Although yesterday's high temperature of 78 degrees F (10 degrees above average) before 12:30 pm may not have seemed like a predictor of a storm coming, there were quite a few hints yesterday that predicted what today's weather would be like.

All day yesterday, the weather was fair and sunny. My Irish skin even got a good burn going after being outside for an hour. It was a steady upward climb through 12:30 pm for the temperatures yesterday. The coldest point in the day came at 4:45 am when the temperature was 45 degrees F (2 degrees above average).

A nice breeze accompanied the day to cool off the skin of the unsuspecting pasty people of Eau Claire who did not realize they were being burned by the sun's rays. The wind was blowing at about 11 mph from the SW for most of the day. One of the big indicators that we would not be seeing the same kind of weather today as we did yesterday was the shifts in wind direction throughout yesterday. Throughout the day, ESE winds shifted to WSW winds, back to ESE, to SW, to ENE, to predominantly W, then NNE through sunset and then back to W. The drastic nature of these shifts clued me in to the coming cold front.

Yesterday Through Pictures

Let's "picture" yesterday, shall we?

Yesterday's fair weather and changing cloud cover made for a very photogenic day. This was a nice change of pace from the endless altostratus-covered skies we have seen a lot of over the last few months.

5/7/13 7:43 am: Cirrus clouds, contrails, and a few puffy cumulus humilis clouds dot the Eau Claire sky at the corner of 7th Ave. and Water St.

5/7/13 7:50 am: More cirrus clouds could be seen on the UWEC campus indicating moisture in the upper atmosphere. Their airbrushed quality is because they are made up of ice crystals. Don't worry, though, these ice crystals were no threat to us. These cirrus clouds are not precipitating clouds.



5/7/13 7:52 am: This was one of the coolest cloud formations I've ever seen. I took this picture on campus, facing Phillips Science Hall. The contrails, cirrus clouds, and cumulus humilis clouds linked together created quite an image. The presence of these cumulus humilis clouds on a sunny morning could mean precipitation later, since they indicate atmospheric instability when they appear at this time, but nothing came from them.

This picture, taken at 2:23 pm 5/7/13, shows the strange juxtaposition of lingering snow piles, a high river, and green grass starting to appear in the newly seeded area next to Haas Fine Arts. If the image would be closer to the trees, you would be able to see the new growth budding on the trees.

5/7/13 4:22 pm: By the afternoon, a greater number of non-threatening cumulus humilis clouds had formed in the sky. Cirrus fibratus clouds still overwhelmed the sky higher above the cumulus clouds.

5/7/13 6:06 pm: This picture perfect example of cirrus fibratus was captured from the patio of Ray's on 9th Ave. and Water St. These clouds did not threaten any precipitation. Generally, cirrus clouds present a pretty neutral situation.

80 Degrees!

Well, Eau Claire residents, it is definitely time to change over your wardrobe to fit this weather. By about 2:00 pm today, temperatures in Eau Claire reached 80 degrees F. Currently, the temperature is 58 degrees F with a relative humidity of 53%. The skies are clear, allowing for a good  visual of the waning crescent moon. The winds are completely calm right now. The current dew point is 41 degrees F and the barometric pressure is 29.99 in Hg. This rapidly falling pressure is indicative of a low pressure system and a cold front. For anyone out there that, like me, suffers wildly from allergies, today and yesterday have been a difficult 10.0 out of 12.0 on the pollen watch.

Tonight, the temperatures are evening out across the country. The coldest areas are in the Rockies. Although this is partly due to orographic factors, low pressure systems attached to occluded fronts are also playing into this cold pocket in the country.

Below is the change of the surface map over the course of the day.

Earlier in the day, we were seeing only high pressure and fair weather on the horizon for Wisconsin.

By late evening, the cold front and low pressure systems from the NW moved into the map's view. This front will continue to work its way towards our area. Fortunately, the system will only threaten to bring rain.

This jet stream map is quit unlike what we have seen over the course of the last few months. The low pressure systems across the country can be seen in this map by finding the counterclockwise circles in the jet stream.

Hello, Summer?

This week it seems like we've skipped right over spring and into summer in Eau Claire. There's nothing like warm temperatures, sunshine, and open ice cream shops to fuel the procrastination of college students in their final week of classes.

Yesterday was a beautiful, fair-weather day with a high temperature of 75 degrees F and a heat index of around 80 degrees F. The high temperature for yesterday was 8 degrees above average for May 6th in Eau Claire, hitting its peak at 4:05 pm.

regional high temperatures 5/6/13

We experienced a huge gap between the high and low temperatures for the day, with yesterday's low being 37 degrees F (5 degrees below average) at 5:45 am.

This map of the regional low temperatures for 5/6/13 looks almost identical to the low temperature map from Cinco De Mayo.

The warm WNW winds were blowing through the Chippewa Valley at 8 mph to give us a nice breeze to ring in the warm weather. There was no precipitation on our horizon yesterday, either.

The May 7th regional radar map shows no precipitation near Eau Claire.

Staring westward at the sun at 5:47 pm 5/6/13, this is what the sky looked like. This mixture of clouds was what most of the day looked like. Cirrus clouds were shearing with cumulus humilis clouds across the sky in a very viewable way.

Weekend Recap

What a whirlwind weather turn around we have had the last few days! Saturday ended up being a soggy beginning to fishing season. We saw showers on and off all day and watched the lakes and rivers rise even higher.

The radar for Saturday morning showed all the rain precipitation to come throughout the day.

We began the morning with temperatures in the low 30's, eventually reaching 54 degrees F at the warmest point around 5:30 pm. Winds were pretty calm throughout the day, coming from the NE at 5-10 mph. The night remained relatively warm, only dipping down to 41 degrees F to ring in Cinco De Mayo. The low for May 5th hit around 2:45 am with 35 degrees F.

With the band of precipitation finally past us, Sunday was a much drier and much warmer spring day. College students who weren't stuck in the library were outside on their lawns celebrating the holiday for the majority of the day, with plenty of cops around to rain on their parades. (I guess we couldn't see a completely dry day.)

Regional radar for May 5, 2013 promised a dry day in Eau Claire, WI, as most precipitation remained well south of Wisconsin

By 4:25 pm, Eau Claire saw temperatures hit 67 degrees F which is the average for May 5th.

Regional high temperatures for May 5, 2013, in which Eau Claire hit the average

Regional low temperatures for May 5, 2013, in which Eau Claire was 7 degrees F below average

Throughout the day, we saw winds out of the N at 8 mph but nothing to really cool off the Cinco De Mayo celebration. The majority of the day was partly cloudy with fair weather cumulus humilis clouds. This was a nice change from the overcast May 4th skies. May 4th's cloud progression was as follows:

These altocumulus undulatus clouds covered the Eau Claire sky at 12:17 pm 5/4/13. This image was taken from the footbridge on the UWEC campus. Although difficult to distinguish in this photo, there is shearing happening with higher level cirrus clouds. The shearing of cirrus and altocumulus clouds is a good indication of a precipitation-filled day. The clouds' predictions were correct.

This picture was taken at 6:29 pm 5/4/13 at the intersection of 7th Ave. and Water St. The altostratus clouds blanketing the sky were a common sight throughout much of the day, as they are associated with rain.

So Much For Those May Flowers, Huh?

Yesterday's wintery mix of precipitation changed over to rain by the later part of the day. That rain is still falling this morning. The temperature range yesterday was miserably small, with the high being 36 degrees F (30 degrees below average) at 2:25 pm and the low being 30 degrees F (11 degrees below average) at 4:25 am.

From this regional temperature highs map, you can see that Eau Claire was fortunate enough to be stuck in the skinny band of never-ending winter. The coldest section is where the precipitation was happening yesterday.

These are the regional low temperatures from May 3rd. I like to call this image "Narnia: the place that's always winter and never Christmas."

Snowfall estimates for May 3rd were 1.2 inches, with another 0.45 inches of rain precipitation to add to it.

This was the regional radar over the last 24 hours. If you compare this image to the high temperatures image, you can see the correlation between precipitation and temperature, especially since much of this precipitation began as snow and sleet.

This means cold temperatures and more flooding. The winds yesterday were coming out of the NNE at 13 to 20 mph.

Spring! Just Kidding, Spring Will Return Next Week

At precisely 6:50 am, my alarm summoned me to rise and shine and great the beautiful spring May 2nd day! And then...I saw...this...

Don't be confused about the apparent brightness that is occurring outside. This is actually a sky covered in thick, white altostratus clouds. Is that snow you are seeing? Why, yes. Yes it is...and a lot of it.

The temperature at this time was 32 degrees F with a wind chill of 24 degrees F. The barometric pressure was rather high but slowly falling. The reason for the higher-than-would-be-expected pressure reading was the drastic rising of barometric pressure we saw yesterday with the passing of a cold front. As one could surmise, the dew point equaled the temperature and the relative humidity was most definitely 100%.

Ok, so the trace to an inch of snowfall I had predicted had made its way to Eau Claire. Grin and bare it, I suppose. I grabbed a jacket and headed outside to the bus stop.

...And then I stopped...I stopped as soon as I stepped outside my apartment. As it turns out, there was definitely more than an inch on the ground by 7:30 am, and it wasn't letting up anytime soon. In fact, the outside world looked like this:

By 7:30 am at the corner of 7th Ave. and Water St., there was a solid two inches of snow accumulation. With the winds coming out of the North, you can see the northern side of telephone poles, signs, and houses covered in the fresh, snowman-kind-of-packy snow. This sticky snow caused a vehicle to careen sideways into an accident on State St., making the street impassible for part of the day.

Don't worry, everyone, I didn't miss out too much whilst in class. It was still snowing at 9:17 am when the following picture was taken.

snow-covered trees outside of Brewer Hall at 9:17 am 5/2/13

To spare you from entering into an even more depressed state, I stopped taking pictures of the snowfall after three inches had accumulated. In case you have locked yourself away in a windowless room to spare yourself the pain of the day, I am here to tell you that it is, in fact, still snowing outside.

The following text in parenthesis comes from a public alert system involving Eau Claire, WI:

"Accumulating snow continues over West Central Wisconsin.
Moderate snow will continue through much of afternoon across West Central Wisconsin. Snowfall totals of 10 to 16 inches can be expected by this evening across a 40 mile wide band from near Rice Lake to Durand. Lesser totals will be found east and west of this area. Roadways will be snow covered and slippery where the heaviest snow fell, and power outages are likely where power lines and tree branches are weighed down by the heavy snow. A Winter Storm Warning remains in effect until 7 pm, for the area west of a line from Cumberland, to Durand.
The snow will taper off during the afternoon, but additional Snow, possible mixed with sleet and freezing rain may develop again overnight. Stay tuned for later updates concerning this weather event.
Winter Storm Warning remains in effect until 7 pm CDT This Evening.
A Winter Storm Warning remains in effect until 7 pm CDT This Evening.

• Timing: moderate snow tapering off this afternoon.
• Snow accumulation: additional accumulation this afternoon of 1 to 3 inches. Storm totals from 10 to 16 inches in the heavy snow Band, and from 5 to 9 inches in far eastern portions of Rusk, Chippewa and Eau Claire County.
• Main impact: rapid snow accumulation may quickly make travel hazardous.
• Other impacts: The Heavy wet snow will weigh down tree limbs and power lines, causing isolated power outages."

The following link contains more information on Winter Storm Achilles (Yes, it IS being called a "winter" storm. I know, I know, it's May 2nd. I thought it was spring too.):

http://www.weather.com/news/weather-forecast/winter-storm-achilles-20130430

surface map of the United States from midday today when snowfall was at its heaviest

current surface map of the United States with light snow still falling in Eau Claire, WI

Silver lining? We've had a record-breaking day, Eau Claire! Our city's previous snowfall record for May 2nd was set in 1935 with 3 inches of snow accumulation. We surpassed that number before lunch time. While the accumulation total was much higher than normal, the temperatures outside have been well below normal. The normal high temperature for May 2nd in Eau Claire is 66 degrees F. Our brief tryst with the mid-30's today puts us over 30 degrees below average. Currently, the temperature is 32 degrees F. The winds have subsided but light snow is still falling, giving us a dew point of 32 degrees F and a relative humidity of 100%. The barometric pressure is 30.41 in Hg and still falling.

current radar for the United States for 5/2/13 showing a distinct weather band of snow, rain, and mixed precipitation extending across the center of the nation due to a dip in the jet stream uncharacteristic for this time of year

Expect more snow to continue falling tomorrow, adding to this map:



This image shows the current snowcover of the United States. Yesterday, this map was much freer of snow.



An additional 1-3 inches of snowfall is expected throughout the night in Eau Claire.