February 21, 2018

Burrrrr!

Current Conditions

Temperature: 17 °F feels like 11 °F 
Dew Point: 4 °F
Winds: W 8mph
Pressure: 1038.9 mb
Visibility: 10 miles

Today was even cooler than yesterday with a high of only 19 °F and wind chills. This morning the temperature was only 1 °F and felt like -1. The dew point was -2 °F which creates a small dew point depression but the air is so dry that precipitation will not occur. The sky was sunny with a few cirrus clouds mixed in and winds SSW at 5 mph. At 12:00 PM winds shifted to the west at 8 mph and the temperature rose to 11 °F. Currently winds are still out of the west and the temperature is just slightly higher at 17 °F. The drop in temperature is due to the high pressure air mass moving into Wisconsin that originated in the continental polar air mass (cold, dry air). This is shown in figure 1. 

Figure 1. Surface map of the United States.

Figure 2 is a temperature map of the U.S. that illustrates the movement of temperature zones with fronts. One can see the cold temperatures following the path of the low pressure systems moving across the country. 

Figure 2. Temperature map of the United States.

My previous forecast was correct; cooler temperatures followed the high pressure air mass and there were sunny skies with no precipitation.

For tomorrow I predict some increased cloud cover and slightly warmer temperatures but not too much different than today. This is based off the forecast surface map in figure 3.

Figure 3. Forecast surface map of the United States.