Observations for Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

Today was yet another cold and cloudy spring day in Eau Claire.  In fact, it really didn't seem like spring at all.  The temperature at the time of my observations was 36 degrees, but with northwest winds at 7 MPH made it feel more like 30 degrees.  In the morning when I woke up, it was drizzling outside, and it really stayed that way for most of the day.  In fact, at one point, I believe it even snowed a bit.  If we take a look at the map below, we can see that the storm that is currently out east is on it's last leg, based on the fact that we can see an occluded front right above Michigan.  Within the next few days, I would expect a high pressure system to move closer to our area, but then I would suspect a low pressure system from the northwest to move in bringing more crappy weather on possibly Sunday or Monday.

Observations for Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Today has been quite dreary to say the least.  The temperature at the time of my observations was a lowly 38 degrees, with little to no winds.  We're fortunate to have the calm winds, as if they were any stronger, it would have felt much cooler outside.  The current pressure is about 1029.54, which is low, but relatively stable.  We've experienced steady rainfall all day, which is partly the reason why I stated that it has been so dreary.  If we take a look at the map below, we can see the current conditions for the upper Mississippi River Valley, which basically shows that we're having quite irregular and cold temperatures for this time of year.

Picture is courtesy of the NOAA.

Observations for Friday, April 22nd and Monday, April 25th

Temperatures from Friday of last week to Monday of this week dropped drastically over the weekend, and the difference was highly noticeable.  On Friday at 3 pm, the temperature was hardly stellar, at around 43 degrees.  Winds were blowing from the east at 15 MPH, which made it feel like it was more like 35 degrees outside.  At that time, it was overcast, which was pretty much the theme throughout the weekend.  Monday, however, was a stark difference.  The rain over the weekend help to usher in a different front, at at 3 pm on Monday, the temperature was a very comfortable 66 degrees.  Winds at the time were blowing from the northeast at 12 MPH, and skies were gorgeous and clear.  The gorgeous weather from Monday has not lasted, unfortunately, and on Tuesday we've experienced quite a bit of rain and much cooler weather.

Observations for Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Today was a pretty mild day outside, with no real significant weather events to talk about.  It was fairly sunny throughout the morning, but it became overcast around noon and stayed that way for most of the rest of the day. On my way to class today, I noticed that there were cirrostratus clouds in the sky, and you could sort of see the ring around the sun that would likely signal some inclement weather on the way.  As we speak, winds are blowing from the southeast at 10 MPH and the temperature is pretty mild at 46 degrees.  In the next few days, as stated earlier, I would think we might see some rain, followed by nicer, warm weather.  A Colorado low is forming currently, which will probably work it's way towards us.

Observations for Tuesday, April 19th and Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

Throughout the course of yesterday and today, we've experienced cooler temperatures, overcast skies, and light snow.  I was predicting quite a bit more of precipitation than what we actually got, but I'm not complaining one bit, as most of the snow melted after a few hours of staying on the ground.  At 3 pm on Tuesday, the temperature was about 41 degrees and winds were blowing from the east at 13 MPH.  The east wind signaled inclement weather to come, and like I said earlier, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  Light snow persisted throughout the night, and collected on the ground through this morning.  Today at 3 pm, the temperature was 42 degrees, with winds blowing from the west at 11 MPH.  Skies again at this time were overcast, but the changed wind direction helped to show that our snowy weather was likely on its way out.  For the next few days, we'll probably see a slow warm-up with a day or two of precipitation.