Friday, April 29, 2011

Under pressure

These crummy temperatures will move out and the sun will peak through the clouds for the first time since Monday. Today started off as overcast with a few sprinkles throughout the day. Temperatures reached a high of 41 with winds from the north west switching to the south west as the night goes on. On my bike ride home today I spied the end of the gloomy cold front that has been moving across our state as a trough in the jet held for quite some time. That low has finally passed and I spied the bright sunny skies that are in store for us Friday. The dissapation of the clouds means tonight will get semi-chilly as that blanket of cloud cover continues to lighten. But tomorrow looks like we can once agin pull out those shorts and flip flops, at least for a day, the rainy weather will make a comeback Saturday so enjoy the sun while you can.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

an unexpected kind of okay day

I woke up today expecting rain, but was pleasantly surprized when I stepped outside to just a cloudy day, not a drop in sight. Of course, this didn't hold all day long, there were a few microscopic drizzles later in the afternoon, but those were tolerable. Temperatures reached a high of 42 degrees today with winds from the Northwest at 7 miles per hour as that center of the low tracks to our south east. That meant a bit chillier conditions, but not a whole lot of precipitation with about 85% cumulus cloud cover. For tomorrow I expect temperatures to warm up a bit and winds to continue from the northwest into the weekend.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

I Enjoy Watching People Struggle With Umbrellas

Although the thought of bringing my umbrella on my walk to class today was tempting, I avoided the temptation because I checked my wind speed and direction before heading off to class and realized the frustration wouldnt be worth it. Right now at noon the temperature is 39 degrees, the wind is coming from the northwest at 10 miles per hour, a slow down from this morning when I got a reading of 15 mph on my phone. The barometric pressure is on the rise which would explain the brief stop of rainfall outside. Cloud cover is at 100% The rain should hold up into tonight and then resume into a possible wintry mix late tonight. For tomorrow I expect the precipitation to continue and the winds to continue from the northeast as the center of the low continues to track to our southwest. I expect 100% cloud cover again and a pretty high chance of precipitation : (

Friday, April 22, 2011

Setting up for mr. Rabbit

Okay, here's the set up for this weekend. A trough in the jet stream over the Rockies will make the precipitation track just south if Wisconsin. Which means despite the rainy temps today and tonight things will clear up for Mr. Bunny to make his way out for Easter. The trough will bring some humid warm air up to us raising temps for Easter. It looks like this pattern won't hold however and the rain should be back to greet us again on Monday.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Prepare for the Ice Age

Back to the crappy cold weather. The weather outside is hazy and cold. THIS SUCKS! Temperature right now is 42 degrees with winds gusting at 27 miles per hour from the East... you know what that means... we are all going to die... obviously. So here is the current set up for the crappy weather that will be heading our way. The storm developed in the Plains, moisture from the gulf has made its way up which will feed into the chilly air mass looming over Wisconsin right now. That combo will dump roughly 2-4 inches of snow and some possible snow/rain mix onto Eau Claire later tonight. That storm will head over to Michigan and be out of our hair by mid day tomorrow. I think given the current temps and the projected low 40 degree temps for tomorrow that snow will have the chance to accumulate, leaving us with some shoveling to do tomorrow morning and late afternoon. Hopefully after this we won't be seeing any more of the white stuff until late November.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Screw you Mother Nature

Mother nature still has some nasty tricks up her sleve and they are headed our way, but not today. Temps at 4pm were at 48 degrees with the wind coming from the southeast at 5 miles per hour. Cloud cover was mixed with some cumulus and stratus clouds covering about 60% of the sky. I expect those clouds to continue to accumulate into tonight as a not so lovely storm makes its way to Eau Claire tomorrow night into Wednesday. But we will get to that tomorrow. For tonight and into tomorrow I expect things to start to cool off as a cold front and precipitation approach. The cloud cover tonight will help keep things a bit warmer, but temps will still be in the mid 30's tonight. For tomorrow  I expect mostly overcast skies and the wind direction to increase and change direction as that nasty weather comes near.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

A chance of snow?

As I predicted Tuesday, things cooled off a bit for us today as we prepare for some not so fun weather conditions this weekend. Today temps were at 47 degrees just before noon today. I didn't pay much attention to cloud cover today but my guess would be upper level clouds most likely stratus clouds possibly stratocumulus since there was a slight chance for precipitation today. For tomorrow I expect temps to remain cool in to the weekend as a big low makes its way up from Nebraska.  

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

why am i inside right now??????????

The weather outside is gorgeous, it makes me wonder why I'm sitting inside working on my weather lab. The temperature is at 65 degrees with 80% cirrostratus cloud cover . Winds are from the Southwest at 13 miles per hour. That high pressure will stick around for a bit longer, however the cold will roll in as a low accumulates off the west coast heads our way. We might see some light precip later tonight which will cool things off a bit. As for tonight I expect cloud cover to continue to build up until later tonight which will drop some rain showers on us over night into the morning and through tomorrow.

Monday, April 11, 2011

"severe weather"

So it was kind of an upset this weekend as far as severe weather hitting Eau Claire. For the most part on Sunday the heavy winds, hail and severe thunderstorms that were forcasted didn't hit Eau Claire as intensly as forecasters had predicted.
This is what I saw when I was riding with my friend during the "Tornado Warning" you can see the front boundary moving to the Northwest with the vertical cloud development of cumulus congestus clouds.
As for today, the high pressure is back with temps at 63 degrees at 4 o'clock winds were at the northwest at 12 miles per hour. Cloud cover is at 20% cumulus clouds indicating those nice mild temps are here to stay. Later tonight I expect temps to be in the upper 40's with similiar conditions tomorrow.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Thursday

The wind made the switch to the Southeast today which means warm temperatures and cloudier skies which makes being stuck inside working on geography lab really sucky!
Temps right now are 59 degrees and like i said winds are coming from the southeast at 12 miles per hour. highlevel alto cirrus clouds ar king of blanketing the upper atmosphere right now, they are so slim that you can barely pick them out but there there . For tommorrow and tonight I expect the clouds to stick around keeping the warm air trapped in over night and bringing us our first taste of 60 degree temps tomorrow!

Wednesday Wonderful

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous outside. I didn't get an oppourtunity to get a chance to record this last night so here is a quick recap. Temps reached a high of 57. Cloud cover was at 40% Stratocirrus cloud cover. Winds were from the north northwest at 5 miles per hour. Those warm temps and relatively cloudless skies are due to dome of high pressure hanging around for a while. Tomorrow (today) I expect sunny skies and similiar temps to yesterday as that high pressure sticks around.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

I now declare it officially Spring!!!

It seemed like mother nature finally decided it was time for spring, or at least that's what the weather felt like outside. The temp right now is 43 and sunny with minimal cloud cover, there are some strato cumulus clouds off to the Southwest  which indicates we might be seeing an incoming front. Winds are coming from the Northwest at around 5 miles per hour. and like I said for the most part it is a cloudless day. Looking at the surface map it looks like there is some precipitation that might be headed our way from Minnesota which could give us a few showers or a wintery mix later tonight. This might correlate with those approaching clouds I mentioned earlier. For tomorrow, due to the precipitation I expect temperatures to cool off a bit and we should expect to see more cloud cover earlier on in the morning.