April 15

Yesterday was snowy again.

Today started out nice, but now it has started to become overcast.

Temperature: 38°F
Dewpoint: 27°F
Humidity: 64%
Winds: WSW 11mph
Pressure: 1009.4mb (a little lower than normal it seems)

 Here you can see the remanent of that storm system that we experienced over the weekend. The low pressure system has an occluded front, meaning that two cold systems have overlapped occluding the warm air, essentially this means the storm is dying out. That polar airmass from above has moved down, and another appears to be making its way again. could possibly be a maritime polar airmass as well.

Here you can see that polar airmass moving mainly on the mid west part of the states.

April 13 continued

Posting this from my phone:

This image represents the cloud cover for today. We had mostly overcast skies mostly but around 3 or 4 pm I got this photo. The view is to the south - southwest, I can see cumulus clouds in the distance along with a mix of cirrostratus and stratus clouds. I predict that this means more precipitation tomorrow, due to the instability that these clouds represent.

April 13

Yesterday was snowy, and kind of windy.

Today is also snowy, at least earlier in the day it was, I'm not sure if it was windy because I didn't go outside today. I did take a picture though, which I will upload from my phone shortly.

Temperature: 31°F
Dewpoint: 25°F
Humidity: 80%
Pressure: 1013.7 mb

 As you can see there is a dry line associated with the warm moist air and the dry cool air mixing with the low pressure system over Quebec; which may be causing the precipitation in our area today and possibly tomorrow as well. There appears to be an airmass moving down from the north, as can be seen in the jetstream picture below, the large purple area at the top. The jetstream will move those lows across the states, bringing us more precipitation in the following days.

Here you can see the mass of moisture that those low pressure systems represent.

April 11 Somuch for April Showers!

Well, we had some snow today. :(

Here is a picture of the snow pellets on my windshield as I left for class at 7:30am:

 

Temperature: 32F

Dewpoint: 32F

Humidity: 100%

Pressure: 970mb

Wind: 6 mph ENE

 

 Current surface map from weather.com, as you can see there is an "inverted" trough associated with the low system making its way though. This system is actually a mid latitude cyclone, warm air moves up from the south and mixes with the descending polar air mass creating a "comma" shape cyclone storm. As the wind blows from the North East we will still experience cold temperatures and possibly precipitation.

 In this weather.unisys.com image you can see the inverted trough over Minnesota and Wisconsin, descending down through Alabama, causing severe storms along the mid to east coast states.

In this Infrared Satellite image, we can see the tremendous amount of moisture in the air developing due to the instability in the air.

 

Currently we have an overcast sky, that will continue into the evening and Friday. We may see some clearing by Saturday as the system continues to the east. However we may develop more precipitation by Sunday as another low pressure system develops.

April 10

Today began with wet snow in the early morning, but it tapered off later in the morning.

Temperature: 38°F
Dewpoint: 27°F
Humidity: 68%
Wind: 6mph ENE
Pressure: 1018.3mb

 You can see the polar air mass has really pushed down to the south. The low pressure system over Missouri and Illinois has been making its way to the east causing snow and rain, thunderstorms.

I suspect that we can see more moisture in the air from the west coast causing precipitation in Wisconsin over the next few days.

April 9

Today is overcast. No precipitation as of yet, but definitely incoming.

Temperature: 36°F

Dewpoint: 35°F

Humidity: 100%

Wind: 8mph E

Pressure: 1017.2mb

 



You can see there is a continental polar airmass moving down from the north, mixing with the warm air from the south, creating a mass of moisture and precipitation in the midwest. There is some snow over South Dakota, from the cold air mass.

 This map is nice because it shows the temperature distribution, you can clearly see where the polar and tropical airmasses are flowing; as well as where the most severe weather will be, where the blue and orange mix.

Here you can see today's jetstream image, the purple trough shows us where the strength of that polar airmass is situated.

 Here you can see the incredible amount of moisture in the atmosphere over the mid US. Because of this image I would like to predict that we will recieve rain today, as well as mixing with that cold air, a high possibility of snow later in the day.. If this was in the middle of winter I'd say we'd be getting a blizzard today or tomorrow. Hopefully the snow doesnt last long.

Here is an image of the Eau Claire flood hydrograph. A hydrograph shows the height of a body of water, in our image it is showing the height of the Chippewa River which flows through Eau Claire. As you can see, the recent rain and warming of temperatures has increased the level of the river so we are now in "Action" stage. Action stage indicates that some low lying roads and trails may be closed in case of flooding, the city will probably begin sand bagging some areas. The hydrograph allows the city and its residents to visualize the height of the river and prepare for flood action. Pretty neat!

April 8

Rain is very prevalent today, overcast skies dominating.

Temperature: 42°F
Dewpoint: 39°F
Humidity: 93%
Wind: 3mph ENE
Pressure: 29.83" (cannot find mb, as unisys does not have an observation)

 Looks like we have a nice mixing of polar air mass and maritime airmasses. We have a lovely low pressure system in our region, with the moisture in the air, that is causing precipitation.

Here you can see the moisture and the low pressure system pattern developing. We can expect to experience more rain tomorrow again.