Thursday's Observations

So I totally forgot to blog yesterday but I can tell you that it was bitter cold! it was -7 degrees F when I left home yesterday with clear blue skies. There was a wind but I forgot to notice the direction. The windchill said that it felt like -23 degrees F. But I can tell you that it felt like it was colder!

Ok so today: according to the Phillips Hall Weather Station -9.2 deg F with a wind chill at -9.8 deg F. The dew point is at -17.3 deg F so no snow in sight!
The skies are clear of clouds and the wind is clam at only 1 mph from the southeast. The barometric Pressure is at 1017.9. There is a warm front coming slowly fromt eh west and is expected to bring a warm up starting Friday (tomorrow).  As can be seen in this map from ACCU Weather.

Monday Obersvation

Today is SOOOOOO BITTTERRRRR  COOOOLLLLLDDDDD. Today's weather leaves me wondering if Wisconsin has joined Nunavut in the Arctic Circle.

Today's Temperature is a whole 7.7 degrees F. The wind chill is a chilly -10.5 degrees F according to the Phillips Hall Weather Station. The wind is coming from Southwest at around 11mph. The Dew point is at -9.8 degrees F which means that the air is no where near dropping precipitation on Wisconsin. The skies are cloudless and sunny. From my window this is a trick into making me think it is warmer so I will venture outside and then be beat down mercilessly by the bitter cold mother nature. Since I have been closely following the jet stream behavior (with hopes that it will return to normal) here is today's update... drumroll please....
YAY!!!

Although the arctic air is still spilling into the Midwest the Jet stream is starting to return to normal. This can be seen by the Eastern part of the U.S. Where the Jet stream winds are becoming parallel to the Equator (goes left to right across the the middle of the US). The western side of the jet stream is still dipping from the north. However as you can see the far west has normal air paterns moving in from the Pacific Ocean. the strongest winds are moving through the lower plains states and up through Maryland. 

Construction of The Ark may come early

I have this running joke going that I'm building an ark to save us all from the flooding that is soon to happen across the midwest and especially in Eau Claire this spring. My house is located directly where the Eau Claire River and Chippewa Rivers converge (better known to Geographers as the confluence). My house was almost flooded this fall when the Chippewa River Flooded the banks of 1st Ave. I was scannign the weather sights today and I found this article: With Warm Ups Come Flooding Concerns . Although this article doesn't discuss the Midwest directly I still  found it to be applicable to the region's winter weather trends. There is a part in the article that says that "10 inches of snow equals an inch of liquid". Seeing as Eau Claire, WI recieved 22 inches in 48 hours in Decemeber and has accumulated several inches since then. I guess I will have to move my construction beginning date foward and start immediately since we have a predicted warm up on the way.

Monday Observations

Today has been mostly cloudy. About 85% of the sky has been covered with Stratus clouds. The temperature is currently 13.8 degrees F according to the Phillips Hall weather station. The dew point is at 3.6 degrees F. There is a Northwest wind at around 12 mph. The barometric pressure is at 1019.6. Meaning that Eau Claire is currently in a low pressure system. As I discussed yesterday the jet stream has infact moved to bringing colder arctic air into the Upper Midwest region.

This image from Intellicast show that the Jet Stream is currently still creating a trough across the U.S. and it shows how the arctic air is spilling into the midwest. I forecast a chilly overnight and day tomorrow as the cold winds take their toll on the Upper Midwest.

Sunday's Observations

Today's weather was beautiful outside for a Wisconsin February. the sky was about 50% covered with altocumulus clouds and the warm sun was peaking through the cloud openings. The temperature is currently 27.7 degrees F according to Weather Underground (the metstation website was not working this evening). The wind today was from the West Northwest at around 9mph. The dewpoint is at 18 degrees F. Since the sun is already down I doubt that the temperature will drop to the dew point meaning that there is very little change of snow overnight. The barometric pressure is at 1018.3 therefore we are currently in a low pressure system (as the pressure is building at the bottom of the low system).

This Infrared (color enhanced) Satellite Image shows where the low pressure system currently lies and where the jet stream (the black cloudless areas) is dipping far into the south (even as far as Texas) meaning that it is bringing cold arctic air from the north into the country. This cold air will be moving towards the midwest over the next couple of days.