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

I didn’t have time for an April recap yesterday so it was a good thing Tony covered it. Check out some of the details in Tony’s blog update. Tony mentioned how his uncle remembered very cool conditions back in the Spring of 1960. The nearest analogue I can think of was 1996. During that year there was ice on Northwoods lakes for the beginning of the fishing season in early May. Yesterday, while traveling to Phelps to visit the Tools for Schools winner for May, I notice a couple of spots where there was a little snow in the woods and a tiny bit of ice clinging to some shorelines. The snow wasn’t melting either with temps only in the 30s for most of the area. Rhinelander ended up tying the record for the coldest high temperature on May 2nd with the mercury only reaching 34 degrees! In Wausau we missed the record for coldest high temperature by just 4 degrees. We hit a high temp of 39 and the old record was 35. Today’s record for coldest high temperature is also 35 and was set back in another year with some cold weather during early May – 1954. During that year we had 3 days in a row with high temps only in the 30s. On May 3rd it was 35. On May 4th it was just one degree better at 36. On May 5th the high was just 38. A couple days later on the 7th, there was a record low of 25. On the 3rd and 4th of May in 1954 there was also record snowfall – 0.40 inches of snow fell on both days. So, if you think today’s weather is bad, it could be worse.

Lost in all the cold weather (and international) news lately is the fact that last week’s tornado outbreak in the South ended up being the 2nd dealiest single day tornado outbreak in U.S. history with a tragic total of 337 fatalities (or as many as 340 if you trust the LA Times as a source).

The supercell thunderstorm that produce the violent tornado in Tuscaloosa Alabama was one of the longest lived of recent memory. Check out this compilation of radar imagery. The supercell crossed 4 different states before fading away. You could call it the quad-state tornado except for the fact that there was not a tornado on the ground at all times during this path. Many tornado experts suspect that the famous Tri-State tornado of 1925 was a similar storm and even though there seemed to be a continuous damage path for the duration of the storms, they think that a tornado might not have been on the ground at all times.

Similar to the EF3 tornado that hit northeast Wisconsin on June 7th of 2007, the tornadoes in the south last week left visible scars upon the earth, even as viewed from space. Take a look here to see pictures of a couple different tornado tracks in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Have a good Tuesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Freeze, Records, Seasonal Items, Severe Weather, Tornadoes, Winter Weather

Time for a recap of April (datath facts for Wausau). Temperatures for the month werejust a sliver below normal. Since the average temp was less than a half degree below normal, we will officially call it a normal month. The best part about April was that precipitation was about a quarter inch above normal. I held a private celebration…ok, just kidding, but I wanted tobecause we have had so many years in a row (6) with below normal precipitation. Snowfall was a couple inches below normal in Wausau, but many people remember the heavy snow from just 10 days ago that hit the northwoods. April snowfall in Rhinelander was 10.7 inches! The only record broken (actually tied) was the record cold high temperature on the 20th. The high temperature on the 20th was only 37. Here are the stats:

1. Average High: 54.1 (normal 54.8)
2. Average Low: 33.0 (normal 33.2)
3. Total Precipitation: 3.10 inches (normal 2.84 inches)
4. Total Snowfall: 1.7 inches (normal: 3.8 inches)
5. Highest Temperature: 83 on the 24th (1 degree shy of tying the record)
6. Lowest Temperature: 24 on the 11th

Now a couple of fun items for you to check out over the weekend.

How about 8 things you didn’t know about the Internet. I am not bragging here, but since I follow tech and science news, these were not big surprises to me. The most interesting topic is the one about the Internet becoming conscious. I am sure a lot of you think it is bunk. I don’t. Just think about how the Internet resembles the human mind. Cables=connections between neurons. Computer nodes=neurons. The Internet is patterned like the human mind. Also, each one of us is “connected” to the Internet to some degree, contributing our thoughts, adding to the knowledge base, developing ever more sophisticated software, etc… Earlier this week someone made a post on Twitter using thoughts alone (with a brain computer interfacing device). How long before the combination of human minds, computers, and software, becomes something much more than the some of the parts?

How about 10 facts you didn’t know about the earth. Once again, being an earth scientist, I knew most of these. The one I did not know was number 9 on the list – that the earth had more than one moon, although it is a bit of a stretch to call them “moons”. They are really asteroids that orbit the sun but they follow very close to earth, making it appear that they are satellites of our planet.

Have a good weekend! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Monthly Recap, Science, Space