Because of the very short amount of time I have to explain the weather situation on the TV side of things, I wasn’t able to talk very much about the threat of frost this week, so I will do it here in the blog (and you can always check out the weather show for a longer video of the weather for the week, it is updated every morning around 9am and is on the website through mid afternoon).

The biggest thing you need to know is that I am bringing my tropical plants indoors this week. It is not so much the threat of frost that is a problem (in the city anyway) but it is quite a cool trend developing this week and it is time to move those types of plants inside. As far as the chance of frost goes, there will be a slight chance of frost tonight into Tuesday morning and again Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. There should be enough wind and cloud cover on both of these nights to keep most areas above freezing, but there could be pockets of light frost, especially in typical cold spots. The highest chance of frost  – even for the city – will be Saturday night into Sunday morning. During this time frame the skies will be more clear and the winds will be lighter. In any case, you should be taking some precautions if you have any valuable plants or crops outside.

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You sometimes get more detail on on the forecast here in the blog but you will also find some cutting edge topics from time to time. Recently I blogged about the possible demise of the car and the roadblocks to having more train traffic in the U.S. and now I see WIRED is talking about tearing up freeways as well. While tearing up some of the freeways will face, often illogical, stiff opposition (because of vested interests and sunk costs) driver-less cars probably will not. At first thought, many people will be scared of computer controlled cars, but as the reporter in this story found out, there can be more freedom in not having to drive the car. I think that is what most people will find out – driving is a chore. Not many of us ride an open road with beautiful scenery. Most of us are in traffic, surrounded by the sprawling urban environment of streets, parking lots, strip malls and what-not. There is not much enjoyment in “driving” for most people. They will gladly hand the controls over. They will also likely be much safer - if computer controlled airplanes and trains of the past couple decades are any guide.

Also with self-driving cars we have a semi-private solution to the sprawling environmental mess that is much of the U.S. landscape. It is very hard to build out train infrastructure. Changing from highways to trains would necessitate gargantuan government control of the entire process. With self-driving cars, we would essentially have mini-trains running on cement tracks. With more people efficiently riding in packs (as discussed in the article) or on autonomous multi-passenger vehicles, maybe there would be less need to build bigger and bigger freeways. Maybe we could cut back some. What a novel thought.

Have a fine Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Freeze, Technology

It turns out my fears of frost were a little overblown, at least in Wausau. The official low in Wausau this morning was only 36. Many locations remained in the mid to upper 30s, while a few did record frost. Stevens Point dropped to 30, Wisconsin Dells bottomed out at 31, and Wisconsin Rapids hit 32. The temperature did not drop as far as expected across more of the area because there was a light wind during the night. If the wind had become calm, then we would have been close to record low temperatures.

It turns out I could have planted a few frost-tolerant things in my garden (like broccoli and cabbage) a few days ago, but I remind myself, it is only May 17th. As long as I get my garden in before the end of May, then the growing season is long enough to produce a good crop. Back when I was growing up, a general rule of thumb was to not plant warm weather plants like tomatoes, sweet corn, and peppers until Memorial Day weekend. Nowadays, with a bit warmer climate, and improved forecasting, we can usually plant a few days earlier in May and be reasonably confident that we will not lose plants to frost.

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Turning to a subject that I touch upon quite frequently, there is more good news on the alternative energy front. Despite worries over political and economic instability around the world, technology continues to advance and promise a cleaner greener future. My current front-runner for the most promising alternative energy – solar – made news multiple times since the last update:

• Sometimes improvements come from the most unexpected corners. A research team at MIT has used viruses to help create more efficient dye-sensitized solar cells. The viruses help align carbon nanotubes in the active layer of the solar cells. Using this method they have boosted the efficiency of this type of cell by a third.
• Another group from MIT has created a solar collection material that absorbs energy in the infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths while allowing most visible light to pass through. How could this be useful? It could go over a window, thus harvesting energy but not blocking “light” from getting through for natural interior illumination. The only problem with this technology is that it is organic, which typically has a much shorter useful lifespan than inorganic solar cells.
• Another fruitful area of research is using quantum dots to improve solar conversion efficiency. One team of scientists has found that charging the quantum dots during fabrication of solar cells could improve efficiency by 50%. The process is probably a few years away e mass manufacturing.
• Just today a headline proclaimed a new solar device that converts 95% of incoming solar radiation to useful energy. The invention will apparently use nano-antennae to capture many different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. The inventor says mass production is about 5 years away. I am not holding my breath on this one, because 95% conversion might not be theoretically possible given our current understanding of physics. Details in the article were scant, which makes it look more like a fundraising effort than a coming out party for new technology.

Have a fine Tuesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under Alternative Energy, Freeze, Technology