April 24th, Told Through Pictures

A picture is worth a thousand words. On a precipitating weather day, this is especially true. The following pictures and captions tell April 24th's story.

In the late morning (10:00 am), the clear blue Eau Claire sky started getting dotted with clouds. In this picture, taken from 1st Ave. and Water St., you can see multiple different kinds of clouds in the sky. Higher in the atmosphere, you can see the wispy cirrus fibratus clouds. Being a minimum of 16,500 feet above the surface, these cirrus clouds are made up of ice crystals, giving them an air-brushed quality. Cirrus clouds usually accompany organized storm systems. At this point in the day, the cirrus clouds were not yet covered up by lower-lying clouds. You can also see cumulus humilis clouds in this picture. These puffy clouds are made up of water droplets, in contrast to the icy cirrus clouds higher in the atmosphere. Puffy cumulus clouds like these ones pose no threat but they can be predictors. If this picture would have occurred in the afternoon, no rain would be in the forecast. Since this picture was taken in the morning, though, the atmosphere is showing signs of instability. These clouds will grow throughout the day.

By 6:00 pm, this is what the Eau Claire sky looked like staring downstream from the campus footbridge. The upper atmospheric cirrus clouds have become more wide-spread. The cumulus clouds are becoming more prevalent and some are beginning to show vertical growth and flattening bases, becoming cumulus congestus. The atmosphere is showing instability when these kinds of changes start to happen.

As dusk approached, the sky told us everything we needed to know without turning on the TV. This picture was taken a little before 8:00 pm from the Blugold Marching Band practice field. In this picture, the sky is now covered in cumulonimbus clouds. You can also see virga rain occurring in this picture. Within 5 minutes of this picture's capture, rain began to fall in Eau Claire. The rain precipitation intensified and continued throughout much of the night.

April 24th's high temperature was 52 degrees F at 2:25 pm (10 degrees below average). The low temperature was 25 degrees F (13 degrees below average) at 5:05 am. The wind was blowing at 22-30 mph, coming from the WSW.