Wednesday 2/13

Temperature: 31°F (High 35°F)
Humidity: 69%
Pressure: 1006.1 mb
Wind Speed: W 6 mph

For a mid-February day in Wisconsin, it is gorgeous outside! Light wind, plenty of sunshine, and warm temperatures (the average mean temperature for February 13th is 19°F). The bad news, is that there appears to a cold front headed our way, which will bring some cold polar air with it. We can expect the temperatures to drop a little bit towards the weekend.

Tuesday 2/12

Temperature: 26°F (High 31°F)
Humidity: 71%
Pressure: 1014.6 mb
Wind Speed: SW 14 mph

Today there is kind of an interesting situation; the wind in Eau Claire is coming from the Southwest, however it's not unusually warm. Normally, any wind coming from the South is typically warm air, but in today's case, it is not any warmer than the air we have gotten the past few days. If we take a look at the jet stream today, we can see that the jet stream is bringing this air from the Southwest, but all this air originated in polar regions, so it is still cold.



Today we have mostly sunny skies in Eau Claire, which is always leads to some evaporation and possible cloud formation, but for the rest of the day and into tonight temperatures will most likely remain in the mid-twenties.

Monday 2/11

Temperature: 27°F (High 30°F)
Humidity: 75%
Pressure: 1006.4 mb
Wind Speed: W 14 mph, Gusts up to 26 mph

Well the pressure is lower than it has been the past week or so, which explains the cloudy conditions and the relatively high winds. If we take a look at the Sea Level Pressure map for today, we can see that Eau Claire and most of the Great Lakes area are in a large low pressure system. Also, we can see that the isobars are pretty close together over Eau Claire, which is why we are having fairly strong winds blowing towards the center of the low pressure system.



It seems as though that there is nothing but high pressure systems forming to the West of Eau Claire, so we can expect to see the sun a little bit more throughout the next couple of days. However, don't be surprised if we continue to get some dustings of snow, those Alberta Clipper systems are not finished quite yet.

Thursday 2/7

Temperature: 25°F (Low 11°F)
Humidity: 81%
Pressure: 1022.5 mb
Wind Speed: N 8 mph

Today was a pretty crummy day. It was overcast all day, with fog in the morning and freezing mist at night. The Jet Stream was in a very geostrophic position, blowing straight West to East for the most part. This would explain the lack of strong winds and a relatively boring day of weather.

Wednesday 2/6

Temperature: 20°F (High 26°F)
Humidity: 85%
Pressure: 1019.2 mb
Wind Speed: SE 6 mph

As you can see, the winds changed directions today. Instead of blowing out of the Northwest like they have been recently, today they are coming from the Southeast. This change of wind direction seems to have brought some moisture along with it, because today Eau Claire is receiving a little bit of snow throughout the afternoons and into the night.



The Sea Level Pressure map doesn't show much activity in our neck of the woods. The isobars are relatively spread out, which explains the weak winds blowing from the SW towards the low pressure system in the Dakotas. I think we expect constant temperatures around 30°F for the next few days.

Tuesday 2/5

Temperature: 25°F (High 26°F)
Humidity: 78%
Pressure: 1009.9 mb
Wind Speed: NW 9 mph

Well my first forecast of the season was correct (albeit not a very risky one). I said the sun yesterday could create some evaporation, stratus clouds, and warmer temperatures, which is exactly what happened. Today has been overcast all day and temperature highs are 10° warmer than yesterday.

Over the past couple of nights we have been experiencing some light dustings of snow. These are called Alberta Clippers, which are moist air masses from the NW brought to the midwest by the jet stream. Given the location of the jet stream today (bottom right), it looks like it is in perfect position to bring some more of that precipitation from the Pacific (notice Washington, bottom left) our way once again.

Monday 2/4

Temperature: 11°F (High 13°F)
Humidity: 56%
Pressure: 1018.5 mb
Wind Speed: Calm

Well today is a pretty calm, average day. Fairly chilly temperatures, but the bright sunshine and the lack of wind makes it a pretty enjoyable day.

As you can see from the Sea Level Pressure map from weather.unisys.com, Western Wisconsin is currently in a high pressure system. If I were to make any forecasts, I would say that the sunny skies will cause some evaporation of the snow, and we could see some cloudy, stratum type skies the next few days, along with warmer temperatures.