A while back I shared with the blog reading audience all of the different weather products that StormTrack9 offers. Since I often blog about how the world and technology changes so fast, I figured it would be a good time to give everyone an update of what tools you can use in order to plan your day around the weather. Here is the past list of tools and methods to keep informed.

• TV – this is the largest part of our effort. We of course have 6 different TV programs that offer a full weather forecast every weekday. We have a morning show on Newsline9 that runs from 5am to 7am, a morning show on FOX55 that runs from 7am to 8am, the 5pm news, the 6pm news, FOX55 late news from 9 to 9:30pm, and the 10pm news. 4 shows occur over the weekend as well, at 6pm and 10pm on Saturday and at 5pm and 10pm on Sunday. In addition, you will see recorded weather cut-ins throughout the mid morning on weekdays, and during the mornings on the weekend. Besides these times, we also cut into programming when there is a tornado in the area or other significant dangerous weather.
• Internet – This is our second most popular method of delivering weather content. Many of you are familiar with our longer form weather discussion which is updated everyday on our website. The 7-day outlook is presented in two different forms, one here, and another here. Besides that, you can get daily updated video forecasts, and just about all the weather information you need from radar to satellite images to skycam views. A very nice tool during severe weather is the I-trak interactive radar (found here).
• Radio – You can hear StormTrack9 forecasts throughout the day and night on 3 NRG radio station: Big Cheese 1079, Today’s Best Country Y106.5, and Classic Rock 1033 WGLX. The live forecast with “Trav in the morning” on Big Cheese is particularly entertaining and fun. Check it out at 6:20 am and 7:49 am every weekday.
• Email – If you want the hour-by-hour weather forecast and the weather discussion delivered to you email you can sign up for MyPersonalForecast (aka Interactive Futurecast).
• Blog – You can find that….wait a minute…you’re already here.
• Social media - We have a significant presence on Twitter and Facebook where you can get forecast information updated throughout the day. We post a lot of cool viewer photographs as well. You can friend us here or become a fan of our page here. On Twitter just follow jloew_waow, rduns_waow, or schumacher_waow.
• Text – You can sign up for phone text messages of severe weather and daily forecasts here.
• Smartphone APP – our newest, latest, greatest offering is our “StormTrack9″ weather APP. This is designed to work with smart phones. It is a program you can get on your phone in order to keep track of the weather wherever you go. It is basically a lot of the same information (video, 7-day, radar, hour-by-hour forecast, etc) that you can view on our website – in a nice little package that fits on your phone. The best thing is – ITS FREE!  You can download it for free at the APP stores from Apple and Google.
• Outdoors forecast – This is a forecast that you will find on our outdoors page. We just started providing this late last year. It is updated every morning Monday through Friday. In this forecast we provide a little more detail on the weather conditions throughout the day, such as whether the pressure is rising or falling, what the wind will be like, and if there is any special weather to take note of. It is our intention to help outdoors-people be more successful in the woods and on the water by pinpointing when the weather might increase fish and game activity.

Most important of all, we always like to hear feedback on what you see or read, on TV, online, or on your phone. If there is some weather information you would like to see more often (or less), let us know. If there is something about the format of our forecasts that you would like to see change, leave a comment. Or you could always email suggestions to weather@waow.com

Have a nice Tuesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under new media

The National Weather Service has released some incredible photos of the wildfires impacting the western United States. 

In the included photo you can see what six wildfires in Montana and Wyoming look like from space.  The photos are from the MODIS satellite that snaps photos of our planet as it orbits Earth.

Photo from the National Weather Service.

In the photo you can see the distinction between smoke and clouds quite clearly.  In the photo, clouds look like a collection of cotton balls.  They are a more true white color and limited more toward the northern half of the photo.  The smoke can be identified by its grayish color, texture and shape.  The prevailing winds push the smoke to drift eastward over the landscape. 

This has been a very rough wildfire season so far. Colorado is seeing some astonishingly destructive fires that are encroaching on cities like Colorado Springs. 

Weather obviously plays an enormous role in how wildfires act.  Wind can blow embers from one fire and create a new one in an entirely different location.  Low humidity keeps the atmosphere dry and primes the landscape for kindling. 

Even when thunderstorms develop over wildfires it’s often a curse instead of a blessing.  Dry air is able to work into the storms, so essentially all you get is gusty winds, lightning and very little rain.  The wind helps fan the flames and lightning can get more going.

Though the west is known best for wildfires, we can, have and do get wildfires here.  Be sure to take caution, especially with the 4^th of July holiday approaching on open flames and fireworks when outdoors. 

For a color coded map of all ofWisconsin’s counties that details the wildfire risk, follow this link from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/ForestFire/restrictions.asp.

Posted under Clouds, Drought, Environment, Fire, Heat, Natural Disasters, Nature, new media, Science, Space, Summer, Weather History, Weather NEws, Weather Safety, Wind

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE! 

It’s been a fairly unbelievable stretch of weather the past few days.  In the past nine days, Wausau has recorded 10 new record high temperatures.  Six have come as new record daytime highs (March 10^th, 11^th, 14^th, 15^th, 16^th, 17^th, 18^th) and three have come as record high overnight low readings (March 12^th, 15^th, 17^th). 

One of the contributing causes for the warm weather we’ve seen is the position of the jet stream.  At the time of this writing there is an enormous trough or downward plunge over the western United States.  And at the very same time there is an enormous ridge or upward shooting branch of the stream over the eastern United States.  The pattern has been stubborn and very slow to change. 

With cold air shooting southward and warm air blasting northward, the western United States has seen cold temperatures, rain and snow while the east has been setting record high temperature readings for days on end.  In fact on Sunday the higher elevations of northern Arizona picked up a foot of snow while Wausau recorded a fifth consecutive record high temperature. 

When the jet stream takes on such a unique shape some very interesting temperature readings can be recorded.   For fun I thought it would be interesting to compare where the numbers were across the country.  And Wausaustacks up near the top! 

Sunday saw temperatures reach 57 degrees inSan Diego, California. Los Angeles, California hit 58 degrees. Phoenix, Arizona only warmed to 64 degrees Sunday afternoon.  Now here’s where it gets fun: El Paso,Texas saw a daytime high of 78 degrees, the same reading recorded here in Wauasu, good for a new record high.

It’s not too often we out-warm Phoenix.  But when we do, it sure is fun to have bragging rights, and as evidenced by the jet stream pattern, meteorologically interesting to investigate as well!

Posted under Environment, new media, Records, Seasonal Items, Spring, Weather History, Weather NEws

Aside from a handful of short cold snaps and brief bouts of a few inches of snow at a time, this winter has proven to be fairly tame.  Especially when compared with last year’s winter that provided much of the United States with considerable snowfall. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has just released two images showing just how striking the difference has been in terms of snow depth.  In the image below, you’re looking at the continental United States.  Areas shaded in a taupe-peach color indicate areas that are dealing with nearly 40 less inches of snow compared to the winter of 2010-2011.  Areas in the blue color are places with nearly 40 more inches of snow. 

The top image illustrates the comparison in December, the lower in early February. 

What a difference!  We can see it has been a unique winter anecdotally, but when you look at the numbers and see how widespread the difference has been, it really is quite striking! 

To see the entire article from NOAA, follow this link: http://www.climatewatch.noaa.gov/image/2012/fierce-2010-2011-winter-dwarfs-this-seasons-snowfall

Image from NOAA.

Posted under Arctic climate, Environment, forecast, Nature, new media, Science, Seasonal Items, Snow Totals, Weather History, Weather NEws, Winter Weather

Posted under Education, Environment, Natural Disasters, new media, Records, Seasonal Items, Severe Weather, Storms, Weather NEws, Weather Safety

The plane used by NOAA to study hurricanes, and now winter storms. Image from NOAA.

A Gulfstream twin-engine turbo jet used to study hurricanes will be put to work to help forecast winter storms this year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  

In an article published Jan. 12^th, NOAA says the jet will be flown around the North Pacific Ocean in January and February.  It will deploy sensors to “collect information where the jet stream and moisture from the ocean interact and breed potentially powerful winter storms that impact North America several days later.”

On board the aircraft meteorologists will be looking at a host of atmospheric conditions.  Included in their laundry list are wind, pressure, temperature and humidity levels.

In the article, National Centers for Environmental Prediction Capt. Barry Choy says that comparing the information gathered with the sensors with satellite imagery “significantly enhance[s] four-to-seven day winter weather forecasts.” 

NOAA uses the plane to study hurricanes during the late summer and fall seasons.  Its selected flight path will be to the east and west of Hawa’ii where the plane is currently stationed and as far north as Alaska. 

To read the article in its entirety and to see photos, log on to: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2012/20120111_g4hawaii.html

Posted under Arctic climate, Environment, forecast, Hurricanes, International Weather, Nature, new media, Oceans, Science, Seasonal Items, Severe Weather, Storms, Weather and Health, Weather History, Weather NEws, World Weather

Image from NOAA

The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, but even a little bit of sunlight created a brilliant photo op from space.

Check out this incredible image from NOAA–its an image of the earth that includes all of South and North America plus parts of the North Pole and Antarctica taken on the 2011 Winter Solstice. 

Here’s the desription provided by NOAA: “Taken on December 22, 2011, this full hemisphere scan from the GOES East satellite shows Earth on the 2011 winter solstice. The solstice is the shortest day of the year, and is also notable because the Sun’s angle relative to the planet is at its most southern point, leaving the North Pole in darkness. The high angle is evident in this image, were no visible cloud imagery can be seen over the North Pole, whereas the South Pole is well lit. Clouds are actually present over the North Pole (and would be visible in infrared imagery), however the visible imager sensor on GOES requires sunlight to capture imagery – and there is no sunlight at the high latitudes.”

To see the image in more detail follow this link:  http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/MediaDetail.php?MediaID=912&MediaTypeID=1

When you get to the page, if you click on the image once, you’ll get an expanded zoom that shows amazing detail! 

It’s a bit astonishing to look at the image.  The earth looks so quiet, peaceful and calm.  You can’t tell that millions of people are on it, living their lives unaware of their photo being taken from space. 

What a nice way to bring in 2012, by seeing the earth from afar, and perhaps to reflect on what an incredible gift it is! 

And happy new year! 

Posted under astronomy, Environment, International Weather, Nature, new media, Science, Weather NEws, World Weather

Former presidential contender Mike Huckabee thinks the weather may tip the balance of who wins the Iowa Caucuses on Jan. 3. 

Though political analysts make a living on predicting events like this, Huckabee does know a thing or two about Iowa.  He did after all pull a surprise win there in the last go-round in 2008.  But how could the weather change an election outcome? 

What’s at play here isn’t “if it snows candidate A will win and if it rains candidate B wins”.  The factors at work entangle some interesting political stories that have appeared in the primary process throughout the contested campaign.    

According to a report from KOAT-TV, Huckabee’s hypothesis is that should the weather be good on Jan. 3, Mitt Romney will win.  But if the weather is bad, Ron Paul will walk away the winner.  (view the full story here: http://www.koat.com/r/30072141/detail.html).   

In winter there are groups of people who classify good weather as getting six inches of snow in six hours.  But in this situation, good weather implies conditions that would not prevent people from getting out to caucus for their candidate.  The basis of Huckabee’s argument is the more Iowans voting, the better it is for Romney.  The poorer the turnout, the better chance Paul has for pulling an upset victory.    

So is there anything to this?  Well, there could very well be.  Political stories, whether domestic or international always catch my attention and anyone who has paid attention to the primary race so far knows of the many storylines that have characterized the campaign. 

Ron Paul does have some very dedicated supporters though his poll numbers don’t reflect the same amount of enthusiasm nationwide.  Mitt Romney has considerable campaign dollars, but seems unable break above the 20-25% barrier in the current field amongst likely Republican voters. 

When it comes down to it, I suppose the enthusiasm factor would play a fairly sizable role in who wins the Iowa caucus.  If you feel strongly about a candidate, trekking through snow may be something you’d be willing to do.  But if you’re so-so on a candidate, would you spend a day battling poor weather conditions to caucus for them? 

We’ll just have to wait and see what happens!  Perhaps Gingrich, Santorum or Bachmann will play a larger role in the process than Huckabee is anticipating.  But if our relatively mild and somewhat drier winter continues it will be very interesting to see how that impacts turnout!

Posted under Environment, Nature, new media, Seasonal Items, Weather NEws, Winter Weather

Posted under Arctic climate, Climate Change, Environment, International Weather, new media, Science, Space, World Weather

Some NASA astronauts just released one amazing video.  It’s a four minute and 56 second video that time-lapses the International Space Station’s rotation around the earth. 

The video is amazing.  It’s quality is superb.  And when you see it you get the opportunity to see features of the Earth from a perspective you’ve likely never seen before. 

The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights are incredible to see looking down on the Earth instead of from the surface to the sky.  Seeing the collective lights of our planet’s cities matched under the clouds visible from space is beautiful. 

Plus, the trance-like music the video is set to is very relaxing! 

Check out the video here: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8373771/astronauts-share-orbit-of-earth-in-stunning-time-lapse-sequence

Posted under astronomy, Environment, new media, Science, Technology