Observations for Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

Well, if you got a chance to take a walk outside today, you'd certainly be able to tell that it's quite cold out there.  I just got in from doing my observations, and temperatures seem to continue to be dropping.  During the day, the sky seemed to be covered almost completely with clouds, but this seems to have reduced significantly, and it's quite clear out now.  Today in class, we began discussing cloud cover and pressure systems, and we learned that when a high pressure system moves in (which it currently is), there is less cloud cover, which leads to colder air.  The temperature outside is at 15 degrees with winds blowing from the northeast at about twelve miles an hour.  As I stated earlier, since a high pressure system will be moving in within the next couple of days, I expect temperatures to drop significantly.  There's a pretty nasty snowstorm hitting the lower parts of Wisconsin and the midwest, and I've been trying to keep track of that as much as I can, seeing as I have family living in the Green Bay area.

Below is a map of the current weather system moving through the midwest that helps to illustrate the low pressure system bringing in the huge midwest storm that cities like Chicago and Milwaukee are experience right now.