
• PM2.5 is more closely regulated than PM10 because of greater health concerns as they can imbed deeper in the lungs, even in the tiniest air sacs.
• In Wisconsin, PM2.5 levels typically peak in winter but concentrations can also be high in summer.
• In October 2006, EPA lowered the 24-hour PM2.5 standard to 35 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³) from 65 µg/m³.

They have a series of monitoring stations set up around Wisconsin to keep track of this stuff.  Go here if you would like to check it out.  http://dnrmaps.wisconsin.gov/imf/imf.jsp?site=wisards

When air quality watches or advisories are in effect, the DNR recommends people refrain from burning and use your vehicles and other gas and diesel fueled devices as little as possible.

Posted under Allergies, Alternative Energy, Climate Change, Community, Ecology, Environment, Pollution, Science

Update on the mini-snowstorm: The official total snowfall on Monday in Wausau was 0.70 inches. That is quite a bit considering there was no actual low pressure or “weather system” in the area.

While researching the weather data for my top 10 Northcentral Wisconsin weather events of 2010, I came across some bad information about tornadoes in the state. A story crossed the national wire that claimed Wisconsin had 68 tornadoes in 2010, making it the sixth most in the nation, with Minnesota being number 1 with a whopping 144. You can read a version of the story here, and you can see the SPC website list of tornadoes by state here. The problem is that the SPC table is depicting a preliminary total for the nation (and various states) that uses Local Storm Reports (LSR’s) for the tabulation. The final numbers only include tornadoes that are verified by local NWS investigation. The NWS in Wisconsin only verified 46 tornado touchdowns this year in Wisconsin – a far cry from the 68 in the SPC table. Unfortunately this story has traveled around the country and a lot of people are mis-informed. In the future, the SPC should be sure to better label the tornado statistics table as “PRELIMINARY”. One interesting thing is that even though the true number is only 46, it is the second-most ever recorded during one calendar year in Wisconsin.

Besides tornadoes (which made the top ten list, which will start tomorrow), here are a couple of honorable mentions for top weather events/statistics for 2010:

Honorable Mention #1. It was a warm year. 9 out of the 12 months were above normal – some of them significantly so. March was the 4th warmest on record for Wausau. The mean temperature in March was about 8 degrees above normal. April was not far behind with a mean temp about 6 degrees above normal.

Honorable Mention #2: The strange grouping of sets of 5 in daily records. According to my preliminary count, in Wasuau we had 5 record high temperatures (tied or broken), 5 record warm low temperatures (tied or broken), and 5 days with record precipitation. Another “almost” 5 was the 5 days in a row with nearly the exact same high temperature. From March 14th through the 17 the high temperature was 63, then on the 18th it only reached 62.

Now some other year-end and year forward science articles for you to peruse:

The year in technology from Newscientist Not the best list I have seen.

IBM’s next 5 in 5 What 5 technologies IBM thinks will affect our lives the most in the next 5 years.

New space exploration and “big” science coming in 2011.

The most significant virtual reality technology of 2010.

Have a good Tuesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Records, Science, Technology, Top 10 List, Tornadoes

Before delving into some weather and science thoughts for the end of 2010, I have to mention the “freak snowstorm” that hit downtown Wausau earlier today. When I arrived at work at 2:40am  there was no snow. I started a skycam recording of snow-making operations out at Rib Mountain around 3:30am, around 4:30 the snow began and pretty soon we couldn’t even see Rib Mountain with our skycam. The snow continued off-and-on (more on than off) through about 7:30 to 8:00 am. Just eyeing-it-up it looked like about a quarter inch accumulation. The most interesting thing is that the snow only fell in a small area of south-central Wausau around the airport and around channel 9. It was enough snow to cover the roads and make them slippery.

What caused the mini-snowstorm in such a small area? It is hard to tell for sure, but it seemed as if the snow-making operations out at Granite Peak might have been adding enough moisture to already moist air with very low clouds to seed some snowflakes. The power plant in Weston also sends a lot of steam into the air and since the wind was out of the west and southwest, it might have also contributed to the snowstorm, although most of the effect (if it was driven by something other than purely atmospheric mechanisms) probably came from Rib Mountain. It was an interesting microscale event, in an otherwise tranquil weather pattern early this week. Later this week on Thursday and Friday it looks like some rain will be developing. This will create slushy, wet, and messy conditions as we head into New Year’s Eve. We might also have some problems with ice over the weekend as the temperatures will plunge from the upper 30s on Friday to the teens on Saturday afternoon. All of the puddles of slush and water will become little skating rinks on area sidewalks. You might want to stock up on ice melter or salt.

Cancun Climate Conference

Of all the things that happened in the world during 2010, I would have thought the climate would have made more news. Wild weather around the world certainly did make headlines and many disasters were blamed on anthropogenic global warming (AGW) most of the time, but the news did not dominate the news cycle as much as past years – based on my limited observation.  After reading and hearing “global warming” disaster scenarios for two decades, I figured things might be worse by now (2010).

As was the case at the COP15 (Copenhagen) conference last year, most of the conference revolved about establishing carbon emission targets for various countries around the world and how to enforce those emission targets. Not all countries agreed to the emission targets the IPCC would like to have in place, but some “progress” was made. The most interesting quote that came out of the conference was by a German Economist Ottmar Edenhofer. He was being very honest in saying that the climate conference was not about the climate but rather about how to re-distribute the world’s wealth  - meaning take wealth/money from Europe, much of North America, and Japan, and give it too less-developed countries – call it economic justice (instead of climate solutions) if you like. What is most surprising is that did not cause much of an uproar outside of conservative and libertarian publications. Is the world so conditioned to accept top down control that nobody notices anymore? I for one am a bit concerned about such far reaching laws and regulations of which I have almost zero control. Emission targets and enforcement (and global wealth re-distribution) affects me in a large way with higher energy costs yet I don’t have any input. It is taxation without representation. Most of the negotiators at climate conferences are not elected representatives but political appointees.

The one positive thing about Ottmar’s climate negotiation honesty is that it validates something I wrote almost a decade ago. During a heated online discussion about “global warming”, I claimed the Kyoto accord was nothing more than a big socialist-driven transfer of wealth from developed countries to less-developed countries. I caught flak from some people who claimed it was all about science and the climate. At the conclusion of the Cancun conference, I am happy to know that I was substantially correct.

Year End/Best Of:

As promised, I will link to some science and weather year-end compilations throughout the week. Stay tuned for Thursday and Friday when I will highlight the top ten weather events in Northcentral Wisconsin. Until then, how about the Best Science Pictures of 2010 and the Best Tech Products of the year.

Have a pleasant Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under AGW, Climate Change, Science, Winter Weather

Looking back over 2010, three weather events stick out in my mind as especially noteworthy.  The first was the record wet summer across Wisconsin.  Many parts of the TV-9 viewing area received 25 inches or more of rainfall from June through September when average for that period is about 16″.  This was capped off by an incredible rain event on September 23rd when over 3.25″ of rain fell in Wausau with some parts of the area getting drenched with 6.0″, including at my house near Dorchester.  Flooding was widespread, with several schools either closed or dismissing early.  This is the only time I can recall in my 17 years of weather broadcasting that schools were cancelled because of rainfall in our area.  Green Bay is very close to having their wettest year ever, on record.

The next most impressive event in my opinion was an incredibly strong low pressure system that moved through the Midwest on October 26th.  It established the lowest air pressure on record for the continental U.S. that wasn’t related to a tropical system.  We had our second lowest air pressure on record here in Wausau.  Near Aitkin, MN the air pressure bottomed out at an amazing 28.10″.  That’s about the same as a typical category four hurricane’s pressure!  It was an incredible wind storm for the Midwest with two days worth of sustained 30 mph winds, with some gusts to 60 mph pretty common.  There was a good deal of tree, power line, and even structural damage in the region.

Finally, the huge snowstorm on December 11th has to be mentioned as the 3rd biggest event.  We set a calendar day snowfall record for the month of December with 12.8″.  Our all-time calendar day snowfall record for Wausau is just over 13.0″, so we were close to that.  Many spots in central and west central Wisconsin checked in with 15 to 20″ of snowfall.  Then the winds were the big problem with about 36 hours of north to northwest winds of 20 to 40 mph.  This created drifts to 6 feet deep in the area.  We also had wind chills down to -25 degrees toward the end of the event.

Yes indeed, we had some exciting and extreme weather around here at various times in the year.  We can only wonder what 2011 will bring.

Posted under Community, Drought, Environment, Fall, Flooding, Natural Disasters, Records, Seasonal Items, Severe Weather, Snow Totals, Storms, Summer, Winter Weather

While discussing the future climate and future technologies that could help us live and prosper while having less impact on the environment, I often come across the theory and idea of “growth”, specifically economic growth but this also relates to population growth. If there is one sure way to create less pollution, it is to have less people on the planet. If we don’t want to keep seeing headlines like ocean dead zones are growing, then a stable or lower population is the key.

 I am no advocate of population control (or central economic planning), but neither do I encourage population growth as a necessary condition of progress. It occurred to me the other day that there are a lot of engrained societal systems to promote population growth. The most obvious is that many people find meaning in life through their progeny or feel it is their destiny to have children. The old saying goes “children are our future”. While this might be true in today’s world of limited lifespans, it doesn’t mean that we have to generate more kids in the next generation than the last. Children can still be the future, even if there are less of them.

More insidious is the economic reasoning for population growth. American style expansion was all the rage during the 20th century. The most visible sign of “progress” was more houses, more roads, more bridges, more strip malls, taller buildings. In essence, more, more, more! I once attended an investing conference where the speaker assured everyone that the stock market will keep going up because of population growth. I surprised the speaker with the question about the Japanese and German stock markets not growing much during the 1990s and early 200s. I suggested that part of the reason their stock markets had flat-lined is because their populations had stabilized (not growing anymore). For the record, he did not have a good answer but mentioned that you could still pick good stocks in those markets even it they were not going up as a whole. Here in lies the problem: everyone from economists down to regular folk (in America anyway) view progress as more GDP, more building, higher stock markets, etc… I came across this thought process recently in this opinion piece about the 2010 census. Both the writer and most the commenters seem wedded to the idea that population growth is necessary for “progress” 

I have had enough already. Enough pollution. Enough sprawl. I would much rather have quality over quantity when it comes to future “progress”. I think it is time we stopped building more, more, and more. I am not naive, I know there will be problems if the population started declining. A lot of current pension plans and various government welfare are constructed like ponzi schemes. The only way they will survive is with more contributions from younger taxpayers/workers. This is why many countries (like Japan, France, Italy) that are experiencing population declines are encouraging and even paying young people to have kids. I would rather find other means of resolving these issues than having more kids.

It is hard to imagine a world where we build less cars, where cities contract instead of expand, where the next generation is smaller than the last, but I think it could be a pleasant future with less crowding, less pollution, and less sprawl. To me, putting more effort into the lives we have instead of kicking-the-can to a larger generation of future offspring sounds like a better plan for society and the environment.

Have a merry Christmas! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Environment

Now that we have a nice snowpack built up across the region and many folks we have some vacation time with the Holidays here…what better thing to do than to go out and play in the snow.  In case you are wondering how deep the snow cover is in various spots around the region I urge you to check out this website, http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/nsa/  from the National Weather Service’s National Operational Hydrologic Sensing Center.   They offer excellent, interactive graphical maps of snow depth for anywhere in the U.S. along with all kinds of additional information like the amount of water held in the snowpack, the snowpack temperature, and the amount of recent snowmelt.

With that said, another great site to visit to stay up to date on the downhill skiiing, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling conditions is the Wisconsin Department of Tourism’s snow conditions page.  http://www.travelwisconsin.com/snow_report.aspx  You are sure to find a spot near you with some excellent conditions I’m sure.  The weather looks tolerable right into the middle of next week for the most part.  I hope you have a chance to get out and play a bit.  It’s fun, refreshing, and a way to burn off some of those extra Holiday calories.  If nothing else you could always just go out and make some snow angels or a snow fort.    Enjoy our beautiful surrounds and Happy Holidays!

Posted under Community, Environment, forecast, Science, Seasonal Items, Technology, Travel