Observations for Thursday, March 17th, 2011

Today was yet another gorgeous day in our continuing streak of spring weather. The temperature is currently 49 degrees and winds are blowing from the west at 10 MPH. Its fairly wet outside, which is probably my only gripe with today's weather.  I stopped by the Carson Park duck pond with my girlfriend, and snapped a few shots with my Android phone, which I've included in this post.  There seemed to be some pretty dominant cirrostratus clouds in the sky for most of the afternoon. I would expect this warmer weather to continue well into next week, but an approaching low front could cause some precipitation.

"It feels like spring has arrived" : Observations for Tuesday, March 15th and Wednesday, March 16th

"It feels like spring has arrived."  That was the main headline on the Weather Channel Website today, and boy does it feel true in Eau Claire.  The last two days have been downright balmy, and it truly feels like spring has arrived in Eau Claire, WI.  On Tuesday at the time of my observations (4 pm), the temperature was steady at about 44 degrees, with winds blowing from the southwest at 10 MPH.  Skies were clear at that time, with no visible cloud cover except for a few wispy cirrus clouds appearing here and there.  We did experience a bit of precipitation towards the evening, but nothing too significant.  Today at around 4 pm, the temperature was even warmer, at about 48 degrees and a light wind blowing from the southeast at about 8 MPH.  Skies at that time were clear as well, with some cirrus clouds filling the sky here and there.  The picture below illustrates how the jet stream is currently dipping down into the Rockies, giving them cooler temperatures in the region.  It's also apparent to see that the high pressure system looming over Florida is pumping warm air up throughout the midwest, which is partially why we're having and will continue to have warm temperatures throughout the next week.

Observations for Monday, March 14th, 2011

Today was yet another very clear day, with few to no clouds in the sky and temperatures at 35 degrees at the time of my observations.  Wind was calm, and there wasn't actually any wind speed at all, which is rare.  The dew point was at 22 degrees, giving us a relative humidity of 70%. Below is an image from weather.com showing the wind gusts throughout the United States, and it's apparent that there are some stronger winds to the west of us that we may experience within the coming days.  I also checked out the water vapor map, and it seems that there is quite a lot of it in the air out towards the west, so I wouldn't be surprised if we experience some precipitation if a low pressure system occurs as well.

Observations for Thursday, March 10th and Friday, March 11th

It looks like temperatures are becoming more and more mild, and it looks like winter is finally on it's slow way out (thank God).  On Thursday, temperatures at around 3 were at about 37 degrees, with winds blowing from the northwest at 7 MPH.  For most of the day, there didn't seem to be any cloud cover, and it was clear.  This is likely due to the high pressure system in the area.  Friday was much of the same, but a notable thing about the day was the freezing fog in the morning.  This only persisted in the early morning, so I was not able to distinguish what type of fog it was, though I'm guessing it was due to the condensation of all of the snow on the ground.  For most of the afternoon, skies were clear, and the temperature at 4 was 40 degrees.  Wind speed at the same time was quite significant, however, blowing from the southeast at 15 MPH.  I believe that it will continue to get warmer, as I have predicted, but we might see a low pressure system move in and bring some precipitation within the next week.

Observations for Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

Today, I was happy to see that the precipitation that I predicted was actually dumped upon us, and though it may not have seemed so, in relatively decent amounts.  Because temperatures were so warm today (upwards of 40 degrees), the snow that fell from the sky almost immediately turned into a nasty slush when it hit the ground or even before it did, which made things quite messy.  Temperatures around 10:20 were steady at about 32 degrees, and winds were blowing from the northwest at about 12 MPH.  The dew point was about 25 degrees, giving us a relative humidity of 69%.  Based on the current conditions map posted below, I believe that we have seen an end to precipitation for at least a little while, and I would predict temperatures to steadily drop, probably by about ten degrees in the next couple of days.  This is due to a high pressure system that will likely be moving into our area.  I also expect some clearer skies with more sun.