February 17, 2018

Snow!

Current Conditions

Temperature: 23 degrees, feels like 15 degrees
Dew Point: 12 degrees
Winds: W 8 mph
Pressure: 1017.6 mb
Visibility: 10 miles

Today started out cloudy in the morning and transitioned to snow mid-morning to early afternoon. Around 1/1.5 inches accumulated which didn't amount to much. Figure 1 below shows the snow beginning to fall as I was out on my morning run.

Figure 1. Snow falling around 8:15 AM on walking bridge over the Chippewa River.

By late afternoon the skies had cleared and the sun was shining. Temperatures peaked a 29 degrees with winds SSW at 8 mph. the southerly winds explains the warmer temperatures experienced today. Now the wind has shifted and is coming out of the west.

My prediction from yesterday was correct! The southerly winds brought warmer weather and there was indeed snow today.

For tomorrow, I predict that temperatures will be cooler because a high pressure air mass is sitting over Wisconsin and winds are now coming out of the west (figure 2).

Figure 2. Surface map of the United States. Note the high pressure air mass over the upper Midwest.