Observations for Monday, February 28th, 2011

Today is quite the clear day outside, with no visible clouds as far as I can see at the time of my observations.  Temperatures at about noon were sitting at 16 degrees, with a slight wind blowing from the southwest at 3 MPH.  The clear skies and colder weather are likely due to the fact that we have a high pressure dome looming over us, but I wouldn't expect it to last long.  It looks as though a low pressure system is approaching from the NW (see picture below), and it will probably bring warmer weather, but possible precipitation.  

Observations for Friday, February 26th, 2011

Looks like the colder weather I predicted coming from the north has finally started to hit us.  At my observations, the temperatures were at about 15 degrees, with winds blowing from the norhtwest.  The high pressure system produced light cloud cover, making it quite sunny outside.  I would predict that in the next few days, it will continue to stay quite cold, but we might see some more cloud cover, with some snow showers within the next week.  I say this based on the weather pattern we've been seeing lately.

Observations for Thursday, February 24th, 2011

This morning started out quite cloudy, and then began to clear up by early afternoon.  Temperatures at the time of my observations were at about 25 degrees, with a wind blowing from the north at 9 MPH.  Towards the end of the day, clouds began to gather again and it became quite overcast outside.  Based on our lecture in class today, I would have to say that they were a type of stratus cloud, based on the blanket-like structure of them.   It was also fairly dry at the time of my observations as well, as seen in the water vapor map below.  You can see the large areas of green where the low pressure system is moving through, and the clearer areas are where cold fronts are moving through with little wind.

Observations for Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

Today was yet another cloudy, mild day in Eau Claire, with temperatures sitting at about 32 degrees when I went out to do my observations.  Winds were blowing from the southwest at 5 MPH, so it was fairly calm outside.  Right about now, we're at the center of a low pressure system, which is likely the reason for all of the clouds and the warmer temperatures.  It looks like a cold front is moving in, however, so I would have to expect colder temperatures throughout the next 3 or 4 days.

Here's the map of the weather conditions right now:

Observations for Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

Today was actually quite mild, despite my thoughts that there was a chance of it being bitter cold, seeing as it's been that way after almost every snow storm we've had recently.  At the time of my observations, the temperature was 24 degrees with a decently powerful wind blowing from the south at 12 MPH.  The dew point was at 16 degrees, giving us a dew point of 66%, which isn't too significant.  I went on to accuweather.com to check out a satellite image of the cloud cover in our are, and i was surprised to see the colder weather approaching in the west.  Due to this picture, I would likely assume that within the next few days, we'll probably see some colder weather than what we've seen today.