In part three of the trip recap, I’ll start with the observation that there was cell phone reception in the mountains – and this was in quite a remote part of western Colorado. My father said that 5 to 10 years ago there was no cell reception in that particular area, then two or three years ago they could get reception if they stood on a high point. This year they could get reception right in the tent. It is another sign of the expansion of technology.

A Conifer-Covered Mountain Top in the Distance

Cell towers are popping up all over the world. There are very few spots where you cannot get reception. Even in countries many people would consider very under-developed have expansive cell networks. It is a relatively cheap communication infrastructure. The last places on earth without cell phone coverage are the large deserts and sparsely populated mountain and arctic areas.

When I go out into the wilderness I do not carry a cell phone. Crazy, I know. I do it out of principle. I am out there to get away from civilization, not be tethered to it. I suppose when I lose some of my youthful vigor (and naivete),

Rainy Day on the Mountain

I might consider carry more safety devices like a cell phone. For the time being, knowing that I don’t have a phone on me keeps me sharp out in the wilderness. It (no cell phone rule) more accurately replicates the historical feel of exploration around the planet. The funny thing is, when I didn’t arrive Friday evening as scheduled, the fellows at the hunting camp called my wife! Egads! They said I didn’t arrive before dark and of course she became worried. This necessitated my calling her the next day to let her know I was fine. So much for no cell phone calls in the wilderness.

Dad & I

Some of the pictures I have included today are of the general scenery in the Routt National Forest. For people who have not been to Colorado, you might be surprised at how arid it is. Colorado is only green in the Spring and high in the mountains. Otherwise it is closer to desert than a lush temperate zone. The pictures I took are at an elevation around 7,000 to 8,000 feet. Once you get up to 9,000 feet then the trees are mostly conifers, and above 10,000 to 11,000 feet is the typical tree line.

To close this blog entry, here is the latest CPC Winter Outlook. It is about the same as last month except for the area where there is a greater chance of cooler weather this winter (the Dakotas and northern plains) has shrunk a bit. Wisconsin is in the “equal chances” category for temp and precipitation. I am still hedging toward colder and more snowy than last winter because we have a La Nina pattern in the Pacific ocean.

CPC Winter Outlook

La Nina does not guarantee a tough winter, but the most recent handful of La Nina winters have been colder and more snowy than average.

Have a nice weekend! Meteorologist Justin Loew

Posted under CPC Outlook, Travel, Viewer pictures

Talk about a cold night last night!  We have another one in store for tonight!  The good news is the seven day may be the best forecast I have seen for the area.  I can not believe we are going to see 70′s for the mid of October.  This year is completely the opposite of what we saw last year.  We had a mild and dry Sept last year and a wet and cool October.   This year it is vice versa! Here are just a few of the lows that we hit around the area:

Land O Lakes 23

Rhinelander 23

Eagle River 25

Conover 25

Neekoosa 25

Neecedah 25

Whittlesey 26

Antigo 27

Stevens Point 27 

Medford 28

Rib Mountain 29

For most areas it was the first freeze and the coldest night that we have seen so far this year!  I was up around 7 am and it was so cold out! It was neat though seeing the frost covering the ground. 

I also went hiking today because I wanted to see the Fall colors before they go away! It truly was a perfect fall day for it.  We will see a warm week ahead and if you haven’t been able to take a drive, hike or a bike ride and enjoy the beauty I really suggest you make the effort this week.  I wanted to share a few pictures from my hike up Rib today!

 Here is the pic of the frost, kind of hard to see but the ground is covered!   Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Fall, Fall Color, forecast, Freeze

Justin asked me a good question- if I saw any oil while I was home. The answer is no.  I am from the gulf side of the peninsula about an hour south of Tampa.  I wrote a response on my article yesterday explaining why I didn’t and the main reason is related to ocean currents.  In fact if the oil gets in the Loop Current it would take it parallel to the peninsula and up and around on the Atlantic side.  Here is a picture of the Loop Current which then joins the Gulf  Stream which travels up the eastern coast of the US. 

Benjamin Franklin's First Map of the Gulf Stream

The other factor that helps the Florida peninsula steer clear from the oil are the eddys( the circles on the first map).  They are closest to the spill  but when the oil encounters them it spins the oil in a clockwise rotation.  So while the Panhandle is now showing forecasts of tar balls ( check out that article on meteorologists having to forecast for oil!) the rest of Florida is so far in the clear and should remain that way. 

What could affect everyone is hurricanes.  However if you watch how hurricanes move they come from the Caribbean or the Atlantic and normally move north and west.  I am doing research to see if a hurricane has ever started in the northern part of the gulf and went south.  The only way I could see this happening is if there was a strong enough front that could some how push the hurricane southward.  During the summer months though fronts will not make it as far south as Florida, they will wash out with limited upper air support.  Cold fronts are almost never seen in Florida during July and August.  The first cold front of the season usually occurs in September in the Panhandle and October for the Peninsula.  With that being said we could have seen a late season hurricane that may have traveled south or an early season one.  I’ll do some research and let you know!

So the main point:

I did not see any oil, and it is highly unlikely the peninsula will unless a very abnormal hurricane forms. 

Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Here are a few pictures from my trip:

Sarasota Bay

Spanish Point

My niece!

Ghost hunting TV divers at the end of my street!

Posted under Hurricanes, Natural Disasters, Pollution, Science, Summer, Travel, Uncategorized

First I wanted to update you to some of the social media and features we have available….

As the cold front continues to push through the area you can track the storms using Itrak.  We have mentioned this nifty tool plenty of times.  It is on our website and you can zoom in all the way  to your town and even down to street level.  You can also look at different cells and see what they are producing(wind, hail etc) and in what direction they are moving. 

We also have our own Facebook page where you can like us and get updates about the forecast, our blogs and severe weather.

Last but not least if you have twitter you can always follow us at

Kconnolly_waow

Bniznansky_waow

Jloew_waow

Storms rolled through yesterday producing heavy rain mainly south of 29.  We did see one storm in Forest and Florence counties that was producing winds in excess of 60 mph and 1″ size hail.  These storms are what I would call “pop up” or “popcorn”.  They fired up along a disturbance in our upper levels and just down-poured where they hit.  Amazingly enough it down-poured at the Big Bull Falls Rib Fest and not a drop fell at the Woodchucks field! That is less than a five mile difference. 

 At the Rib Fest some vendors tents blew over along with trees near the area being knocked down.  In Portage county there was an estimated gust of 50 to 60 mph.  Also near Iola we had trees down, thankfully I didn’t hear any reports of damage to the classic cars.  Hail was also a large threat with over an 1 1/4 in Hatley.  Heavy rain feel around the area with Weston reporting over .75″ in just 30 minutes! 

Storms are continued to roll through tonight ahead of a cold front that will move through.  We have already seen downed power lines in Arbor Vitae just after 530pm.  They were spawning warnings earlier but have weakened enough to be called strong not severe.  The storms are producing gusts up to 40mph with .50″ size hail. 

Here are a few pictures of the damage from yesterday:

These are from 15 miles south of Wisc Rapids in Portage county.

From Wausau

There were some neat hail pictures emailed in but I couldn’t figure out how to attach them in the file they were in. Hopefully Justin can!

For all the reports from the weekend storms you can click here.

Here is also video on our website from the damage.

Have a good night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Severe Weather, Summer

We promised sun and all we got was a few hours this morning for most of us.  The southern half including Neekosa, Rapids, Wisc Dells and even Point saw the clouds break by the afternoon but it wasn’t until the evening that most of us were finally treated to that big yellow object in the sky!

I took a couple pics on my phone while driving back to work.  It was super neat to see the broken cloud deck and how bright half the sky could be and how ominous the other half looked.  If I didn’t know what was going on I would have thought it was going to storm from how dark it was, but don’t worry it will not tonight!

There is a chance we could see strong to severe storms from late Thursday through Friday.  We will continue to watch this unfold tomorrow and keep you updated with the latest track.  For now the day should be nice tomorrow so get out and enjoy!

Have a great night! See you all in the Morning! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Storms, Summer

Good Evening! I walked out tonight and remembered quickly I am back from Florida.  While driving to the airport this morning it was 72, when I arrived back to Wausau it was 56.  I am sure the 50′s felt nice to everyone who say 30′s this morning though.

This past weekend I took a long weekend to my home on the Florida Gulf Coast.  I hadn’t been home since Thanksgiving so it was not only great to be back, but a wonderful fun filled trip!  I also met my 2 month old niece for the first time, which was the icing on the cake .

Weatherwise, I couldn’t have picked a better weekend, hot and sunny.  It was interesting listening to the Floridians talk about how the weather was so unusual for May.  In reality it was fairly close to normal, plus a few degrees but compared to what they saw this winter it is no surprise there wasn’t many complaints about there “normal weather”, in fact most were happy it was hot and humid! Here is a blog I wrote about the record breaking cold winter Florida saw.  Here is another blog about record lows in January.

What I also noticed was how the freeze killed many Florida plants and shrubs.  Since most bloom in the Spring it was noticeable which ones survived and which didn’t.  Below is a picture of a dead flowering shrub in my parents yard.  This one plant is very popular but I couldn’t find the exact name although I am still searching.  It may be called a Flame Tree.  It produces a coral like flower in the Spring.  Some neighbors had cute theirs back to the roots and it looks like it may come back if my parents do that, some budding was occurring on the cut trees. 

Here are some other pics from my trip taken from my phone.   Last night was one of the reddest suns I have ever seen.  It was really hazy and we didn’t think there would be a “sunset” but as we turned the corner to the beach the sun was ablaze! Also included is “begger” the local celeb dolphin.  He has been around since I can remember.  He is a wild dolphin who swims in the same area in the intercoastal and like his name implies always wants to be fed.  It illegal to feed the wildlife nowadays but the name came about many years ago.  While I was also out we saw 3 more wild dolphin.  Another is a pic of a hibiscus, probably my favorite flower and one that always reminds me of home. Last is a sunset from a high level of a condo.

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Uncategorized

I liked Justin’s post right before mine about what really DID happen this winter.  As he posted winter was unlike what the Farmers Almanac predicted.  I didn’t mind but I think some snow enthusiasts might have not been to happy! We really only saw one major snow storm and that was all the way back in early Dec, seems like forever ago.

One place that is seeing a Spring Blizzard is Denver! I have to admit I don’t know what I would do if my weather changed as drastically as that area.  Of course if we see a serious snow storm you know what that means- flight delays. Apparently 5,000 travelers were stuck at Denver airport from the 9 inches of snow that the city saw!  Over two feet fell in Jefferson county which is just to the west of Denver. 

For more snow totals click here. It is an interactive map and actually super cool!

I visited with Jefferson Elementary School is Stevens Point today.  I had a great time and really enjoyed the kids and the questions I was asked.  It’s fun when kids quiz you about your history and about weather information.  I was glad that I was able to be apart of a school project.  Here is a picture of the class below.  And the student who asked me to come!

By the way….we may have a big warm up coming our way… will have to wait till next week to see if it pans out.

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Spring, Travel, Uncategorized, Viewer pictures, Winter Weather

Good Evening! Wow coming back inside tonight I remembered why I enjoy the 70′s so much.  I was lucky and spent this past weekend in Phoenix with lots of family.  I had a wedding and I have to say the weather couldn’t have been any more spectacular, not a cloud in sight and highs in the low to mid 70′s.  I was able to take my first run outside in months ( which I thoroughly enjoyed except for the fact I fell on a bump and scrapped my knee!), I was able to soak up some sun, do some hiking and see a little of a town I was unfamiliar with.  I also had some Mexican and Persian food that was fantastic.  Here are just a few pics from my trip.  Some were taken on a lookout over the city, others from the airplane flying over and I have to admit I still enjoy the views even at my age.

A few descriptions: 1) is of the mountains we flew over 2) A Cactus and I! 3) At the lookout over the valley 4) 3 generations, myself my oma and my mom 5) Getting ready to take off and seeing Phoenix in background 6) Everything is brown except for farming and golf courses 7) TV towers, of course they keep them on the highest spot for better reception!

Before I go I read this article today.  Every state except for Hawaii had snow on the ground on Friday! The funny part is usually one mountain on Hawaii usually has snow but didn’t have any on that day so we couldn’t make it 50 out of 50.  On that note, GO USA in the Olympics, I really do love watching them!

Have a wonderful night and Happy Fat Tuesday! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Travel, Viewer pictures, Winter Weather

Lets talk snow totals! A massive winter storm brought a disaster to the Mid Atlantic from last night through today.  Here are a couple of areas where I found totals.  Some of the snow accumulations as high as 35 inches!!!

NWS map totals

Article Totals

I have been looking at alot of time lapses from the area and also traffic cams.  I love looking at different traffic cams, the cool thing about that site is that you can see cameras from all over the world!  Check it out!  For a few time-lapses click here and here

 It is incredible the snow that they saw.  Because of the heavy snow many people are without power in several states.  This is just one of the maps of the DC area of people without power, 200,000+!!

For more info check out this news article. 

Here is the latest records that were broke around the Mid Atlantic!!

Also wanted to share a couple pictures:

One is the flowers my mom sent for “National Weatherperson’s Day”

Also my friend Jane came to the station with her lil from Big Brothers Big Sisters to catch a show.

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Records, Uncategorized, Viewer pictures, Winter Weather

My mom is always good for sending me random email forwards…some funny, some serious, some just crazy, and of course many of them have to do with weather.  Today was a forward of crazy snow pics.  Now I know many of you may be down in the dumps about the lack of snowfall lately or some may be excited…but I don’t know if we’d ever want this much snow.

Ha!!!!!!! Could you imagine!!!! 

Apparently the pictures were taken last Winter in Quebec City…one of the snowiest cities in Canada.  I think this would be enough snow to fulfill a childhood dream of mine….to build a snow tunnel to my buddies house down the street…hahaha..we never had enough snow.

Meteorologist Brian Niznansky

Posted under Winter Weather