March turned out to be an interesting month in that everyone was amazed at how cold it was and how long the snow lasted, yet it turns out it wasn’t a record-breaker. We did not set any new records for cold temps and the month did not even land in the top 25 of coldest March’s for Wausau. Number 26 on the list of cold March’s is 1971 when the mean temperature for the month was 24.2 degrees. This year our mean temp was 24.4 degrees. That being said, it was our coldest March since 1996. The only obscure record that might have been set this March is the fewest number of 40 degree (or warmer) days. This March we only had 3 days where the temperature rose to 40 or above. That is what makes this March interesting.

What has happened in recent years is that we have become spoiled. Whether it is related to theorized anthropogenic global warming (AGW) or not, most of our record cold March’s herald from 1975 or earlier. In recent years we have seen milder weather in March. March of 2008 and March of 2002 were a couple of colder ones, but most others have been above normal. After 1975, we only had one March (1996) that ranks in the top 25 for cold.

Other than the persistently below normal temps, there were no real odd trends in the numbers to speak of. Snowfall, like the temps, did not break records, but it was above normal because we had a handful of small snowstorms in the first half of the month. We were actually fairly lucky that we didn’t have at least a couple of March blizzards given all of the cold air around. Total precipitation was also above normal for the 4th month in a row which is great news. We have seen the “official” drought conditions subside a bit over the last month and I expect that positive trend to continue for the next couple of weeks as we will have a couple of chances for heavier precipitation. Here are the March stats for Wausau:

Average High: 32.9  (normal: 39.5)

Average Low: 15.8  (normal: 15.8)

Total Precipitation: 2.18 inches  (normal: 1.76 inches)

Total Snowfall: 12.7 inches  (normal: 12.7 inches)

Highest Temperature: 46, on the 29th

Lowest Temperature: 0 (zero), on the 3rd

Looking ahead to the first week or 10 days of April, it looks like more of the same. Temps will be below normal on most days. It will be closer to the middle of the month before we will have a stretch of warmer weather in the 50s or 60s. Before then, we might even have more snow to contend with. A storm system moving through the area this Saturday (the 6th) could produce some heavier rain or snow. Because of the cold weather, I have not yet started riding my bike to work yet and can’t even dream about starting the garden. I am planning on at least getting my bike tuned up this week, in preparation for a possible warmer spell around the middle of the month. I am also starting a few plants inside the house.

Have a nice Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under Monthly Recap

The month of September 2012 has come to a close and it is time for a little review. The most interesting aspect of the month is that it was the first below normal month (in Wausau) since September of last year. We had 11 months in a row with above normal temps and then it was just barely below normal in September. Our average high was a little above normal but the average low was a few degrees below normal, so when you put them together, the month was about 1 degree below normal.

The one thing that was also below normal that was more troublesome is precipitation. In Wausau (and most of the area, and most of the state) precipitation was at least 2 inches below normal. The dry weather is noticeable, as I have seen many of the lake levels turn lower recently. Also, some of my long-lasting plants and second plantings in the garden have not turned out very well because of the lack of rain. I could have kept watering but there were not enough plants to justify. Therefore, I will have to just live with what my broccoli and kale plants can squeeze out of the dusty soil. There might be a hard freeze in town this weekend (on Sunday) anyway, so I probably wouldn’t be harvesting superfood into late October like in previous years.

Another remarkable thing about September this year is that we had an early frost. Normally, we would have our first frost in the city somewhere around the first couple days of October. This year, our first frost was on September 19th. It was thought to be a record low in Wausau at one point (31 degrees), but at second glance the automated airport data only showed a low of 32. It was the coldest temperature of the month in the city, but other locations in the countryside had several nights from the 19th onward with low temps down in the 20s. We also had snow south of Wausau on the 22nd! It was an early end to the growing season.

Here are the stats for Wausau:

Average High: 70.6  (normal: 68.8)

Average Low: 44.7  (normal: 48.1)

Precipitation: 1.61 inches  (normal: 3.90 inches)

Snowfall: 0.0 inches  (normal: 0.0 inches)

Highest Temperature: 88 on the 4th

Lowest Temperature: 32 on the 19th

And now a report about the little fishing expedition I took. I promised to keep an eye on the solar-lunar table and weather conditions to further expand knowledge about fish and game activity. During my approximately 3 days of fishing there did again seem to be a pick-up in activity correlating fairly well with the solar-lunar table. Also the fishing was a little better on the day when the pressure was a little lower. I didn’t get to check out rainy/cloudy weather vs sunny skies because it was beautiful the whole time.

It wsn’t a perfect corellation (and certainly not a rigorous science experiment), but it did seem to be better at the times I was expecting. The one interesting thing about testing the theory out was that I had to fish most of the day on one river/stream and during the times when the activity was not projected to be good – otherwise how would one know or compare activity between the different periods. Even when the action was slow or non-existent, it was nice exploring new fishing areas and the colors were at their peak. The scenery was awesome in some spots.

Now that I have researched the fish/weather activity and tried it out through years in real world situations, I think I am going combine all of that knowledge into a daily fish and game forecast. It will probably start out on our web page but perhaps find a place on our TV broadcast as well. We get many requests for such a forecast every year, so it is about time to put something together.

Have a fine Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Fall Color, Monthly Recap, Nature

Eleven months in a row with above normal temperatures. Given the nature of our increasingly short memories, it seems like forever since we had a month with below normal temps. August of 2012 was not very far above normal, not as far above normal as the other months this year, but it was enough to continue the trend. The most problematic part of August was the below normal precipitation. In Wausau we only had 2 bouts of significant rain, one on the 8th and 9th, and another on the 26th. It was enough rain to keep plants alive, but not enough to make up for the deficit that occurred in July. Here’s hoping we get some nice Fall rain, although I am not betting on it.

It was interesting that we had hot weather to begin the month and then again to end the month. In fact, the hottest temperature occurred on the 30th, which is not what one would suspect for August. The temperatures usually cool down toward the end of the month. In August of 2012, it was the middle of the month that felt a little bit like Autumn. There was only one record in Wausau during the month. We tied a record high temperature at 93 degrees on the 30th. There were no real odd patterns with the highs and lows for the month. 75 was the most common high temperature, which occurred on 4 different days.

Here are the stats for Wausau:

Average High: 80.5  (normal: 77.7)

Average Low: 57.2  (normal: 57.0)

Precipitation: 2.71″  (normal: 4.16″)

Snowfall: 0.0″  (normal: 0.0″)

Highest Temperature: 93 on the 30th

Lowest Temperature: 45 on the 18th

Have a nice Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under Monthly Recap

It is time for a recap of June. It was not a very remarkable month except for the fact that it was the 9th month in a row with above normal temperatures. We did not set any new daily records but the very warm days were consistently only about 5 degrees away from record highs. The most interesting events of the month were frost and heavy rain. We had a very late frost in some areas on June 1st. In Wausau the low was only 38, but people the northwoods and cranberry bogs had to protect plants from the cold.

The precipitation for the month was almost normal and almost all of it fell in one week from the 14th through the 20th. It came just in time to keep crops and gardens growing, but then it was mainly dry for the last 10 days of the month, which means we need another “just in time” heavy rain event right now. Crops on heavier soil are still doing well, but I suspect the corn will start to curl up and leaves will start to burn (turn yellow/brown) this week if we don’t get much rain.

There were no odd trends in the numbers except that on 5 different mornings had a low 0f 64, which was the most common number of the month.  Here are the stats for June in Wausau:

Average High: 80.7  (normal: 75.8)

Average Low: 55.8  (normal: 53.9)

Precipitation: 3.94″  (normal 4.31″)

Snowfall: 0.0″  (normal 0.0″)

Highest Temperature: 90, June 19th

Lowest Temperature: 38, June 1st

Now for something completely un-related but definitely a scientific curiosity – the beginning of the Universe. Ok, maybe more than a curiosity. The beginning of the Universe has been debated both scientifically and philosophically since humans first had thought in their heads, and it seems we might not be any closer to the answers than when we began.

I for one am generally open to consider most theories, even wacky or controversial theories. I like to take the skeptics viewpoint first and challenge what is commonly known. This process tends to make existing theories stronger  – if they are correct, or sends them to the dustbin if the are wrong. The Big Bang Theory (not the TV show) is one that I have always questioned, not because the data is egregiously or obviously flawed, but because it is philosophically incomplete. Since the first day some science teacher mentioned the Big Bang as “the way the universe started” (no debate what-so-ever) I have always wondered, as many have, what existed and what happened before the Big Bang. To this, there is no answer. Something (actually everything) coming from nothing is an interesting philosophical viewpoint, but I have always been more comfortable with permanent cyclical existence (as are most religions of the world). Fred Hoyle’s continuous creation theory was always more philosophical appealing to me.

What brought this subject to my mind recently is more data poking holes in the Big Bang theory of the Universe. There are a lot of small leaks in the theory that have needed filling throughout the years, and they seem to be growing bigger. The proposition of “dark matter” and “dark energy” are particularly stupefying. According the to Big Bang and inflation theory of the Universe, there should be a lot more mass that what we can currently detect and there appears to be something unknown that keeps the Universe expanding. So in order to keep the Big Bang Theory intact, astronomers had to conjure up dark matter and dark energy. It sounds rather unscientific to “conjure” up matter and energy to fills holes in a theory, but this is not uncommon. Many times scientists will discover some effect going on and not be able to determine the cause because of limited understanding or data. When better theory and instrumentation come along, then the “cause” or force is discovered and science progresses.

In the case of dark matter and dark energy it might turn out that way. There is a chance that these do not exist as currently conceived and that there is a better explanation for why the universe looks and acts as it does today. If dark matter existed everywhere in the universe, one would think we could detect it around the sun and in our solar system, but there doesn’t appear to be any. Recently discovered star clusters around the Milky Way galaxy also challenge the dark matter theories. The only place dark matter has been seen lately is in virtual reality (computer simulations). It will be an interesting scientific exploration in coming years to find out if dark matter and energy do exist and how theories of the Universe might have to be adjusted. It will likely be a heated debate as their are many entrenched cosmologists who favor the Big Bang theory.

In a little follow-up to a story I highlighted just a few days ago, about lasers and lightning. How could science get any cooler than combining lasers and lightning!? It would be cool, except some people are proposing that laser-directed should (or could) be used as a weapon. I often mention how new technology has the potential to great good or harm, and I instinctively focused on the potential for lasers to protect people from lightning (although it is most likely not economically feasible). Of course, someone had to dream up a way to use lasers to direct lightning (or high voltage electricity) at “enemy” targets. It kind-of bothers me that these new military weapon ideas always seem to come from the U.S. Then again maybe all the ideas from other countries are just more clandestine.

Have a fine Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under astronomy, Science, Space

Because of an exceedingly busy schedule, computer upgrades, and the snowmelt contest, I haven’t had the time to blog much in the past few weeks, and because of that I was unable to blog a May review. Here it is today (in the middle of June, ha).

May was above normal by about 4.5 degrees, which continues a trend that start in October of last year. Before October of last year, we had been on quite a trend of cool (below normal) months, then it turned warm. October and November of 2011 were about 4 degrees above normal. The Winter was one of the warmest in recent memory with each month from December through February about 6 degrees above normal. March was a blockbuster as temps were a record 15 degrees above normal. April was the “coolest” month as of late as temps were only about 2 degrees above normal. Since things go in cycles, I would doubt we will have a couple of below normal months later this Summer or into the Fall, but that is just a hunch. What would be perfect is if July or August ended up a little below normal. Most people wouldn’t mind warm, but not oppressively hot temps in the Summer. If temps were a degree or two below normal in July and August, then most days would have highs in the upper 70 to near 80, which is a nice range for Summer in Wisconsin. No doubt we will have some 90 degree days, I just hope there are not too many.

May Flowers

A good thing about the month of May is that precipitation was above normal by almost a half inch. In retrospect, the rain was crucial in preventing a significant drought from happening, because it has been quite dry for the last couple of weeks.

Temperatures showed some wide swings but there was no official frost in Wausau. The coldest temperature was 36. Even though there was no frost in Wausau, there were a few nights where frost did occur outside of the city and in the Northwoods. A frost advisory was posted for much of the area as late as the 31st. The last official frost of the season in Wausau was a low of 27 way back on the 27th of April. The warmest in May was 88 and on that day some spots in the southern part of the area did hit 90 for the first 90 degree readings of the year.

The was one record during the month – a record high of 88 on the 19th. Other than that, I didn’t notice any odds trends in the highs and lows. Here are the official stats for Wausau in May of 2012:

Average High: 72.7  (Normal: 67.0)

Average Low: 47.4  (Normal: 44.2)

Precipitation: 3.91 inches  (Normal: 3.47 inches)

Snowfall: 0.0 inches  (Normal: 0.20 inches)

Highest Temperature: 88 on the 19th.

Lowest Temperature: 36 on the 10th

Have a pleasant Thursday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Monthly Recap

We have already discussed the extreme March warmth quite a bit (here and here), but I just had to share one more comprehensive report (PDF) on the record-breaking month, compiled by Roy Eckberg of the National Weather Service in Green Bay. The one interesting fact that I learned from the report, that I had previously overlooked, is that here in Wausau we had our earliest ever 60 degree low temperature. It occurred on March 21st. The previous record for earliest 60 degree low temperature was April 16th.

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Since I started out with a follow-up, I might as well stick with the theme and update you on a few other trends I have been following in the weather blog. In the realm of our transportation and pollution problems many people have hopes for electric vehicles and even self-driving (or auto-pilot) cars to take over the roads. I have covered the self-driving car story for a couple of years now (“Driverless Cars in Nevada“, “Car-Take Me To Work“, “Driverless cars again”) and I am surprised by the rapid progress and the lack of mainstream culture acknowledgement at the same time. Here is an article that claims auto-pilot cars are here and ready to go (no doubt politicians and lawyers are still standing in the way). In tests, the cars have performed amazingly, even in heavy traffic. You won’t see them in showrooms anytime soon though because they are not yet economical. I was interested to learn that anyone who purchases and uses a driverless car in Nevada must post a $1 million to $3 million insurance bond. Considering that the auto-pilot cars have not yet been involved in any accidents and human drivers kill 1.2 million people every year around the world, you would think the insurance would be higher for human drivers. Once driverless cars are on the road, I am sure it will turn the other way. Insurance for a human driver will end up costing a lot more.

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Continuing with ground-breaking technology that is flying under the radar, how about quantum computing. This is a field that not many people understand and thus has the potential to be very disruptive. There is one company in the world that claims to be performing a special type of quantum computing and here is an update on their efforts.

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In what might seem like science fiction instead of science fact, progress continues in the pursuit of cloaking materials (just like what someone might find in Star Trek of Harry Potter). One of the pioneers of cloaking – Duke University – can now create holograms in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, using similar (meta)materials that are used in cloaking. Not to be outdone, researchers in France have created a method of thermal cloaking – or “hiding heat”. Even magnetic fields are being manipulated to hide objects. It is enough to make your head spin.

Have a good Wednesday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Monthly Recap, Records, Technology

In case you were gone over the weekend, check out Tony’s recap of the month of March 2012. It was a whopping 15.8 degrees above normal and it ended up being the warmest March on record in Wausau and most Northcentral Wisconsin cities. Everyone loved the warm weather in March but it did come with some downsides. Some sensitive fruit trees and plants are blooming early and they could suffer from a hard frost. Precipitation was also below normal which is something I am perpetually concerned about. With the precipitation (rain and snow) deficit in March, we are now officially a tad below normal for the year. It is not the worst thing in the world but it would be nice if we started to see a little more rain in the weather pattern. Our best chance for the next 7 days looks to be tonight.

My comments on the numbers from March; it was quite interesting to see that the average high temperature and the average low temperature were both exactly 15.8 degrees above normal. Besides all of the record high temperatures we also had 9 records for the warmest low temperature. We probably also broke records for the most 70 degree days in March and the most above normal (+15.8 degrees) any month has been in Wausau’s record books, but I didn’t have the time to dig up all of that information to confirm.

Another thing you probably didn’t miss over the weekend is the very cool weather on Saturday. Tony provided a good explanation here. Mother nature threw us a big surprise when the clouds did not break up in the afternoon. What is most surprising to me is that we didn’t see this type of inversion (locked in the low cloudiness and fog) at any point during the month of March when we were hitting record high temps. During a typical year, when the snow melts, we tend to get a couple days like that when the fog/clouds do not dissipate. This year isn’t typical and it didn’t really happen until the last day of March, Saturday, when the high only reached 42.

The record warm March dovetails nicely with the release of the latest IPCC Climate Risk Report that Tony blogged about a few days back. The report highlights included a greater chance of more frequent record high temps and heat waves than record cold in coming years. Looking at this March would probably prompt a lot of AGW theorists to say “see, see, I told you environmental Armageddon is upon us”. Thankfully, there has not been a lot of that type of hysteria going on over the past few weeks. I wonder if the IPCC and various media outlets have taken some of my advice. I doubt they are reading our blog here, but I would be flattered if I had that much influence.

Instead of blaring out extreme headlines and statements, the IPCC’s report couches its language in the “chances” that certain climate changes will occur. March of 2012, as extreme as it was, does not mean that future heat waves and more warming are 100%, rock-solid guaranteed but it is a data point that supports the now several decade trend of a warming climate. It is more evidence that backs mainstream AGW theory.

Why it is not a 100% guarantee of future “environmental Armageddon”, I have explained many times in the blog. Not only is the climate system complex, dynamic, and non-linear, but human society is as well. Some unforeseen natural interactions within the earth’s climate could conspire to tip us into a cooler trend or even an ice age. Even harder to predict is the action of humans, therefore climate modelers generally stick with some pretty tame assumptions about future population and energy usage.

I am much more optimistic. I have dabbled in energy predictions off-and-on and I think that we will have much less fossil fuel usage a lot sooner than the IPCC expects. As potentially as gloomy a picture that could be painted by the latest IPCC Climate Risk Report (and other depression-inducing reports) and by the extremely warm March, you could paint an equally optimistic picture by just monitoring the latest tech progress.

The CTO of Tesla recently proclaimed that we are near a tipping point in the adoption of electric vehicles. Now, he might be “talking his book”, but the trend in battery technology is unmistakable. The batteries and the vehicles themselves are set to go down in price in coming years. The range an EV can travel on one charge is increasing. It already makes sense for thousands of the moderately wealthy among us to purchase EVs. It will become even more obvious to the rest once the price comes down. After all, most of us do not drive more than 40 miles during a typical day’s commute. For those who might not like the idea of plugging in their car every night, wireless chargers are coming into their own. There is even a suggestion to put magnetic/electric coils in the highways in order to charge as you drive. The latter idea is interesting and could be done - technically - but I doubt it would ever be commercial viable/economically feasible.

In the realm of battery technology, highly efficient and cheaper rechargeable batteries using sodiumn instead of lithium are under development at Argonne National Laboratories. Envia has developed a battery with twice the storage capacity as normal but it is not out of the lab yet. Researchers in Hong Kong have even claimed to have created a new flexible graphene “battery” that operates on heat energy alone!

It is not only battery technology that will help propel EVs of the future (and store copious amounts of alternative energy), it is super capacitors as well.

Flexible Paper Supercapacitors

Once again we find flexible graphene being used to create flexible supercapacitors. Who knew it would be as “easy” as using DVDs and laser writers. These flexible paper-based supercapacitors are probably a little closer to economic reality (and producing environmental “salvation”). New insights into the mechanism of charging and dis-charging supercapacitors should continue to move things forward in years to come.

Now just to be fair, battery progress and EVs face a bumpy road ahead. Fisker and A123 have found some tough-sledding in the EV market. First A123 said it expected much better demand for batteries in the coming year, then doubts and financial troubles (as I suspected and have covered in the blog) started to creep into the A123 conversation. On top of that Fisker has been forced to recall most of its A123 battery packs.

Evacuated Tube Transport

Outside of EVs (meaning cars) there is also some movement in electric scooters as Scoot tests the market for such services in San Francisco. There is even room for improvement in super-sonic air travel. A recent design indicates super-sonic jets could fly without generating a sonic boom and be much more efficient. Dreaming a couple decades into the future? Maybe vaccuum tube trains.

There is much more but there is only so much space for one blog post and only so much time in the day. You can be assured I will continue to keep you updated on where technological progress might take us.

Have a good Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under AGW, Alternative Energy, Climate Change, Monthly Recap, Technology

Last week I used most of my blog entries to recap the top events of 2011 and present the year-end statistics. Almost lost in the conversation were the month-end statistics for December. Fear not faithful blog readers. I did not forget about December which ended up being the most above normal month of the year (with respect to temperature). In fact, it was December that put us a shade above normal for the year. If December temperatures would have ended up around normal then we would have been a shade below normal for the year. So the biggest news coming out of December was the warmth and because of the warmth, much of the area did not have a White Christmas. In Wausau it was just barely a White Christmas. Even though it was quite warm, we did not break any daily high temperature records. No other daily records were set either. We usually have a couple of below zero temps during December, but not this year (in Wausau). The oddest trend in the numbers was a three day stretch (12th-14th) where each day the low temperature was 33. Otherwise, the most common high temperature of the month was 36, which we hit on 4 different occasions. Here are the final stats:

Average High: 31.6  (normal: 26.5)

Average Low: 18.3  (normal 11.4)

Total Precipitation: 1.52 inches  (normal 1.36″)

Total Snowfall: 8.6 inches  (normal 13.9″)

Highest Temperature: 45 on the 26th

Lowest Temperature: 1 on the 10th.

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I am going to start out the new year of blogging by continuing some of the science and weather themes that I have developed and followed for several years now.

One big story that I have followed for almost a decade is the Peak Oil theory. I even interviewed Dr. Hirsch about the subject in case you wanted to review. Another year has passed and there is still no huge crash in fossil fuel supplies. It is hard to argue with Peak Oil theory because it is based on pretty solid science of geology and knowledge of extraction technology. Still, we are now more than a decade passed the time when the Hubbert originally predicted a crash in oil production. It hasn’t happened yet, despite the dire predictions happening year after year. I don’t see a huge crash coming this year either. I suspect there will be some supply shocks due to some oil fields getting more dry and socio-economic forces conspiring against the free flow of oil from different parts of the world. The price will probably stay high even though we are still in the great recession. I just don’t see a huge crash because more cheap natural gas keeps coming online and more alternative energy production continues to be installed. Even flying wind turbines are now on the table! These aren’t going to be a huge part of our energy supply by any means, but a sign that new innovative things continue to be developed.

 Also, The “fossil” theory of fossil fuel formation might not be the only game in town. More and more people are investigating the abiogenisis theory and carbon cycle of the earth.  This might point to a more ample future supply of oil and gas.

Whether you believe there is going to be a huge crash in oil supplies or not, one of my blog themes that I think will continue into the new year is how urban sprawl is unsustainable. I hate to use such a cliche term such as “sustainability” but the American urban landscape is not in the greatest of shape and the effort to continue building expensive new far flung infrastructure is unlikely to end well. We just don’t have the money or resources to keep paving over more land in order to build more strip malls and sub-divisions. I highlighted the ponzi-scheme nature of urban sprawl a while back and just recently a ran across a story about how the nation’s sewage systems are also falling apart. More and more sewage overflow is ending up in lakes, rivers, and eventually on beaches. The problem - local governments do not have the money to upgrade old sewer systems. The sewage systems are so big and sprawling that the upgrades would completely swamp most budgets. So it seems the U.S. might start looking and smelling more like a third world country in the near future.

One possible method for countering the unsustainable drive to build upon and pave over the natural landscape that I brought up last year and will touch upon periodically in 2012 is using different metrics to measure economic “growth”. One metric that might make sense is happiness. Who cares if a new strip mall or box store is built, if you are not happy. As long as happiness is increasing, that should be a sign of positive “growth” for the country. The trouble is, how would one measure happiness? Some scientists are using twitter and unfortunately they seem to have found that happiness went down in 2011.

Have a happier new year! Focus on the things that matter.

Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under Alternative Energy, Monthly Recap, Peak Oil, Pollution

Something very interesting and unusual happened during the month of June. We started out the month with three different days (the 3rd, 7th, and 8th) with record high temps in the 90s. Temps were also in the 80s from the 4th through 6th. You would think that this very warm start to the month would’ve guaranteed that the average temps for the month would end up above normal. This was not the case. Because of a persistent colder trend from the 9th through the 24th which included one day when the high temperature was only 54 (the 10th), the average temps for the month ended up slightly below normal. This makes June of 2011 the 7th month in a row with below normal temperatures. The last month with above normal temps was November of 2010. The reason for the persistent cool weather? I am pinning it on La Nina. During past decades, La Nina has not always meant colder than normal temps for our area, but the last 3 La Nina episodes, since 2006, have been closely linked with colder than normal temps.

Besides three record high temperatures, what other interesting things happened during the month of June? Good question. Temps were up and down quite a bit and precipitation was near normal. Not much severe weather happened. There was some frost in the Northwoods on the morning of the 12th – pretty late even for Northwoods standards. There were no real interesting trends in the numbers – the most common high temperatures were 73 and 79 which we hit 3 different times. The most “popular” low temperature was 59 which was also marked 3 different times. Without further ado, here are the stats for Wausau:

Average High: 75.6  (normal: 76.7)

Average Low: 54.1  (normal: 54.2)

Precipitation: 4.17″  (normal 4.18″)

Highest Temperature: 94 on the 7th

Lowest Temperature: 40 on the 12th

It looks like we are heading into July the same way we began June, with some heat. A HEAT ADVISORY goes into effect for most of the area (except Oneida, Vilas, Forest, and Florence counties) from noon until 9pm today. High temps will reach the mid 90s in many areas and could touch 100 in the south. The record high in Wausau today is 98 and we will be close to breaking it as more sunshine will develop during the afternoon. The heat index will be in the 105 to 110 range for most of the area which can be a bit dangerous. Just be sure to not over-exert yourself in the heat and find some shade or air conditioning to keep cool. After today the weather will still be warm, but it will be less humid and high temps will only reach the 80s. It will be a nice Summer holiday weekend. There is only a slight chance of thunderstorms tonight and a slight chance of storms late Monday. The next significant chance of more widespread rain will be Tuesday of next week.

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Earlier this week and year I have blogged about some of the drawbacks and difficulties of using alternative energy sources. Grain ethanol uses up some of the food supply and has a very poor EROI. Wind turbines have non-trivial environmental effects on the weather and wildlife. Current nuclear fission reactors are not scalable enough to produce a more significant portion of our energy needs.

What about solar power? I am on the solar and electric vehicle bandwagon lately, and while it does hold a lot of promise without as many drawbacks, it is not perfect either. One thing that does not get discussed too often is all of the land that big solar farms take up. This fact was brought to the forefront in my mind once again when I saw these pictures of recently finished solar farms in Europe. Covering many square miles of landscape – even the desert – with solar panels is certainly going to have an impact on the ecology of the area. It will also remove some natural areas from human recreation. The solution? Rooftops. We have already covered an ungodly amount of the planet with buildings. This space if perfectly suited for solar panel deployment. What else about solar power makes it seem not quite so perfect for the future? It costs money to clean the mirrors. Solar panels in the desert gather dust and need to be cleaned to operate efficiently. This cost was not included in past studies of the viability of large solar farms.

While on the subject, here is an article you might enjoy about all of the new start-up alternative energy/tech companies, which ones are doing well, which one’s are not, and the reasons why.

Have a fine Friday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under Alternative Energy, Heat, Monthly Recap

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