Taking a look at Kristen’s blog post from yesterdayyou will find a list of 2 record high temps that were tied on Sunday and the list of potential records in Northcentral Wisconsin today. Not only is there a potential high temperature here in Wausau today, we most likely will break the record for the warmest low temperature for May 24th. The old record was 63 set back in 1975 and 1991. The record high today for Wausau is 89 set back in 1928. I am forecasting 90.

Feeling the warm weather outside might have you thinking the snow is gone from Rib Mountain but that is not the case. I, of course picked today’s date as the final day for snow on Rib Mountain, as did 68 other people who entered the contest. Unfortunately, they will not be winners of the R-store gift cards. The one remaining big pile of snow is melting fast but will likely last a few more days. If it doesn’t melt early this week with high temps in the 80s and low 90s, it might last into the weekend because some cooler weather is likely by late this week. At least one computer model is forecasting high temps only in the 60s by Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Wouldn’t that just be typical Murphy’s Law for Wisconsin weather – a big cooldown just in time for the big holiday weekend. It is only one computer model (the GFS) predicting such a drastic change, so I am still hedging toward 70 degree weather instead. I’ll keep you up to date on any changes throughout the week.

Usually when we go from hot and humid to cooler and drier weather we end up with a period of thunderstorms – often times severe during this time of year. This time around we will have a 40% chance of thunderstorms Tuesday evening through Wednesday but the chances of severe weather appear fairly low at this time. If we don’t get rain Tuesday night into Wednesday then chances for rain look pretty low until early next week. If you need to water your garden you will want to watch the rain potential closely and slot a little time for watering later this week in case we don’t get much Tuesday evening.

With potential record high temps today, no doubt the anthropogenic global warming (AGW) story will come to the forefront in a few media outlets. It continues to be an interesting story because the evolution of the “crisis” and the counter trends continues as I expected. Every media headline that proclaims devastation, death, and doom-and-gloom can be balanced with headlines describing new cleaner technology and efficient societal operation. Today we can read “Small Mammals Will Have it Tougher in a Warmer Climate” and “2010 the Warmest Year so Far” and on the opposite side, “Tesla Hooks Up With Toyota”, “New Process Creates Cheaper Solar Cells With Compound Semiconductors, (on both sides of the Atlantic)”, “New Airplane Design Could Reduce Fuel Usage by up to 70%“, “Ecomotors Has Designed a Diesel Car That Could Get up to 100 mpg, (and they have gotten a new round of funding)”.

Will progress in “green-tech” and efficiency head off any theoretical future warming of the planet? Will cheap solar panels and long range electric cars arrive soon enough? I tend to think so, and that is why I typically discount the most extreme AGW Armageddon scenarios.

Have a good Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew.

Posted under AGW, Alternative Energy, Climate Change, Records, Snowmelt 2010