We don’t get to the use the word “historic” or the words “all-time” very often, but it has happened a couple of times in the last 2 years. First it was the “all-time” warmest March for the state of Wisconsin (and most cities in the state) last year. This year it is just the opposite. We can’t seem to get rid of wintry weather and we just had a “historic” snowfall for not only Wisconsin but for Iowa and Minnesota as well. Not only did we end up with single day snowfall records for May 2nd (and probably today as well) for all three states, the snowfall has also broken the snow records for the entire month of May for all three states. Here are the old records for most snow in one storm for May:

Wisconsin: 10.0″  (new record 14.0″ but potentially as high as 17″)

Minnesota: 12.0″  (new record 15.4″)

Iowa: 10.0″  (new record 11.0″)

These are not officially in “the books” yet, but they look pretty solid. Climatologists will review the reports over the next couple of days and certify them.

And this comes after a very cool April, which was the 8th coldest on record for Wausau. If we had not seen the 5-day warm-up into the 70s and 80s at the end of the month of April, we would have easily set the mark for the 3rd coldest April and might have even challenged for second place. It was quite amazing that from February 1st through April 25th, we only had one day when the temperature hit 50 degrees (April 24th). We did not have any nice stretch of real Spring weather with high temps in the 50s and 60s. We jumped straight into Summer during the last 5 days of April, then we slipped back to Winter in a big way over the last couple of days. Here are the preliminary stats for April in Wausau:

Average High: 46.1  (normal: 54.8)

Average Low: 30.1 (normal: 33.3)

Precipitation: 4.39 inches  (normal: 2.73 inches)

Snowfall: 10.1 inches  (normal: 4.1 inches)

Highest Temp: 82 on the 30th

Lowest Temp: 14 on the 3rd

Have a fine Friday! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under Monthly Recap, Records, snow, Snow Totals, Spring, Winter Weather

March turned out to be an interesting month in that everyone was amazed at how cold it was and how long the snow lasted, yet it turns out it wasn’t a record-breaker. We did not set any new records for cold temps and the month did not even land in the top 25 of coldest March’s for Wausau. Number 26 on the list of cold March’s is 1971 when the mean temperature for the month was 24.2 degrees. This year our mean temp was 24.4 degrees. That being said, it was our coldest March since 1996. The only obscure record that might have been set this March is the fewest number of 40 degree (or warmer) days. This March we only had 3 days where the temperature rose to 40 or above. That is what makes this March interesting.

What has happened in recent years is that we have become spoiled. Whether it is related to theorized anthropogenic global warming (AGW) or not, most of our record cold March’s herald from 1975 or earlier. In recent years we have seen milder weather in March. March of 2008 and March of 2002 were a couple of colder ones, but most others have been above normal. After 1975, we only had one March (1996) that ranks in the top 25 for cold.

Other than the persistently below normal temps, there were no real odd trends in the numbers to speak of. Snowfall, like the temps, did not break records, but it was above normal because we had a handful of small snowstorms in the first half of the month. We were actually fairly lucky that we didn’t have at least a couple of March blizzards given all of the cold air around. Total precipitation was also above normal for the 4th month in a row which is great news. We have seen the “official” drought conditions subside a bit over the last month and I expect that positive trend to continue for the next couple of weeks as we will have a couple of chances for heavier precipitation. Here are the March stats for Wausau:

Average High: 32.9  (normal: 39.5)

Average Low: 15.8  (normal: 15.8)

Total Precipitation: 2.18 inches  (normal: 1.76 inches)

Total Snowfall: 12.7 inches  (normal: 12.7 inches)

Highest Temperature: 46, on the 29th

Lowest Temperature: 0 (zero), on the 3rd

Looking ahead to the first week or 10 days of April, it looks like more of the same. Temps will be below normal on most days. It will be closer to the middle of the month before we will have a stretch of warmer weather in the 50s or 60s. Before then, we might even have more snow to contend with. A storm system moving through the area this Saturday (the 6th) could produce some heavier rain or snow. Because of the cold weather, I have not yet started riding my bike to work yet and can’t even dream about starting the garden. I am planning on at least getting my bike tuned up this week, in preparation for a possible warmer spell around the middle of the month. I am also starting a few plants inside the house.

Have a nice Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under Monthly Recap

January 2013 goes down in the books as behaving like a roller coaster with wild up and down temperatures and a few bursts of intense precipitation. We did have a couple of really sharp cold spells but they were fairly brief in nature. We had one record temperature for the month and that was a daily record warm minimum of 33 degrees on the 11th in Wausau. The high temperature that day by the way was 42. Our warmest temperature for the month occurred the next day with 44 degrees. Our coldest temperature in Wausau was -14 on the 22nd. We did have a good deal of wind with that cold snap so wind chill values reached as low as -35 degrees. For the month as a whole, the average high temperature was 25.1 degrees, about 2.0 degrees above normal and the average low was 7.5 degrees, which is a bout 1.5 degrees above normal.

January 2013 actually turned out a bit wetter than normal in our region. Wausau had 1.68″ of rain and melted sleet and snow. That is .66″ above normal. Snowfall was generous as 16.4″ piled up. That is about 2.9″ more than normal. Of course we had the couple of warm and rainy spells that melted a lot of the snowpack in between storms, so the snow depth never got too huge. We had four days in which at least 1.0″ of snow fell (the 18^th, 25^th, 27^th, and 30^th). I guess there is nothing like waiting until the end of the month to pack all the action in! The two biggest snow days were the 27^th with 5.3″ and the 30^th with 5.7″ of accumulation.

If nothing else January was interesting with its many twists and turns. Maybe February will be a bit more stable with more consistent and typical winter weather. Only time will tell.

Posted under Monthly Recap, Records

We have counted down the top ten weather events of the year and now it is time to put it all in perspective with some year-end numbers. How does 2012 compare to normal? If you guessed it was warmer and drier than normal, you are correct. It is not too hard to figure out if you had looked at the top ten weather events. Most of them had to deal with abnormally warm and dry conditions. Without further ado, here are the numbers for 2012 in Wausau:

• Average High: 58.1  (normal 53.1)
• Average Low: 37.6  (normal 33.7)
• Mean temp: 47.9  (normal 43.4)
• Precipitation: 29.46″  (normal 32.41″)
• Snowfall: 51.7″  (normal 59.6″)
• Highest Temp: 98 on July 16th
• Lowest Temp: -14 on January 20th

The first thing I want to draw your attention to is the average high temperature. As far as the records I have available indicate, 2012 had the highest average high temperature in Wausau’s history. The second highest average high temp occurred in 1998 when it was just 58.0. So it appears we beat that record by just one tenth of a degree. However, it was not the hottest year in Wausau history if you go by the mean temperature. The mean temperature in 1998 was 48.7 which means we were almost a degree shy of the “hottest year ever” in Wausau. Now some of you might be wondering how we could have beat out all of those dust bowl years from back in the 1930s. Well, those years did have some of the hottest Summers on record, but the Winters were typically cold so the yearly mean kind-of “averaged out”. As far as the avrage low temperature goes, it is tied for third on the list for the warmest average low temp. 2012 is tied with 1987 which had an average low temp of 37.6. Higher on the list is 1931 which had an average low of 38.3 and 1998 which had an average low of 39.3.

Even though I spent a lot of blog time complaining about the lack of rain this year, the precipitation total actually ended up only about 3 inches below normal. I certainly would have been happy with an extra 3 inches of rain for my garden, but at least we had enough rain to pull us through most of the growing season. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for areas south of Marathon county where total precipitation was much less. Snowfall was surprisingly close to normal for the year, checking in at 51.7 inches, but that number is a bit deceiving. During January, Febraury and March of this year we had piddly little snowfalls from time to time (only one big one). No one could enjoy snow-related activities very much. The just at the end of the year in December we ended up with 21.8 inches of snow which really brought the number up close to normal. However, even in December we could not get out on the snowmobile trails because the first 5 inches of snow we received melted!

In some respects, 2012 was not as extreme as some recent years. The difference between the highest and lowest temps this year was 112 degrees. In 2011 the difference was 115 degress (warmest temp 94 and lowest temp -21). In 2009 the difference was a whopping 116 degrees! The most extreme year in recent memory was probably 1996 when the difference between the highest and lowest temp was 122 degrees (warmest temp was 91 and the coldest was -33).

What about the new daily records for the year? In this case, 2012 looked a lot like 2010 when we had many record high temps and many record warm low temps, but not records for cold. In fact, we have gone another year with no new record low temps during the winter. We haven’t experienced a record low during the Winter (the months of December, January, and February) since 1996. Here are the records:

Record High Temps:

• 47, January 10th
• 45, January 11th
• 61, March 10th
• 63, March 11th
• 75, March 14th
• 68, March 15th
• 72, March 16th
• 78, March 17th
• 78, March 18th
• 76, March 19th
• 78, March 20th
• 76, March 21st
• 71 (tie), March 22nd
• 88, May 19th
• 96, July 4th
• 96 (tie), July 5th
• 98 (tie), July 16th
• 93, August 30th
• 62 (tie), November 22nd

Record Low Temps: None

Record Warm Low Temps:

• 44, March 12th
• 44, March 15th
• 55, March 17th
• 54, March 18th
• 55, March 19th
• 57, March 20th
• 60, March 21st (the earliest we have ever had a low temp of 60)
• 57, March 22nd
• 53, March 23rd
• 74, July 5th
• 59, October 24th

Record Cold High Temps: None

Record Precipitation:

• 0.60 inches, February 29th
• 1.61 inches, July 19th
• 2.34 inches, October 25th
• 0.54 inches, December 20th

Record Snowfall:

• Trace, October 6th
• 10.9 inches, December 20th

And while I am in the mood to spit out all kinds of numbers, we always do a monthly recap, so how about the stats for December of 2012? December of 2012 was very similar to last December (2011) as far as temperatures go (well above normal) but much higher on the snowfall end of things. Once snowcover enveloped the land after the big storm on the 20th, temperatures were about normal to a little below. It was the first half of the month that was “hot” by Winter standards with a near record high temperature of 58 on the 3rd. So for December 2012 in Wausau…

• Average High: 31.6  (normal 26.5)
• Average Low: 19.1  (normal 11.4)
• Precipitation: 1.61 inches  (normal 1.36 inches)
• Snowfall: 21.8 inches  (normal 13.9 inches)
• Highest Temp: 58 on the 3rd
• Lowest Temp:

Posted under Monthly Recap, Records, Seasonal Items, Uncategorized, Weather NEws

It is that time of year for the “year in review” lists to commence. Perhaps you have been seeing some lists around the Internet and various media (like Tony’s blog post from yesterday of the most expensive weather events), so it is about time we listed StormTrack9′s top ten weather events in NorthCentral Wisconsin. I will publish numbers 10 through 7 today, numbers 6 through 4 on Friday, and 3 through 1 on Monday (New Year’s Eve). As always, please feel free to share your most memorable weather events of 2012 in the comment section

There were plenty of interesting things that occurred throughout the year but the most common theme you will find in our list if warmth. It was a warm year, record-setting at times, so it might seem odd start out with a “cold event”.

10. The number 10 weather event was killing frost(s) in April. This would normally not be anything special because frost occurs very frequently in Wsiconsin during the month of April. What made the frost in April more significant this year is that temperatures had gotten so warm in March. It was warm enough in March to cause many fruit crops and trees to start growing and blossoming. Those blossoms were “ripe for the picking” so to speak, when the frost came around in April. Many apple orchards in Northcentral Wisconsin lost almost their entire crops. Other fruit trees were similarly hard hit.

9. October of 2012 was the 7th wettest October on record. We recorded 5.49 inches of rain during the month in Wausau. Some spots had even more. This might not have made the list except for the fact that it was also the wettest month of 2012 and the rain came too late to do much good. The growing season, which had been very dry, was over by the time we recived enough moisture to be beneficial to the crops.

8. Did I mention that 2012 was a warm year? It turns out that 10 out of the 12 months during 2012 were above normal, most of them were significantly above normal. The only two months that were below normal on temps were September and October. Even those two months were just barely below normal. 2012 was not a year when we had to complain about the cold too much. In fact, I think this year I have probably heard the least amount of complaints about “cold weather” in my entire career. It was a nice respite. Most years, most people complain nearly contantly about how cold it is, which always makes me wonder why more people do not move to warmer places.

7. Making it to number 7 on the list is a non-event. There was hardly any severe weather in the area. Since most of the year was quite warm, one might think there would have been more opportunity for severe weather to develop. Interestingly, sometimes it can be too warm. If there is not enough cold air to form cold fronts at the surface, or form instability higher in the atmosphere, then thunderstorms just won’t form. Of course, it was also quite dry for extended periods of time. If there is not enough moisture in the air then we will not end up with thunderstorms, and thus little severe weather. The most active period of severe weather was from June 14th through the 20th when we had a few rounds of thunderstorms and some tornado warnings in Marathon and Langlade counties.

Stay tuned for numbers 6 through 4 tomorrow.

Now a couple of other interesting list of different science and technology, both looking back at 2012 and looking forward to 2013.

Check out this list from Wired to see if you are wired, tired, or expired. I am generally fairly wired, but I can see the divide between “wired” (early adoption of new technology and trends) and “expired” (fine living just the way you are with your current tools), getting more extreme every year. Technology is advancing so fast that it will be impossible to stay “wired”. Or you might be “wired” within certain segments of society/business but find yourself ”expired” in others.

How about Wired’s gear of the year. A lot of things I wouldn’t mind having if I had more money.

IBM’s has listed it’s 5 in 5. While these are technological developments that will develop in the next few years and have a big impact on our lives, somehow, it doesn’t seem like IBM’s 5 in 5 is as interestnig in past years. This years lists seems to revolve around consumer technol

Posted under Monthly Recap, Records, Seasonal Items

Well, November certainly did not follow in the footsteps of October for weather.  If you remember October was our wettest month of the year with upwards of 6.0″ of moisture in parts of the TV-9 viewing area.  It was also a bit cooler than normal.

November on the other hand turned out on the mild and dry side in our region.  In the Wausau area the average high temperature was 42.4 degrees, 2.3 degrees above normal.  The average low temperature was 26.5 degrees, 1.6 degrees above normal.  We picked up just 1.27″ of rain or melted snow, which is .73″ less than usual.  Finally 2.3″ of snow fell which is 4.6″ below the normal for November.  The highest temperature in Wausau was 62 degrees on the 22nd.  The lowest temperature was 10 degrees on the both the 26th and 27th.

Here is a sneak peek at what December usually offers up.  The aveage high temperatures drop from the low 30s at the start of the month to the low 20s at the end.  The average low temperatures drop from the upper 10s early in the month to the single digits by the end.  We typically have several mornings where the mercury plunges below zero as well.  Our normal snowfall for December is fairly hefty, coming in just under 14″.  It will be interesting to see how things pan out this time around!

Posted under Monthly Recap, Seasonal Items

October has come and gone.  No doubt we had some interesting spells of weather mixed in.  As a whole it was slightly cooler than normal.  In Wausau the average high temperature was 55.0 degrees which is 0.4 degrees below normal.  The average low temperature was 36.5 degrees, 0.1 degrees shy of normal.  Our warmest day in Wausau was October 3rd when the mercury climbed to 73 degrees.  The coolest temperature in Wausau occurred on the 28th and 29th as the low reached 23 on both mornings.  Some of the colder locations in our region had lows in the middle 10s on numerous mornings in October.

It was a rather wet month as well.  In fact it was the wettest month of 2012 so far in our area.  It rained on fourteen days bringing a total of 5.49″.  That is 2.55″ above normal.  The heaviest rain fell on the 25th when 2.34″ soaked Wausau.  That day also featured severe thunderstorms with hail over 1.0″ in diameter and winds to 60 mph in the region.

We did have a trace of snow on the 6th, which tied the record snowfall for that date.  However that is all that fell for the month, while we normally get 1.4″ of snow in the Wausau area during October.   All in all, it was a fall-like month and hopefully it has prepared you for the harsher winter weather ahead in coming weeks and months!

Posted under Monthly Recap

The month of September 2012 has come to a close and it is time for a little review. The most interesting aspect of the month is that it was the first below normal month (in Wausau) since September of last year. We had 11 months in a row with above normal temps and then it was just barely below normal in September. Our average high was a little above normal but the average low was a few degrees below normal, so when you put them together, the month was about 1 degree below normal.

The one thing that was also below normal that was more troublesome is precipitation. In Wausau (and most of the area, and most of the state) precipitation was at least 2 inches below normal. The dry weather is noticeable, as I have seen many of the lake levels turn lower recently. Also, some of my long-lasting plants and second plantings in the garden have not turned out very well because of the lack of rain. I could have kept watering but there were not enough plants to justify. Therefore, I will have to just live with what my broccoli and kale plants can squeeze out of the dusty soil. There might be a hard freeze in town this weekend (on Sunday) anyway, so I probably wouldn’t be harvesting superfood into late October like in previous years.

Another remarkable thing about September this year is that we had an early frost. Normally, we would have our first frost in the city somewhere around the first couple days of October. This year, our first frost was on September 19th. It was thought to be a record low in Wausau at one point (31 degrees), but at second glance the automated airport data only showed a low of 32. It was the coldest temperature of the month in the city, but other locations in the countryside had several nights from the 19th onward with low temps down in the 20s. We also had snow south of Wausau on the 22nd! It was an early end to the growing season.

Here are the stats for Wausau:

Average High: 70.6  (normal: 68.8)

Average Low: 44.7  (normal: 48.1)

Precipitation: 1.61 inches  (normal: 3.90 inches)

Snowfall: 0.0 inches  (normal: 0.0 inches)

Highest Temperature: 88 on the 4th

Lowest Temperature: 32 on the 19th

And now a report about the little fishing expedition I took. I promised to keep an eye on the solar-lunar table and weather conditions to further expand knowledge about fish and game activity. During my approximately 3 days of fishing there did again seem to be a pick-up in activity correlating fairly well with the solar-lunar table. Also the fishing was a little better on the day when the pressure was a little lower. I didn’t get to check out rainy/cloudy weather vs sunny skies because it was beautiful the whole time.

It wsn’t a perfect corellation (and certainly not a rigorous science experiment), but it did seem to be better at the times I was expecting. The one interesting thing about testing the theory out was that I had to fish most of the day on one river/stream and during the times when the activity was not projected to be good – otherwise how would one know or compare activity between the different periods. Even when the action was slow or non-existent, it was nice exploring new fishing areas and the colors were at their peak. The scenery was awesome in some spots.

Now that I have researched the fish/weather activity and tried it out through years in real world situations, I think I am going combine all of that knowledge into a daily fish and game forecast. It will probably start out on our web page but perhaps find a place on our TV broadcast as well. We get many requests for such a forecast every year, so it is about time to put something together.

Have a fine Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Fall Color, Monthly Recap, Nature

Crisp nights, rustling dry leaves, the smell of corn and goldenrod fill the nostrils…it can only mean that we are weaving through September.  September is of course the month summer yields to Autumn gradually.  Our daylight time shrinks by 90 minutes.  As the sun gets lower in the sky our average temperatures drop by about 10 degrees throughout the month.  The normal high starts out around 74 on September 1st in the Wausau area but tumbles to 64 degrees by the last day.  This isn’t to say that it can’t get very warm or even hot once in awhile.  In fact on September 10th, 1931 we had our hottest September day on record in Wausau with a sizzling 99 degrees reported. 

The warmest mean temperature for the month occurred in 1908 in Wausau with 65.8 degrees.  The normal monthly mean is 58.5 degrees.  The coolest mean September temperature in Wausau happened in 1918 coming in at 51.3 degrees.  The coldest low temperature in the books for Wausau in this particular month is 18 degrees, registered on September 30th, 1899.

It is common to have some frost show up throughout the month in various parts of the state.  The median date of the first 32 degree temperature is September 20th  – 26th  in much of north central Wisconsin.  In a strip from Wausau to Stevens Point it is September 27th – October 3rd according to the State Climatology Office.  Meanwhile areas around Price, Vilas, Oneida, Forest, Florence, and parts of Lincoln and Langlade Counties often have frost show up earlier in September.  Also cranberry bogs around Wood, Jackson, and Monroe Counties also tend to see 32 degree temperatures several weeks sooner on those clear, calm nights.

The Wausau area’s wettest September belongs to 1986 when 9.79″ of rain fell.   Just a few years ago it was pretty wet as well.  In September 2010 we had 8.41″ of rain in Wausau, which is good for 5th wettest on record.  On the other end of the spectrum, the driest September on record is from 2009 when just 0.23″ of rain coated the area.   More recently, 2008 featured the 8th driest September in Wausau as only 1.33″ of rain fell.

Some of you will cringe at just the mention of snow this early, however it is interesting to note that the most snow on record in Wausau came in 1942 when 2.0″ accumulated.  We had a trace of snow as recently as 1995 in Wausau.

Have a great month!

Posted under Fall, Freeze, Monthly Recap, Seasonal Items

Eleven months in a row with above normal temperatures. Given the nature of our increasingly short memories, it seems like forever since we had a month with below normal temps. August of 2012 was not very far above normal, not as far above normal as the other months this year, but it was enough to continue the trend. The most problematic part of August was the below normal precipitation. In Wausau we only had 2 bouts of significant rain, one on the 8th and 9th, and another on the 26th. It was enough rain to keep plants alive, but not enough to make up for the deficit that occurred in July. Here’s hoping we get some nice Fall rain, although I am not betting on it.

It was interesting that we had hot weather to begin the month and then again to end the month. In fact, the hottest temperature occurred on the 30th, which is not what one would suspect for August. The temperatures usually cool down toward the end of the month. In August of 2012, it was the middle of the month that felt a little bit like Autumn. There was only one record in Wausau during the month. We tied a record high temperature at 93 degrees on the 30th. There were no real odd patterns with the highs and lows for the month. 75 was the most common high temperature, which occurred on 4 different days.

Here are the stats for Wausau:

Average High: 80.5  (normal: 77.7)

Average Low: 57.2  (normal: 57.0)

Precipitation: 2.71″  (normal: 4.16″)

Snowfall: 0.0″  (normal: 0.0″)

Highest Temperature: 93 on the 30th

Lowest Temperature: 45 on the 18th

Have a nice Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under Monthly Recap