All the talk of the federal government debt has me somewhat concerned over the future of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  While this branch of government is by no means a hog in terms of the U.S. government’s entire budget, it still uses a sizable chunk of money.  If push comes to shove, I wonder how much of it will get cut in future years? 

The fiscal year 2011 proposed budget for NOAA is roughly $5.5 billion.  Of this about $1 billion is earmarked for the National Weather Service.  Of course the National Weather Service if vital in providing forecasts to the public including severe weather warnings.  NOAA as a whole controls other sectors which deal with the monitoring and health of the oceans, putting weather satellites in space, and climate research.  They develop and operate computer weather models and install weather radar systems across the U.S.  You can read more in depth about NOAA’s budget  breakdown from the following link.  http://www.corporateservices.noaa.gov/nbo/11bluebook_highlights.html

It would be extremely difficult to keep track of the weather to the high level that we are now used to without their equipment and information.   Local National Weather Service offices lead educational weather seminars for broadcast meteorologists.  Justin and I have gone to many of these and they are a valuable resource for training and staying up with the latest advances in weather technology and theory. 

I have several friends that work for the National Weather Service.  I worry for them and their families.   It’s not nice to think about someone losing a job, government employee or not.  I sure hope people realize the importance of keeping a strong and progressive weather service going on the national and state level.   Public health, safety, commerce, transportation, and many other interests are at stake when it comes to dealing with the weather.  I urge people to contact their lawmakers and tell them this is a critical agency and please do not cut it to shreds.

Posted under Community, Uncategorized

My goodness July 6th was a busy day! 

Have you seen the amazing footage coming from Phoenix, Arizona of the dust storm?  Newsline 9 Internet Director Katie Rosenberg sent this video in my direction earlier today.  The footage of a cloud of dust swallowing up one of the largest cities in the Southwest is just incredible.  Doesn’t it look like something straight out of an epic Hollywood disaster movie?

Not an hour after I saw that video I got word that another large earthquake has struck in the Pacific Ocean.  The latest quake that was centered off-shore from the New Zealand islands measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale.  It prompted Tsunami Warnings after a 6-foot Tsunami was measured in the ocean.  Luckily nothing major has come from it and those warnings have been lifted.  But it has assuredly rattled quite a few nerves around the South Pacific and in New Zealand in particular after their previous run in with deadly earthquakes this year. 

Here’s a video from the New Zealand Herald explaining the earthquake and tsunami and why it didn’t become another major disaster.

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Congratulations to the 52 people who correctly guessed June 17th as the date the snow finally melted in our 2011 Snowmelt Contest!  The five winners of the R-Store Gift Cards were announced this morning on Wake-Up Wisconsin. 

Congratulations to: 

 -  1st Place $250 R-Store Gift Card – Edna Scheel, Schofield

-    2nd Place $150 R-Store Gift Card – Melissa Hoffman, Weston

-    3rd Place $100 R-Store Gift Card – Joe Orsund, Amherst

-     4th Place $50 R-Store Gift Card – Diane Stroik, Ringle

-     5th Place $25 R-Store Gift Card – Joanne Ciszczon, Wisconsin Rapids

Good Luck Next Year!

Posted under Community, Nature, Seasonal Items, Snow Totals, Snowmelt 2011, Uncategorized

While round after round of rain will be almost certain the next several days around here, the main threat of large hail, damaging wind, and tornadoes should be primarily southwest and south of the TV-9 viewing area.  We probably will stay just a bit too far north of the warm front to tap the really warm and muggy air.  Thus the main impact for us will be soaking rains and perhaps a few embedded thunderstorms with small hail.  We can’t rule out an isolated severe storm but it is just hard to get widespread severe weather in the summer if daytime highs stay in the 60s with cloudy skies.    Below is the risk area of severe weather highlighted by the Storm Prediction Center for Tuesday.

Storm Prediction Center severe outlook area for Tuesday

Storm Prediction Center severe risk outlook for Wednesday.

Now should the low pressure system and warm front push a bit further north than projected we would be more under the threat of severe storms.  So we at StormTrak 9 will monitor the situation carefully.

Posted under Uncategorized

This has been a tough Spring to figure out in Wisconsin and large parts of the country with abnormal conditions in many respects.  When science fails to adequately describe a situation it’s fun to look at things like folklore.  So here are some of those “old May weather sayings”!

GENERAL MAY WEATHER PROVERBS

• A snowstorm in May brings a wagon-load of hay.
• A cold May will fill up your barns with grain and hay.
• (Another version of the previous one).  A cold May is kindly and fills the barn finely.
• A windy May makes a fair year.
• The more thunder in May, the less in August and September.
• Mist in May and heat in June makes the harvest right soon.
• Wet May brings a dry July.
• A dry May brings a wet June.
• If ash is leafed out before oak, twill be a summer of splash and dash, if oak is leafed out before ash, twill be a summer of fire and smoke.
• When an oak leaf is as big as a squirrels ear, that’s when you plant corn.

DAY SPECIFIC MAY WEATHER PROVERBS

• If it rains on May 1st, it will rain twenty days during the month.
• Rain on May 1st means a fertile year.
• Frost on May 1st indicates a good harvest.

May 11 – 13th: 

• Three chilly saints.  Three days of cold weather.  St. Mamertus, St. Pancras, and St. Servatius do not pass without a frost.

May 25th: 

• Summer begins on St. Urban’s Day. 
• If it rains on the 25th, wind shall do much hurt that year; If the sun shines, the contrary.
• If the day is fine expect good and plentiful wine.

Ascension Day:

• Rain on this day means a wet harvest.
• If it rain on Ascension Day ever so little, it foretells scarcity.  But if it be fair, then the contrary, and fine weather to Michaelmas.

Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Pentecost:

• The weather on each of these three days foretells the weather for July, August, and September.

May 31st:

• If on the last day of May oak trees begin to bear blossoms, it will be a good year for tallow, and plenty of fruit.

WELL, I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THESE and please remember to use them with a big grain of salt!  While there is a hint of truth in some of them, most of them were developed hundreds of years ago when the uncertainty of future weather was overwhelming and scientific weather knowledge was limited.   I believe a lot of these sayings were developed to provide a feeling of “order” and “control” when it came to the weather.

Posted under Uncategorized

Photo Courtesy: International Crane Foundation

For this week’s edition of Wandering Wisconsin I had the pleasure of getting an amazing up-close look at every species of Crane on the planet.  And it’s one you can see for yourself after a nice drive down I-39.

Not long ago, there were just 22 Whooping Cranes on Earth.  That’s it.  Loss of habitat had dwindled their numbers down to less than two dozen.  But thanks to the work of the ICF in Baraboo, they have successfully helped restore the population back up into the hundreds…and growing.

You won’t believe the incredible methods that have been discovered here in Wisconsin that are bringing this species back to life.  Everything from using puppets to teach young cranes to eat and modifying airplanes to teach migration patterns have been discovered at the ICF.

The ICF is a non-profit organization and holds several events during the year to help support their species-saving efforts.  On June 25th they are hosting “An Evening with the Cranes” which features food and wine from the different areas of the world that each species of Crane is from.  For details give them a call at 608-356-9462 (x 121). 

To learn more about this organization visit them online at http://www.savingcranes.com or since we’re in Wisconsin, make an afternoon of it and drive down to visit them in person!

Posted under Ecology, Environment, International Weather, Nature, Science, Travel, Uncategorized

I think we all know it has been a cold spring here in the Upper Midwest.  The April numbers from our area sure confirm that.   For Wausau, the average high temperature was 49.6 degrees, which is 5.2 degrees below normal.  The average low temperature was 32.5 degrees, or 0.7 degrees below normal.  Our coldest temperature was 25, while the highest was 74 degrees.  We only hit the 70s once, the day of the tornadoes.  We managed highs in the 60s four times.

As far as precipitation goes…it was wet.  We had 3.99″ of precipitation (includes rain and melted snow).  That is above the normal by 1.15″.  The southern part of the TV-9 viewing area had as much as 6.0″ of precipitation by the way.  We piled up 5.6″ of snow, which is 1.8″ above normal.  Of course parts of the area has as much as 10″ of snow during April.

COLD START TO MAY ALSO

The high on May 2nd was only 39 in Wausau.  That is not too far away from a record low maximum temperature for the date.  That was 35 degrees set back in 1940.  Believe it or not, we have had days where the highs have stayed in the 30s in the record books all the way through May 11th. 

It’s interesting because I saw my uncle this weekend, and he mentioned to me how this spring reminded him of spring 1960.  He said it was so cold, wet, and snowy that a lot of the country gravel roads were very mushy and hard to travel on.    I see in the record books that May 7th and 9th of 1960 saw record low maximum temperatures in the 30s.  Boy, he has a good memory!

Well, enjoy the more seasonal conditions coming up for the rest of the week.

Posted under Uncategorized

Sorry, no blog entry from me today. I am travelling to award tools for schools. It is our last $300 grant giveaway for the year. Tune in to Wake-Up Wisconsin tomorrow morning at 6:30 am to find out what lucky school will end up with the money.

Have a nice Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under Uncategorized

Though temperatures outside on Saturday night will be headed into the chilly 30′s, I just wanted to check in and say thanks for the warm welcome to Wisconsin! 

Allow me to introduce myself, my name’s Rob Duns and I’m the newest addition to the StormTrak 9 and Newsline9 team here at WAOW.  I grew up in Northeast Ohio and have family all over Western New York.  Needless to say I’m no stranger to mostly cloudy skies and rough winters.  But I’m excited to be here in Wausau to help bring you the info you need to make your daily plans when it comes to the weather outside!

So a little about me.  I’m a 2008 graduate from the Tim Russert Department of Communication and Theatre Arts at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio.  I continued on at JCU in graduate school earning a Master’s in Communication Management (walking in the graduation ceremony this May!) and while working on my Master’s I enrolled in the Broadcast Meteorology Certification program at Mississippi State University. 

I’ve known for a long time that with an interest in the weather and television, broadcast meteorology is the field for me.  In fact back home in Ohio when I was a kid my sisters and I turned our wood shed into a small tv studio.  Though we didn’t make anything worthy of an Emmy, it was still pretty fun. 

I’ve carried my interest in weather and TV through my academic experiences and just this spring wrapped up production on a 45-minute documentary for my graduate program on the pros and cons of wind turbine energy in the Great Lakes.  The film focused on Northeast Ohio and why wind energy looks different there, as opposed to the regions surrounding it.  The film involved first-hand interviews and on-location shoots in Michigan, Ontario, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.  It was a lot of work, but turned up some very interesting findings on how different regions view wind energy.

Though this is my first full-time weather job, I’ve interned at The Weather Channel (I was their first intern ever put on the air!  It’s my one little claim to fame!), WOIO-TV in Cleveland and WKBN-TV in Youngstown, Ohio.  I’ve also had anchoring and reporting roles with the OSTN Network and G-TV Channel in Geauga County, Ohio. 

While in college I was the weekday weather forecaster at WJCU-FM in Cleveland and forecast everything from lake effect snow-pocalypses to pleasant fall afternoons. 

I learned working with meteorologists for years how important weather is to everyone’s day-to-day lives.  And I also know first hand how weather can scare people when it gets rough.  My first day at WKBN-TV in Youngstown involved two tornado warnings where I answered phone calls from worried viewers.  I’ll never forget hearing the fear in people’s voices who were scared of what was happening.  I learned from some of the best that day how important it is to relay accurate information to the community when the weather gets rough. 

It’s my promise to you that I’ll do absolutely everything I can to provide you with the most accurate, timely and professional forecast I can.  

I’m looking forward to exploring more of Northern Wisconsin!  If you see me out and about town please introduce yourself!  Thanks to all of you who have already done so!

Posted under Uncategorized

Not much time for a blog post today because I will be training our newest meteorologist here at StormTrak9. His name is Rob Duns and he hails from Ohio. Check back here later this week for an introductory blog entry from Rob. You can catch him on TV Thursday night. His normal schedule on TV will be from Friday through Sunday.

Have a good Wednesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Uncategorized