The first thing I HAVE to mention is the first snowfall contest. If you haven’t yet entered, if you have been waiting and checking the extended weather charts to get the best read on trends, you had better get a move on. The deadline is midnight tonight. Just go here and predict the date of the first “official” one inch of snow in Wausau. The average date of the first one inch snowfall in Wausau is November 14th. Last year it was a little late, not ocurring until November 24th. Many years it does not hit until December. I will let everyone know my prediction Monday. I think I am going to take a chance and predict a date outside of what is normal – just to be a little different.

Secondly, this is the time of the week to take a look at the US Drought Monitor. For us, it is a bit boring, which is a good thing! Not much changed since last week. About 65% of the state is indicated as abnormally dry. The coverage of the dry conditions decreased only by a fraction of a percent. Given that we did just get through 11 days in a row of wet weather, I suspect that next week’s Drought Monitor report will show less dry areas in the state. The best news in the country is that some rain fell in Texas this past week. It was not widespread or heavy enough to end the record drought, but any drop is welcome, I am sure.

Recent Color - Bob Whetstone, Medford

Thirdly, I want to make sure to highlight this weekend’s weather. It will be nice for the 1st weekend of October. We should have plenty of sunshine and high temps in the 50s on Saturday and in the 60s on Sunday. According to the latest Fall Color Report, the color are near the peak in the northern half of the area and close to 50% for most of the rest of the area. This means, this weekend could be the best one for a nice Fall Color trip or drive. By next weekend we could have more clouds or rain. If you don’t have time to get out there over the weekend, there will be some very nice days early next week as well.

Fourthly (if that is a word), I want to continue on the theme of progress that I started with yesterday. I often talk about gains in efficiency and all the wonderful new breakthroughs in alternative energy but not too much about things as prosaic as food production but there are exciting things going on there as well.

Read almost any environmental-themed website and you will find a lot of concern (to put it mildly) about how humans are using up all the resources of the planet, we are running out of fresh water, there isn’t enough productive land or fertilizer to feed everyone, and basically we are all going to die (like this article). I am here to say that it is not as bad as it looks and that we will like find solutions to keep everything moving forward.

First and foremost, the root of the potential problem is population increase (which ties in with my recent blog post “Housing Starts Negative“). Worse yet, the countries with the least ability to feed themselves are the ones having the most kids. What is up with that? It is all backwards. People with the least ability to feed a family should not be having multiple kids. I guess, it is what it is, and people will continue to need food, so where will it come from?

How about from the quarter acre farm? It does not take a genius or tons of work to grow a significant amount of food on a typical city lot. I make most of the small part of my yard that receives adequate sunlight. I drive around and see many large suburban lots, not only here but all over the U.S., many that are more than an acre in size, being used to grow grass. If there was a food shortage, these big lots could grow enough food for multiple families. In short, there is plenty of productive land that could be used to produce food. It seems more and more people are getting into the homegrown revolution which is a good thing.

Unfortunately, the biggest obstacle to growing more of our own food might be the government. I cannot believe a judge in Wisconsin recently explained that people “do not have a fundamental right to produce and consume the foods of their choice”. Seriously!? This person is a judge in Wisconsin? We don’t have a right to have chickens and eat the eggs, own a cow and drink the milk, or grow a garden and eat the veggies, according to this fellow. Not without the government’s say so. And no, this is not a joke and it is not from the Onion. Grrrr. I had better stop before I blow my top.

Back to some of the good news. Even larger industrial-type agriculture has its share of innovation and each step makes it more likely that we will be able to produce more food with less energy, using less land and water that years past. Take a look at this recent development in aquaculture. A researcher in Texas has developed a new way to raise shrimp that involves a “racetrack” system of rearing the shrimp that uses less space than conventional outdoor ponds. The grow through successive stages of the equipment until they reach the bottom fully grown. Plans are being made to scale it up to factory size so we will soon find out if it lives up to its promise. Whereas not-so-environmentally-friendly outdoor ponds can produce 20,000 to 60,000 pounds of shrimp in a year, the racetrack system can produce a million pounds, using the same amount of water! If this system works at scale, then there will be much less pressure on the oceans of the world to produce seafood for humans.

Have a nice weekend! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Drought, Ecology, Environment, Fall Color, First Snowfall 2011, Technology

No winner in the first snowfall contest yet (obviously!) and it doesn’t look like much chance of an inch or greater of snow for the next week to 10 days. We might have to wait until Halloween or even November before we find out who will win the prizes (hundreds of dollars in gift cards and car washes) from the R-stores.

In the weather, the most interesting trend is our spell of Indian Summer weather which included a record high (tied) of 80 here in Wausau on Friday. Today could be our last official Indian Summer day with high temps around 70. However, it looks like we will still have decent October weather for the rest of the week. High temps will be in the upper 60s on Tuesday and in the low to mid 60s from Thursday through Saturday. Wednesday will be the coolest day with high temps in the 50s – which is about normal for the middle of October. The highest chance (40%) of rain will be Tuesday evening but if rain does develop it should be light. This means more good viewing of the Fall colors, however, it now looks like the best color will be in the southern half of the state. I have included a nice fall picture from one of our weather watchers – Rick from Tomahawk.

In science news around the world, it seems like Virgin Galactic has stolen the headlines. Their second spaceship took its first flight over the weekend. It was released from the mother ship and glided down to earth. Now, I know I decided to drop space exploration news from the blog but I thought this was worth a mention since I had covered private space exploration extensively in the past and Virgin Galactic is getting closer to taking paying customers to the edge of space. Unfortunately, SpaceShipTwo (“VSS Enterprise”) stole headlines from a more momentous disclosure from over the weekend. Apparently, Google (yes, the search company) has tested autonomous cars on highways with live traffic conditions. For many years, futurists have forecast the development of self-driving cars. It seems like something out of the Jetsons. This would seem like a ground breaking technical and engineering feat that could transform transportation around the world – particularly in the U.S. – by saving lives and energy. Yet, I did not see any coverage of this revelation in mainstream media outlets. Maybe tonight. I for one would like to have an autonomous car/vehicle. That way I would have my own personal transportation and could relax, eat, work, or what-not while “driving” to work or elsewhere. What does everyone else think? Have you been waiting all your life for an autonomous car? Or could you do without.

Have a fine Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under First Snowfall 2010, Technology, Viewer pictures

Big news for everyone out there in Northcentral Wisconsin. StorrmTrak9 forecasts are now on a few radio stations in the area. Here is the list:

Big Cheese 107.9 http://www.bigcheese1079.net/ 

Central Wisconsin’s Listen at Work Station, Mix 96.7 http://967wljy.com/

 Classic Rock 103.3 WGLX http://www.wglx.com/ 

Today’s Best Country, Y 106.5 http://www.wyte.com/

You will hear StormTrak9 forecasts throughout the day and night on all four stations and we will have some interactive chats with the radio DJs in the morning. For starters, you can hear me on Big Cheese 1079 every morning Monday through Friday at 6:13am and 7:50 am with Trav & Christy. Tune in during your drive to work in the morning because it is “time to go for the gusto, drive fast, and eat cheese!”

As far as the weather goes, I can’t say enough good words about the forecast for this week and most of the weekend. It looks like we could reach Indian Summer conditions by Friday and Saturday with high temps around 70. The next chance of rain will not occur until late Sunday at the earliest. The Wisconsin Fall colors are happening earlier this year and are at their peak in most of the area right now! The colors are also more vibrant this year. My theory is that the above normal rainfall led to healthier trees this year and healthy trees bring good color. The last few year of Fall color have not been as vibrant most likely be cause of the persistent drought conditions.

Have a nice Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Fall Color, forecast

There is reason to celebrate today!

Is it because the fall color is in full swing and quite vibrant this year? Well, that is one reason.

Is it because a new habitable exoplanet has been discovered and it is only 20 light years away!? That discovery tripped my trigger, but I doubt too many others would celebrate.

Is it because dry and mostly pleasant weather (except tomorrow and Saturday) is on the horizon? This means river levels will continue to return to normal. This is certainly good news and something I would celebrate at least a little. I was out in the countryside yesterday hoping to do some trout fishing before the season closed but I couldn’t find a stream that was not flooded. Most of them were still a foot or more above normal.

What I was referring to in the beginning of the blog is the status of the drought here in Wisconsin. Many of you are probably thinking right now – what drought? I know it doesn’t seem like we have been experiencing drought for at least 2 or 3 months now, however, it takes awhile for the official drought status to catch up with the reality on the ground (because it is a multi-factorial calculation). This week’s update of the US Drought Monitorindicates Wisconsin is 99.9 percent drought free. Don’t ask me where the speck of remaining abnormally dry conditions is located. It is too small to show up on the graphic but perhaps it is in Florence county since that is where some of the last remaining dry conditions were located last week.

Have a nice Thursday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Drought, Fall Color, Space

I can’t believe that it is almost October, and that some places up north are almost to peak for fall color!  Fall officially started a week ago but across the area it has felt like fall the entire month of September.  Fall is such a gorgeous time of the year with the leaves changing colors.  I have talked about this a few times but I can truly say the season I probably missed most living in Florida and Texas was fall.  The natural beauty that fall brings really is spectacular.

Last year I wrote an article about why leaves change.  That is always a common question that people seem interested in.  So if you want to know the answer you can check out this link.  I’ll give you a clue, it has to do with the sun!

If you haven’t had a chance to get out and experience the colors for yourself you can look at this link to find out how far along your colors are! The site also has great ideas and maps on where to go to see the leaves.  I know that I am going to head up to Rib Mountain soon, before it’s to late!

Here is the map of colors across the state:

Last but not least! We saw our next Tropical Storm today, Tropical Storm Nicole.  But she was very short lived.  She was only a tropical storm for around 7 hours!  Her last advisory was just issued so she is no more.  One thing she did though bring LOTS of rain to Florida.

Have a great day tomorrow in enjoy the beautiful fall weather! I will on the golf course!

Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Fall, Fall Color, Tropics

This past weekend I was talking about how we have to blog on our weather page and that I am always looking for new ideas.  My Grammy, like most most Grandmas, suggest I talk about an event in history. 

She starts to tell me about Hurricane Bob which hit Massachusetts in 1991.  She couldn’t recall the exact year but knew it hit Cape Cod in the early 1990′s and caused extensive damage.  She points out what was most interesting is that the leaves were all grown and that there was so much salt water that came in with the winds that the salt actually killed the foliage!  So that fall they didn’t have the changing of the leaves since the leaves turned brown from the salt.  I was reading a few articles, this one describes exactly what she was explaining.

From the story my Grandma said that in the Spring the leaves began to come out and go through the normal cycle of what would happen in Fall, growing and changing of the colors.  Because of that they called it a “Sprall” – combining Spring and Fall.  I have been doing research to see if I can verify exactly what happened, I’ll let you know what I find out.

Hurricane Bob was a Category 2 hurricane that it the east coast on Sept 3 1991.  Top gusts on the cape were at 125 mph. Approx damage for New England was 680 million dollars. 

For more about the hurricane you can check out:

History of Hurricane Bob

History from the National Weather Service

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Uncategorized

The other day I was driving up to Phillips for a school talk.  Almost all the leaves were gone already but it still looked pretty from all these needles that had turned orange on the other trees.  I really wondered what was going on.  I had just met with a Natural Resources prof about why leaves change color but didn’t go into the Conifers we mainly had discussed the Deciduous trees.

Ironically I came back and we had received to nice pictures from Ed Reid in Minocqua taken up north by Arbor Vitae.  This all intrigued me more.

I researched but could not find near the amount I could find on the changing o fleaves.  What I have found out is that different conifers shed in different years.  Before they loose the needles they turn the orange color shown above.  Some species turn every year because they loose their needles every year while others can be up to seven years.  It is thought that pine drop every at least every three years while spruce can hold theirs up to seven years.  Alot of owners get alarmed when they begin to see their needles changing colors but most need not to be aware because it is a natural occurrence.

In our state the tamarackis the only tree that changes color and sheds all of its needles in the fall.  It is not considered an evergreen and is mainly in Northern Wisconsin.  I am going to assume this is mostly what I was seeing!

For more info this was the best website I found.       

Here is the kids I visited in Phillips:

Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Uncategorized

The latest Fall Color report for Wisconsin is out and it depicts most of our area over 50% turned and a handful of counties near the peak. The only counties below 50% are Clark, Jackson, Juneau, Adams, and Waushara. The only problem with this year’s color season is that the weather has not been very nice. We have had more clouds than sunshine and plenty of rainfall. What makes the color season better is sunny weather to illuminate the red, orange, and yellow.

WI drought a little better this week.

Warm weather could be an additional bonus, making for nice walks out in the woods or around town. Unfortunately this October we have not even hit 60 degrees yet and it doesn’t look like we will see 60 degrees anytime soon, at least not until late next week at the earliest. The best weather for viewing colors will be on Friday, Sunday, and Tuesday when we should have partly sunny skies. High temps will only be in the mid or upper 40s but we have to take what we can get. Click here for the latest Fall Color report.

The drought situation in Wisconsin might have hastened the Fall Color show by a day or two, but it doesn’t seem to be a dramatic effect. The latest US Drought Monitorshows the drought situation in Wisconsin improving slightly in the last week. The all-day soaking we received on Tuesday the 6th should also lead to improving drought conditions in coming weeks. The Texas drought continues to get better as well. The drought in another hard hit state – California – has not changed recently.

Space News:

If you have been anxiously awaiting the LCROSS lunar impact experiment, you don’t have to wait much longer. The impact is expected to occur at 6:30 a.m. (central time) tomorrow. Read about it here. While reading, you will notice that NASA intends to broadcast the impact live on this web channel. Slooh will also broadcast the impact for free. LCROSS will release a spent fuel tank that will crash into one of the craters of the moon. A plume of debris is expected to rise about 6 miles above the lunar surface, making it visible to large telescopes. That is what is supposed to happen. Who knows how well the ejecta will be illuminated. Also, since this is being widely publicized, don’t be surprised if the web pages offering the impact live end up crashing due to traffic overload. I will try to watch the impact, but I might be on the air at the time and thus would miss it. I might have to watch the replay later on. One thing I find amazing about this event is that there is a flourishing side movement/commentary from people hysterically against this experiment. They are saying that it is an imperialist act of aggression and/or that this “bombing” is going to destroy the moon, it’s magnetic field, or something similar. And of course, this is going to cause a great catastrophe on earth as well. Some of the confusion has arisen because the phrase “bombing the moon” has been tossed around the web. The “bomb” is a substantially empty fuel tank. The people getting hysterical seem to forget that multi-multi-megaton asteroid/meteor impacts have been hitting the moon for millions of years and nothing terrible has happened with it’s structure. This impact will be less than a pin prick as compared to meteor strikes. They must have also forgotten that past Apollo landers were crashed onto the moon and just a couple months ago the Japanese Kayuga probe crashed into the moon and the impact was visible from earth. Nothing bad happened and it is highly highly unlikely anything “bad” will happen this time.

Have a good Thursday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Drought, Fall Color, Science, Space

Special Note: If you or someone you know uses the WAOW phone forecast service – the recorded forecast – the number has changed. Mark this down: The new number is 715-843-9250.

I was honored to be a judge for the roast beef cooking contest and had a wonderful time. Many thanks to the Minocqua area Chamber of Commerce. They put together a great event and it looked like everyone was having fun. I have a few pictures from the event.

WRJO Cook

The first picture is of the 5 judges who toured downtown sampling and judging the beef. Starting from the left we have Matt Benz (WJFW), Me (Justin), Kristyn Allen (WJFW), Don (Minocqua Resident), and Chris Wooldrige (WFHR).

The Lions Beef

The second picture is of the cook at the WRJO booth in full Beef-A-Rama costume. The third picture is of a creatively decorated roast beef cooked by the Lions club of Minocqua.

Cow Costumes

The roast beef is a “lion”.  The fourth picture is of some revelers in cow costumes. The 5th picture is of me being “attacked” by a black bear. This was at the booth of the Black Bear Lodge. 

Black Bear Attack

The 6th picture is of the Camp Arawak royal beef presentation. The 7th picture is a Wisconsin Badger themed competitor. The 8th picture is of the parade route. A lot of people were out enjoying the festivities.

Camp Arawak Beef

One thing I noticed on my trip up there was that there was quite a bit of Fall color in the forest.

Badgers Win!

There were some patches of forest that were easily over 50% turned. I don’t know about you but I usually see the best color early in the Fall color season. I like to view the contrast of the bright color with the green that is still present on some of the trees.

Parade Route

Sometimes it seems that if I wait until the colors are at their peak, then I half of the trees have already lost their leaves while the other half are in color.  It also seems to depend on the type of forest. Some locations turn early and some late. If you wanted to go out and see the Fall color this week on Wednesday and Thursday (2 days which are looking quite nice), you will no doubt find some very good color in the northwoods and a few spots in central Wisconsin as well.

Early Fall Color

The September drought is probably assisting in the early color. A hard frost on Wednesday morning will also bring out a bit more color early this season. Unfortunately, conditions do not look too good for viewing this weekend (Saturday and Sunday look mostly cloudy with a few light showers). Thankfully we will still have a good 10 days after this weekend for enjoying Autumn’s colorful show.

Speaking of the dry weather, a follow up on our chances of breaking the record for the driest September ever in Wausau. Roy Eckberg of the NWS Green Bay, informs me that 0.43″ in 1952 is indeed the record for the driest September ever. This will soon be eclipsed by September of 2009. So far this month we only have 0.13 inches of rain with a few more hundredths possible today.

Posted under Drought, Fall Color, Viewer pictures