Welcome Back Weather

Hey so sorry for not posting for a week. I've been on my spring break. I've been spending it in Fargo, ND and the weather here has been quite the experience. Ok so let me update Eau Claire, WI really quick and then I will recap Fargo...

Eau Claire, WI. Today's temperature is 25.2 deg F with a windchill is 18.3 deg F. The dew point is 9 deg F creating a relative humidity of 50%. There is a 5 mph wind from the East. The barometer reads 1023.9 mb tooday. The sky is about 50% covered with a thin blanket of cirrostratus clouds. The surface map below from the Weather Channel shows that there is no impending front that is in the midwest which means that the skies will be calm for the next couple days. There is low pressure system currently over the northern Rockies.

Now for Fargo, ND we had nice weather the beginning of the week. Then on Tuesday morning I looked out the window and saw a thick blanket of stratus clouds with a wind from the Northeast. I predicited precipitation within the next 15-20 hours. Then on Tuesday night the winds picked up and it began to thunder and lightning. The rain began to fall then became freexing rain then became a sleeting mix of rain and snow. The precipitation turned to small graupel. Eventually the precipiation turned to just thick wet snow. The sky was still thundering and lightning. It was a crazy storm to watch. It left Fargo with 5.5 inches of thick wet snow with underlying ice. The road began to melt as the sun came out midday on Wednesday. Since then it has been colder clear skies with highs in the upper 20s.

I am heading back home today to Minnetonka, MN where they reportedly recieved anywhere between 5.5-7 inches of snow in the same storm system that we experienced.

I will write again this weekend as my spring break wraps up and I return to Eau Claire on Sunday afternoon. For now I say thank you to all of my blog viewers. I'm still gaining views from around the world and it inspires me to write more!

Thursday's Observations

So with the chaos of all of my midterm testing I did not get a chance to post yesterday. Yesterday was beautiful. The sky was approximately 25% covered with cirrus clouds. And the temperture was around 45 deg F for the high. I was almost tempted to wear just my sweatshirt when walking outisde on campus.

As for today. I would like to first thank all of the international viewers who have been looking at my blog. I've had viewers from Europe, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and Northern Africa. That is awesome! Now for today's weather... According to the Phillips Metstation the temperature is 51.3 deg F with a windchill of 51.1 deg F. The dew point of 44.4 deg F creating a relative humidity of 77%. There is a slight breeze blowing at 4 mph from the South. The barometer is a 1003.6 mb which is clear that the pressure is dropping in the area. The skies are 100% covered with a blanket of stratus clouds. This means that there is a chance of rain later in the afternoon. As you can see from this weather station map the low front that I spoke of yesterday is crossing the state of Wisconsin right now. Which is also clear by the Weather Channel Map below.

Tuesday's Observation

Today is wonderful and makes me excited for the continual warming up towards spring. Today's temperature is 46.8 deg F with 43.2 deg F. The dew point is at 26.1 deg F.  The wind is from the southwest blowing at around 5 mph. The barometer is at 1017.3 mb which is down almost 10 mb from yesterday. This shows that the pressure is dropping in the area as the low pressure system moves in from the west.  The skies are around 80% covered with cirrostratus clouds today. This is keeping some of our warmer air in therefore increasing our outside temperatures. This surface station map from Unisys weather confirms the clear skies and southwest winds in the region. You can notice where the low pressure system is moving across the Dakotas and nebraskaas that is where the wind directions are from the north or west.

I predict some rain showers in the early morning as this low pressure system pushes into Wisconsin.

Weekend Recap and Monday's Observations

So this past Saturday I awoke to hear howling winds outside my window. These 20 mph cold winds made playing with the dogs at the Chippewa Valley Humane Association a little bit difficult. But my boyfriend and I survived about an hour of the outdoors before it was too cold. Sunday's weather was beautiful it was sunny and temperatures were in the low 30s.

And now for today. I looked outside my window this morning and there were clear blue skies with no clouds in site. The temperature is 42.3 deg F with a windchill of 38.7 deg F. The Dew point is 23.9 deg F creating a relative humidity of  48%.  There is a calm breeze of 5 mph from the south. The barometer is at 1026.5 mb. The clear skies and the south wind is confirmed by this UNISYS weather station map

This map fromt eh weather station confirms the clear weather over the midwest region and shows that we are currently in a high pressure system.

I forcast clear skies for tomorrow but another cool down on the way mid week when the cold front that is over the rockies moves across the country.



Thursday and Friday's Observations

Ahh I woke up this morning and realized that I forgot to blog yesterday so here is the update. Yesterday's highs were close to 40 deg F. There were some cumulus humulis clouds scattering the sunny skies. There was a northwest wind blowing at around 6 mph. Overall it was a very nice day.

Now for today. I stepped outside today and noticed the cirrostratus clouds coving 100% of today's skies. I also notice the hoar frost on many branches. This was very cool looking becasue it was standing in ice crystal stick straight out from the surface it was on. Now for today's temperature it is currently 20.1 deg F with a windchill of 14.4 deg F. I still opted to take the bus this morning as the air still had that winter nip to it. The dew point is currently at 18.5 deg F. This puts the realative humidity at around 93% meaning that the air is almost fully saturated with moisture. This is most likely due to the warmer temperatures yesterday. The weather station reports that the eau claire area is misty. Further due to the saturation of the air.

The barometer is at 1018.7 mb. There is also a southeast wind blowing at 4mph. As we can see from the surface map from the Weather Channel there is a low pressure system moving in from the west and is currently associated with and occluded front. This means that niether the warm front nor the cold front is prevailing.

I forcast snow or rain showers in the late evening tonight or early morning tomorrow due to the occluded front moving in from the west.



Wednesday's Observation

It was snowing as expected this morning. Today's temperature is 34 deg F with a wind chill of 27 deg F. The dew point is at 28 deg F. The barometer is at 1016.9 mb. There is a wind from the North at 8 mph. The skies were 100% covered with nimbostratus clouds today dropping several inches of large sticky snow flakes (beter known to meterologists as sector plate ice crystals).  As we can see in the map from UNISYS weather the center of the low system has moved off to Northern Illinois indicated by the circularr motion of the wond directions.

This map from the Weather Channel confirms that the low pressure system has indeed moved off to the east.

I predict that the overcast skies and snowy weather should clear out of the area by tomorrow night.

Tuesday's Observations

Today's temperature is 33 deg F with a wind chill of 24 deg F. The dew point is 26 deg F creating a relative humidity of 75%. There is a wind coming from the east at 12 mph. The barometer is at 1022.9 mb. The skies are about 50% covered with altostratus clouds. This map from the UNISYS weather shows that the eye of this low pressure system continues to be stationary over central Iowa. The winds continue in a counterclockwise direction. I continue to forecast for snow and nimbostratus clouds to occur over night dropping several inches of snow throughout this slow moving system.