Before I get into some of the main topics for today’s blog post, I just wanted to mention another weather blog that has similar content to ours here at StormTrak9. It is called “State of Occlusion” and can be found here: http://adiabat.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/catching-up-tomas-snow-links-climate-change-hail-video/ If you can’t get enough of a “weather fix” here in the weather blog, you might want to check that one out from time-to-time.

The biggest issue on my mind today is the Chevy Volt. As you know, I have followed closely the development of electric vehicles over the last few years. I have been hoping to see a low cost option arrive before one of my old gas vehicles konks-out. Unfortunately, the cost of most electric vehicles is out of my price range – including the Chevy Volt. The closest to my price range is the Aptera 2e and the Nissan Leaf (I am not including tricked-out golf carts but these are an affordable option for driving short distances). Other than cost, up until this week, I really didn’t have much reason at this point to prefer one brand over another. I am just happy to see the potential for cleaner air with the adoption of electric vehicles in the U.S. The sooner we are all driving electric vehicles, the sooner we can get rid of all the days with Air Quality Alerts – like today (in effect through 4pm).

Up until this week, I was just as happy to see the progress of the Chevy Volt as any other electric vehicle, but no longer. Previously, I shared a rather sour analysis of the Volt from one side of the political spectrum and now comes another jaw-dropper: GM (maker of the Volt) will not have to pay taxes for years to come. The GM bailout has already cost taxpayers billions and billions of dollars. The government rebate (while stimulating the purchase of electric vehicles – which could be viewed as a good thing) is also going to cost taxpayers an enormous sum. Now taxpayers are essentially going to pick up the tab for billions and billions and billions and billions of future tax revenue that GM will not be paying. I can no longer write glowingly about the Volt. When I see start-up companies like Think, Zap, Aptera, and Teslaputting their own (and private investor) money into their companies to get this movement off the ground, that is worth more praise. When I see the idealism and passion of some of the people building the new EVs it makes me want to cheer. Some of these entrepreneurs are taking great risks and should be rewarded if they produce a great product. Not to mention all the other car companies and their workers who are battling against GM and all the government money. So no more coverage of the Volt. I won’t spend time producing ”bad” opinions about GM and the Volt, but I won’t be sharing any press releases either. I know the workers at GM will not be happy with this opinion but it is how I feel about the Volt at this point in time. I have to be honest.

New Mazda Engine

I would prefer to make my next car an electric, but if the price it too high, there are still some other money and fuel saving options on the market. My current gas engine gets about 37 mpg. Could you believe that there are new gas engines coming onto the market that could double that number? Just when you thought fuel efficiency was tapped-out, along comes Mazda with a new car+engine design that tops out at 70 mpg!

Lastly, for those of you who entered the 1st snowfall contest, it still looks like a potential for an inch or two of snow on Saturday. If we get 1 inch in Wausau on Saturday, it will be the end of the contest and we will draw the big winners next week on Wake-Up Wisconsin.

Have a nice Tuesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Alternative Energy, Snowmelt 2010, Technology

We have finally concluded the 2010 snowmelt contest by drawing the top two prizes (R-store gift cards) today. Here is the final list of winners:

• 1st place 250$ gift card – Barb Whiteside (Wausau)
• 2nd place $150 gift card – Jim Aue (Auburndale)
• 3rd place $100 gift card – Sandy Behrens (Tomahawk)
• 4th place $50 gift card – Tonya Muzynoski (Schofield)
• 5th place $25 gift card – Shelly Hoppe (Aniwa)

Everyone else who predicted the correct snowmelt date (May 29th) will receive a car wash coupon from the R-store. Prizes will be mailed out late this week. Thanks to everyone who entered the contest! It is always fun to see all the predictions. Thanks also to the R-stores of Northcentral Wisconsin for providing great prizes.

Continuing on the discussion of the Atlantic hurricane season that Kristen and Brian have been posting about, another group of forecasters at Florida State are also projecting an active hurricane season. Their basis for the forecast is a new computer model that began operation just last year and performed very well.

“The 2009 forecast, the (COAPS) model’s first, was on target: It predicted a below-average season, with a mean of eight named storms with four of them developing into hurricanes. There were nine named storms with three that became hurricanes.”

For this year, the COAPS model is predicting a mean of 17 named storms and 10 hurricanes. Of course what matters most is how many storms make landfall and at what strength. Remember, you can keep track of hurricanes and tropical storms at www.nhc.noaa.gov

Have a fine Wednesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Snowmelt 2010, Tropics

I have to start off with our first three R-store gift card winners in the 2010 snowmelt contest. We had 66 people who predicted the correct date of the last snow on Rib Mountain – last Saturday May 29th. Now we are holding a random drawing among those 66 entrants to determine who wins the 5 big R-store gift cards. Today on Wake-Up Wisconsin we drew for 5th place ($25), 4th place ($50), and 3rd place ($100). We will hold the drawing for the top 2 prizes Wednesday morning on Wake-Up Wisconsin at 6:30 am. I will of course post the winners here in the blog as well. Everyone who does not get drawn for a gift card will receive a car wash coupon from the R-stores of Northcentral Wisconsin. I will be mailing out all the prizes later this week. So, onto the first three winners:

• 3rd place $100 gift card – Sandy Behrens (Tomahawk)
• 4th place $50 gift card – Tonya Muzynoski (Schofield)
• 5th place $25 gift card – Shelly Hoppe (Aniwa)

In the present weather, the good news is that we should get into a weather pattern for the first half of June that produces more chances of rain. As a drawback, temps will also be a bit cooler, although I seriously doubt we will have anything as cold as early June of 2009. It looks like high temps in the upper 60s to low 70s from Wednesday through Sunday. The first chance of rain will come tonight and then it looks like off-and-on rain chances each day from Friday through Sunday. After having just barely enough rain to keep things growing in May, it would be nice to have some heavier and more frequent rainfall in early June to get the crops growing. Speaking of lower than normal rainfall, how did May end up?

May of 2010 was a month of extremes in temperature. We had a stretch of well below normal temps and a stretch of above normal temps. The above normal weather ended up out-weighing the cooler weather an May ended up about 1.5 degrees above normal. During the depths of the cold spell we ended up with 2.9 inches of snow which makes the total snowfall for the month of May more than the months of April and March combined (only a trace in Wausau). There were three records set. A record high of 92 on the 24th, a record warm low temperature of 71 on the 24th, and a record warm low temperature of 67 on the 25th. The bad news is that May precipitation was about 1.5 inches below normal and this now puts us almost 5.5 inches below normal for the year. Here are the preliminary stats for Wausau:

Average High: 69.6  (normal: 68.5)

Average Low: 47.1  (normal: 45.1)

Precipitation: 1.97 inches  (normal: 3.54 inches)

Snowfall: 2.9 inches (normal: 0.1 inches)

Highest Temperature: 92 on the 24th

Lowest Temperature: 30 on the 9th

Here is a final interesting useless weird note on the monthly stats. The coldest temp in April occurred on the 9th. The coldest temp in May occurred on the 9th. With the cooler weather pattern developing early this month, the coldest temperature of June could once again happen on the 9th.

Have a good Tuesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Monthly Recap, Snowmelt 2010

Guess what? More snowmelt discussion today. Ok, all I need to do is remind everyone (if you were not checking the blog over the weekend), that the snow finally melted on May 29th (Saturday). It looks like we have 63 winners (preliminary count) who will be eligible to win the 5 big R-store gift cards. We will hold a drawing for 5th, 4th, and 3rd place on Tuesday (June 1st, and a drawing for #2 and #1 on Wednesday (June 2nd). Remember, everyone who does not win a gift card will get a car wash coupon from the R-stores of northcentral Wisconsin – now serving 22 locations. The other point in regards to the snowmelt contest is that once again, my blog posts might be a bit shorter this week because I will be typing up all the winner’s names for the drawing and for mailing out the coupons.

The best thing in the weather is that we had some nice rain last night. Here in Wausau the airport reported only 0.19 inches (preliminary) but just east of town and into parts of Shawano county radar estimated that over and inch fell. One viewer called in from Bevent and reported 0.80 inches of rain. Marianne in Scandinavia reported 0.50 inches. The eastern part of the area missed out on the rain last week so it was wonderful to see it fall in those areas last night. Even better is the fact that more rain is possible during the work week. Right now, I am calling for a 50% chance of rain and thunderstorms late Tuesday into early Wednesday morning and then a 30% chance of rain or storms Friday and Saturday. The weather pattern looks active enough that everyone should eventually end up with some rain this week.

Have a good Memorial Day! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under forecast, Snowmelt 2010

Once again I found myself hiking up Rib Mountain on Saturday evening and this time the snow was gone.

No More Snow

Where the snow had resided just a few hours earlier there was now only a patch of wet cool ground. And so to the best of my observational abilities, May 29th is henceforth declared the last day of snow on Rib Mountain for 2010. We will mention the end of the contest on Wake-Up Wisconsin on Monday and have the drawings for the R-store gift cards on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Snowmelt 2010

Hi all. Here is the latest picture of the snow as of 2:30 pm Saturday afternoon. Getting tiny, I suspect it will be gone this evening.

Justin Loew

Posted under Snowmelt 2010

I finally have some pictures of the remaining snow on Rib Mountain – fresh off the presses, or perhaps the camera. The pictures were taken at about 8am this morning. As you can see there is still a pile about the size of a large dinner table and about 6 to 10 inches thick. That might seem like a lot but take a look at the second picture and you will see how big the pile was earlier in the week. The large area of brown ground used to define the edges of this particular pile of snow. The little wooden ramp-thingy was on top of the snow pile on Monday. So the snow continues to melt fast and the weather will remain warm today and tomorrow. The snow is not long for this world. I will be taking a look once again before midnight tonight. If I had to make a prediction at this late point in the contest, I would have to lean towarda final smowmelt on Saturday (the 29th). If we do get the final snowmelt today or tomorrow then there will be an announcement about the end of the contest on Monday and we will draw the top 5 winners on Tuesday and Wednesday.

As far as the weekend weather goes, it is still looking warm and mostly dry. There is only a 30% chance of thunderstorms late Sunday afternoon or Sunday evening. Even if some storms do develop, rainfall  will be light. The next chance of significant rain (over a half inch) will be late Wednesday and Thursday of next week.

Alternative Energy News:

You know I like to follow the development of alternative energy and technological progress, and I would like to purchase an electric car in the near future, so I was a little sad when I read this article “Going Green” by John Stossel. In it, he highlights the difficulty of adopting “clean” energy technologies. The thing is, he is absolutely correct about the difficulties of implementing new energy technologies. As an energy source, fossil fuels are much cheaper and much more energy-dense, than any existing alternatives. Like Stossel, I am worried about alternative energy sprawl. I have blogged about it in the past, particularly in regards to wind power. Not only are the wind turbines an eye-sore, they are an intermittent power source, noisy, and affect the local climate. Solar power is a little better, but the current panels still require a lot of space.

Gasoline has about 80 times the energy density of current lithium ion batteries. That is why we still drive gasoline cars. Stossel also highlights all the past hype regarding electric cars – and it was A LOT of hype that never panned out. I think this time around is different. There are a lot of advantages to driving electric cars and the technology is improving. To be sure, most of the new electrics will be bought by wealthy early adopters. However, I think many city dwellers will find them attractive because the ranges are improving. Many people travel less than 20 miles a day and current battery technology can handle that. It is highly unlikely that batteries (as we currently know them) will reach energy-density parity with gasoline anytime soon, but they do not need to. Heck, a Japanese EV club just drove an electric car on a track for a record 623 miles on one charge! Batteries are getting better and cheaper. Given the many other advantages of electric over gasoline, I think this time around we will see EVs take up greater market share.

Have a nice weekend! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Alternative Energy, Snowmelt 2010, Technology

First off I apologize for not having pictures of the remaining snow on Rib Mountain. I did get some video earlier in the week and it was uploaded to the blog as well as in the video section of waow.com. The problem is that my personal camera has a dead battery and it is a proprietary battery (not a typical double or triple A). We lost the USB cord that is used to charged it up and it turns out the camera does not take a standard USB, it is one of those that is thinner, ARRGGH! I hate it when companies do not use standard ports. This is that second camera I have owned that has had a proprietary function that should be standard. I vowed never to buy the last brand I owned. Now I’ll have to shun this brand as well. High-tech companies – please use standard plug-ins! Rant over.

Anyway, I did write a little blurb about the imminent endof the snowmelt contest on WAOW.com. Check it out.

Now onto the sad news of the day – the latest US Drought Monitor. The good news is that on Tuesday we did see some significant rain west of Wausau so the drought in the Northwestern part of the state should not change much over the next week.

WI Drought Worsens

The bad news is that hardly any rain fell in the northeastern part of our viewing area. This has led to an expansion of the “Extreme Drought” category from 0.3 percent of the state to 4.8 percent. It now encompasses all of Florence county, most of Forest county, and portions of Oconto, Marinette, and Langlade counties. With very little rain in the forecast over the next few days, the area of extreme drought will likely expand again next week. The next chance of rain is a 40% chance on Sunday night but if some thunderstorms do form, it looks like only a couple tenths of an inch of rain are possible. After Sunday the next chance of rain will be late Wednesday and into Thursday of next week.

Have a nice weekend! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Drought, Snowmelt 2010

It is getting to the point where the snowmelt contest requires a daily trip to Rib Mountain in order to observe the day when it finally melts. I was up there yesterday of course and got some new video. The main pile of snow was about half the size it was on Monday. I suspect we will have a winner later this week. It would be quite interesting if we ended up with a winning date of May 28th as that is the day that most people predicted. 101 people predicted May 28th. It is always exciting when it gets down to the wire and we draw the top winners. This year we have 5 R-store gift cards to give away as well as car wash coupons. We will hold a drawing to see who wins the gift cards and everyone else who predicted the correct date will get car wash coupons.

One thing that might help get rid of the remaining snow is some heavy rain. Yesterday heavy rain fell west of Wausau. As forecast, there were pockets of downpours that produced over an inch of rain. The highest report I saw was 2.9 inches, although I cannot fully vouch for the number because it was only scribbled on a post it note in the weather office, most likely a phone call from yesterday. Radar estimates also showed some higher rain amounts between Athens and Stetsonville (where the report was from) so that lends credence to the report. There were also reports of trees down and sporadic power outages around Medford, Spencer, Loyal, and Neillsville.

Today the highest chance of thunderstorm activity (40%) will be through early afternoon. The heavier downpours will again be hit or miss. If we don’t have any rain or thunderstorms by 3pm then the cold front has likely moved through the area dry and we will have to wait until Sunday for the next chance of thunderstorms. Right now I am calling for a 40% chance of storms during the late afternoon or evening hours on Sunday, otherwise most of the holiday weekend is looking quite nice. Get-away Friday and Saturday should both be sunny with high temps around 80 on Friday and in the low to mid 80s on Saturday. Most of Sunday should be nice until the chance of thunderstorms arrives. Monday is looking cooler but dry with high temps in the low to mid 70s.

Space News:

How about a couple follow-ups to some recent space exploration stories. If you remember, NASA was trying to re-establish communication with the Phoenix lander to see if it survived the Martian winter. They were not successful. They did however get a good photograph of the lander which seems to show significant damage to the solar panels.

In other Mars exploration news, it looks like the newest probe (the Mars Science Laboratory, named Curiosity) will launch in 2011 and arrive on the red planet in August of 2012. While that seems like forever, it is probably worth the wait since the robot will have a high definition color video camera. My only other hope is that it will be able to move faster than the current rovers on Mars – which poke along at a snail’s pace.

Off to Rib Mountain to check on the snow!

Have a good Wednesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Severe Weather, Snowmelt 2010, Space

We have blogged about alot of interesting items over the past couple days.

Today we saw strong to severe weather move through Clark, Taylor, Price, Ashland and Iron counties.  The largest hail reported was an inch with wind gusts knocking down trees and power lines. 

Snowmelt is getting close to the end and Justin Loew has been making sure that we are keeping on top of snow piles that are left.  It should only be a few more days until we will have a winner! 

Speaking of melting I am sure some people are feeling like they are melting after the hot days we have been having! Brain did a great blog about heat index and advisories.  Even if we are not in the criteria range for most people it feels like we are!   For those who aren’t accustomed to warm weather it will make it harder to do anything strenuous such as outdoor work or exercising.  So even if there are NOT advisories posted it is still important to take precautions during hot and humid days most importantly drinks LOTS of water!  If you don’t believe me that it is hot, just check out all the records we broke on Monday. 

Since it is so hot out one thing people enjoy doing is Boating! So speaking of  boating it is Boaters Safety Week here are the links to the different subjects the National Weather service is covering each day.   There is some great tips and information under each link.  Sometimes they are subjects you wouldn’t even think about like CO poisoning. 

One fact that really stand out, 90% of people who drown in boating accidents are not wearing life jackets.  Make sure to wear a life jacket when you are out on the water!  

Looks like it will stay warm through the Memorial Day holiday with temps in the upper 70′s to low 80′s.  Tomorrow we will keep in showers and storms but after the front it should be nothing but sunshine from Thursday through most of Sunday.

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Severe Weather, Snowmelt 2010, Spring, Storms, Uncategorized