Record warmth on Sunday

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The weekend of March 10-11 recorded 19 new record high temperature readings across Northcentral and Northeastern Wisconsin, according to data released by the National Weather Service.

Seven records were set on Sat. Mar. 10 while 12 were recorded on Sun. Mar. 11. 

The warmest reading for the weekend was in Wisconsin Rapids.  The city hit 67 degrees on Sunday breaking the old record of 62 degrees set in 2006.

Wisconsin Rapids was also the warmest community on Saturday hitting 65 degrees.  That reading beat the previous record of 61 degrees recorded in 1977.    

Wausau saw new high temperature records on both days.  On Saturday the city reached 61 degrees beating the previous record of 56 degrees from 1977.  Sunday afternoon saw temperatures reach 63 degrees, bypassing the earlier record holder of 55 degrees recorded in 1995. 

Marshfield, Oshkosh and Manitowoc were all able to reach 65 degrees on Sunday afternoon setting new records for each community. 

The oldest record broken during the weekend was from Mar. 11, 1973.  Green Bay reached a high of 63 degrees on Sunday, edging out its previous record for the date by one degree.

Three records were broken in the Northwoods.  Antigo reached 59 degrees breaking the old record of 55 degrees set in 1977.  Merrill warmed to 61 degrees eclipsing the previous record of 58 degrees also set in 1977.  Rhinelander beat its previous record high of 58 degrees recorded in both 1977 and 1995.  The city reached 59 degrees on Sunday afternoon.

To see the data straight from the NWS, follow this link: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/product.php?site=grb&product=rer&issuedby=GRB&format=CI&version=1&glossary=0

Posted under Environment, Heat, Nature, Records, Science, Seasonal Items, Spring, Weather History, Weather NEws

As I said yesterday, I wanted to compare March/April weather with the Farmers Almanac.  So here is what they had for March…

This is for the Upper Midwest and taken directly from the book.

Temp 25 ( 2 degrees beow average); precip 1″ (0.5″ below average). Days 1-8, Sunny and warm. 9-14 Showers and mild. 15-21 Snowstorm, then sunny and cold.  22-25 Showers, mild in the east, snow and cold in the west. 26-31 snow showers, cold.

Our mean temp ( which is a combo of the average high and low) was 27. Normal is 30.2, so we were 3.6 below average.  I will say they were close.  The temp they have for the entire region is 25 which included some colder spots. Precip we were above so that was a little off.

Lets break down the dates…the 1-8, I would not saw sunny and warm. Temps were a little all over from a high of 40 on the first to 29 on the 6th.  We saw mainly cloudy skies and drizzle or light snow on atleast half of the days. I am going to go with a buzzer sound on that period.

9-14, showers and mild…We had a few nice days and a few with light snow or clouds.  We did have more mild temps with highs in the upper 30s to low 40s.  So I would say half way correcct.

15-21…snowstorm then sunny and cold. Honestly I wouldn’t call it a snowstorm but we did have some rain and fog the first few days of this period. The the 18 and 19th ended up pleasant. Temps ended up being fairly seasonal and not as cold as the next week.  I think this forecast should have been for the following week, then it would have been striaght on!

22-25 Showers, mild in the east, snow and cold in the west… I would consider us the west so I amgoing with snow and cold. Now this I am pretty impressed.  Although it doens’t use snowstorm like the week before this is the week we saw record precip and the major storm.  I would have to say that it nailed it except that it should have sunny and cold for the last two days behind the storm. 

26-31 snow showers, cold.  This was way off in saying snow showers, if you remember last week we saw nothing but sunshine all week as high pressure mainly dominated.  It was however cold for the begining of the week with highs only in the upper 20s.  The end of the week we saw mid 40s.

I am not saying the farmers alamanac is not a good resource at times, it surely is not my first, just saying that it uses trends which can and cannot be good.  Always fun once and a while to check out what it have forecsted to what actually happened.

Just to give you a little idea… for April it says 1-8 Sunny and cool.  I unfortuantely think we will see plenty of chance of rain, in fact almost every single day this week. The good news, temps will finally be seasonal by the end of the week.  I am ok if the book is wrong about the cold part!

Today’s storm…hope you were able to experience thundersnow, it is a rare event and I have to say I was fascinated by it this spring!  Today we saw storms across most of our southern counties.  We had hail from .25″ to 1.0″ in Monroe reported.  Most snow totals stay near an inch although there was a report of 2.5″ in Antigo and 4.5″ in Harrison.  We will still see scattered rain turing to a wintry mix and snow into Monday. 

Have a good night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Records, Seasonal Items, Spring, Weather History, Weather NEws, Weather Safety, Winter Weather

Hello major winter storm!

We are dealing with a major winter storm this week and it is not only going to affect one area but more than likely wreak havoc on the Midwest, Mid Atlantic, Northeast and even parts of the Southeast.  This storm is massive and could possibly paralyze places for days.  This could not only be the storm of the year, it could likely be a record breaking storm with a foot to almost two feet in many locations!  This will happen as near as few hundred miles from our area.  Here are the snow totals from this storm from our sister station in Madison…

What is happening is tonight we will see an upper level disturbance ( energy) bring the first bands of snow to our area and across the Badger state.  This will bring from 1-3″ for most of us but counties included in the Winter Weather Advisory will see from 3-6″.  For our friends along  Lake Michigan they will see lake effect snow bands producing snow totals from  4-7″  near Milwaukee.   This snowfall will continue until the early part of Tuesday, this is all associated with a low pressure from the Rockies.  The real storm will come from a Panhandle hook that will shoot out  Tuesday  and move just south of us in Illinois, Indiana and eventually shoot to the Northeast.  Besides just snow this storm could bring ice accumulations of an inch or more to parts of the Midwest, including St. Louis.  There will also be a tight pressure gradient which equals strong winds and the reason we will see blizzard conditions from Milwaukee to Chicago to Detroit.  The exact track of the storm will in the end determine what everyone sees but it will be a major mess. 

This is the probability map of 6 inches or more from Tues night until Wed night.  Remember this is in addition to what we will see from tonight until then.  As you can see it is almost 70% chance of seeing 6 inches or more near Milwaukee in Chicago.  This storm is already being measured to storms in the past where two feet fell.

On the other side of the storm we will see severe weather for the southeast including severe storms and tornadoes.  In the end they say that over 100 million people could be impacted from this storm!

Looks like we are going to miss out! If you have travel plans, be ready for a long wait. Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Weather NEws, Weather Safety, Winter Weather

Since it is on my mind because I just got off a live radio… don’t forget you can always get our weather forecast through your favorite radio stations.  We do an updated forecast for 96.7, 103.3, 106.5, and 107.9!  It is alot of fun doing the live morning hits with 96.7 and 107.9.  They all seem to really enjoy working for the radio stations and always have cleaver ideas. 

Alright so today I just wanted to share a few updates on the arctic blast across the US.  Now it is cold here, but check out compared to normal how cold it is across the entire US! It is pretty interesting that some peoples temp is actually colder then the departure from normal.  We have already broken records across Florida, and the Carolinas which is only the beginning.

Now we know it is going to stay cold for the next week just by looking at the seven day forecast.  But many times we look at the Climate Prediction Centers forecast for weeks or months beyong the general forecast.  Yesterday the CPC came out with their 8 to 14 day outlook which would predict the chance of below or above temps from the 14th through the 21st.  The same area that is seeing the cold spell this week will likely continue to see cold weather until right before Christmas.  We are sitting near the border of below normal to normal.   This being said we shouldn’t be the coldest ones relative to normal for the middle of December. 

On a slightly different but related topic….winter storms!  The NWS office came out with a write up of winter storms and what we are expecting for the 2010-2011 year.  If you look a the article a “winter storm” most consist of one of the following criteria for one or more counties in Wisconsin:

1. Snow accumulations of 6 inches or more,

2. Blizzard conditions for 3 hours or more – visibility below 1/4 mile due to falling and/or blowing snow with frequent wind gusts 35 mph or higher,

3. Ice accumulations of 1/4 inch or more in 12 hours or less due to freezing rain

4. Sleet accumulations of 2 inches or more in 12 hours or less,

5. Snow accumulations of 3 to 6 inches with sustained winds or frequent gusts of 25-34 mph and intermittent reductions in visibility to less than 1/2 mile resulting in closed roads, etc.

On average we see 12 winter storms, with 19 being the highest we have seen in a year, 4 the fewest.  When the earliest occurs is all over the board- from October, November or December.

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under First Snowfall 2010, Freeze, Records, Weather History, Weather NEws, Winter Weather

We finally made it above normal today! Highs around the area were mainly in the low 40′s which is almost a heatwave since the last 5 days we have stayed at or below normal.  This week we are going to see a little bit of everything including rain, snow, warm and cold. 

With the storm that will move in tomorrow there are a few changes in place.  The timing has slowed which means the bulk of the rain should not arrive till dinner time.  This is good since we should see freezing rain first, at least for most of us.  I will still say it is possible in the Northwoods but I think by the time the rain arrives temps will be above the freezing threshold.  I believe when the bulk arrives, late evening into the early overnight,  we will see mainly rain.  The cold air shouldn’t push in until the overnight and we will see the transition from rain to snow.  The cold air will move in from the west so the changeover should happen from west to east in the overnight or early morning hours on Tuesday.   This should keep accumulations on the light said, right now I would say around an inch to 3 inches in the far north.  If we do see slick roadways I think it will be for the morning commute more than the evening commute on Monday. 

I was looking through these facts from the NWS Duluth office, some of them are pretty interesting.  For example, they saw the most consecutive days of snowfall in 17 years!  They had at least a trace everyday from Nov 13th to Nov 27th.  The last time this happened was Dec 17th 1993 to Jan 17th 1994. 

If you are hoping for more snow, and I know alot of folks are, we will see a few scattered snow showers on Tuesday and another possibly storm system by next weekend.  The bad news, none seem to bring any real dumping to the area, minor accumulations seem to be the best bet. 

Have a great week! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Weather History, Weather NEws, Winter Weather

There is so much information to talk about tonight! We have been looking at wind gusts and pressures because these two factors go hand in hand.  I tweeted earlier today ( If you are on twitter feel free to follow me at KConnolly_waow) “For the weather novice=the lower the pressure=the stronger the storm=the higher the winds”.

That is the easiest way to explain why us weather geeks are obsessed with this storm.  Today in Orr, MN we saw the LOWEST ever recorded non-tropical pressure in the mainland United States.  The pressure was so low to could be compared to the pressure of a major hurricane!!!  The pressure that was recorded was 28.20″.

The shear size of the storm is also amazing! It is covering half of the county.  It is not just the size of the storm but the weather that it is causing is so diverse. 

We have Blizzard warnings on the backside of the storm where cold air is pushing into the Dakotas.  Over the Midwest where we are closest to the “eye” of the storm winds have been the real kicker.  And last but not least we are seeing a line of severe weather associated with an intense cold front that pushed through us but through the Ohio Valley and now it punching towards the East Coast.  There have been numerous tornadoes reported and warned on and will continue into the overnight and early tomorrow.  We had one tornado reported and confirmed in Racine.  Here is the link to that information.  It was an EF1 with winds of 86-110 mph.  It took a path of 6 miles in length. 

So this storm will go down as a storm of the century! Not only did Minnesota break their lowest recorded pressure ever Wisconsin also hit their lowest in the state.  In Superior, WI we hit a pressure of 28.38″ which equals 961.06 mb that was just after noon today.  The previous record was held in Green Bay with a pressure of 28.45″ and was set on April 3d 1982.

Posted under Fall, First Snowfall 2010, forecast, Records, Science, Severe Weather, Storms, Weather History, Weather NEws, Winter Weather

It is about that time of year when we start to get stronger fronts move through that actually play a role in roller-coaster temperatures.  We received our first taste of Fall last week when we went from 84 degrees on the 14th to 73 degrees on the 15th.  That is not even that bad, just a 9 degree drop.  The coldest that we have been this month is 70 on the 17th for our high.  Out coldest low was also on that day when we started off at 53.

When looking at the seven day forecast what I noticed most was a dry spell.  We are going to have consecutive days of no rain and I am not just talking about a couple.  I am talking about 4 to 5 days or even more.  I went back and looked at the past months to see how long it has been that we have went this many days straight with out any rain.  The last time we had 6 days with out any rain was May 15th to the 20th.  This was really when summer began for us.  (We did see that short heat spell in early April.  )

If we want to see the last time that we had 5 straight days with no rain, well actually we don’t have to go far, last week. However! This was just in Wausau ( the 15th through the 19th).  We did have rain around the area and the days were not exactly pleasant like this upcoming week, they were Mostly cloudy with scattered storms we just lucked out in Wausau.   I think the last period that can count, meaning a similar pattern to what we will be in now- high pressure was from June 28th to July 3rd.  The reason I am using this as the example of 5 and not 6 is because on the 28th there were still scattered showers in our viewing area.  The point is it has been abnormal for us to see long periods with no rain this summer.  I would say the average amount of dry days has been around 2 or 3 in a row. 

This week I think we will see plenty of dry days, in fact I would say we are going to be getting close to that 5 to 6 straight.  We will see a sharp drop in temps from Monday into Wednesday when the cold front moves through.  It is this front that will bring us our only chance of rain on Tuesday. 

I know we need rain but I surely think we saw plenty this summer and have made a great dent in the drought, lets enjoy the sunshine and the rest of summer while it last.

Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under forecast, Heat, Monthly Recap, Records, Storms, Summer

Alright a bunch of little things….

First check out Justin’s article below.  His pics are awesome and I have to admit that Pictured Rocks is probably my favorite place to go to in the UP. growing up an hour away we took many trips up there and it truly is a spectacular site to see.  In fact if you look in many tourist books of the US it is listed at a must see destination.

Next, I tried to find the Farmers Almanac prediction like Brian blogged about but can not seem to find it on the Internet, must just be out in print form today.  As soon as we get it we will make sure you let you know!

Farve…..wow really. I just looked at Brian today and said, “I am just plain confused”.  How can an icon to be growing up literally put us through this game for the third year in a row.  I am not a hater, I am not a lover of him either( anymore), I just plain do not know how I feel anymore! What will happen next?

And lastly…July is now officially the second warmest July ever and the warmest month to date in 2010 according to NOAA.  July 2010 across the globe including land and see was 61.6 degrees.  This is 1.19 degrees above the 20thcentury average.  The only month that beats this is July 1998 where the average was 61.7 degrees. 

The major areas that were above average were Eastern Europe, Western Asia and Easter United States.

For the entire article you can check out this website.   

Have a good night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under forecast, Heat, Monthly Recap, Records, Travel, Weather NEws

What a difference a day makes.  A cold front moved through yesterday and we are seeing a complete change today.  Temps are much cooler, near 10 to 15 degrees compared to yesterday.  We also saw dewpoints drop about the same.  It really feels like fall outside.  I can’t believe we are half way through August so Sept is really knocking on our door, which to me, kicks off Fall.  We are also seeing very strong winds.  We have a strong low in Canada and a high pressure over the Central Plains.  This is causing a tight pressure gradient which kicks up the winds.  This pattern, cooler and breezy, will continue into the earlier part of the week. 

Does this mean summer is done? I don’t think so.  It looks like a few 80′s are still possible this week, midweek and end of the weekend.  I also this week might see a warm up for the beginning of next week.  If you remember last year, Sept was actually near as warm as the summer months! In fact it was near 5 degrees above the normal high.  Here is a break down:

                      Avg High    Dep. from Normal

June 2009    73.9                 -2.8

July 2009     75.3                 -5.5

Aug 2009      75.2                -3.1

Sept 2009      73.5               +4.5 

I wanted to share this article.  We have blogged a few times about Moscow’s summer.  I know that I mentioned the fires that they have been seeing and they are still causing major issues.  The smoke plume that has formed from the fires is now 1860 miles wide!  If this was placed over the United States it would expand from Chicago to San Francisco! They first captured the plume on Aug 4th.  This is a real serious issue for Russia because the fires are causing major health risks.  Carbon monoxide levels are 5 times what they should be!

Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Environment, Fire, forecast, Records, Science, Summer

It’s that time of year again…..FOOTBALL season! Go Pack go.   I have to admit I am drawn to the TV again watching the boys play their first of the year. 

Someone sent me a question about how many games have been played below freezing at Lambeau.  It is tough to research but I am going to do my best to get some stats on games played and the weather.  I have to admit, we really have some true fans, sometimes just watching them on the TV I get the shivers!

I did find this site.  It lists the top 10 coldest NFL games ever played.  If you look at the list the packers are on it 3 times!  I do not know how they can function when the wind chill is minus 48.  It is hard enough to just stand outside in that let along play football.

I will let you know when I find the stats or if I can find the numbers!

Posted under Freeze, Severe Weather, Weather History, Weather NEws