Today Will Be Spring...-ish

Finally, a day that resembles spring!

Yesterday, we saw some sun through the partly cloudy skies by the afternoon, but the happiness that that sunshine may have brought was shadowed by the light snow falling at the same time. Yesterday's snowfall precipitation total in Eau Claire was 1.4 inches, with most of it coming in the early morning hours. Rain precipitation totaled 0.06 inches.

Yesterday's cumulostratus clouds that turned into cumulus humilis clouds foreshadowed what today's weather would be like. This transitioned into clear skies and fair weather today.

4/19/13 Clairmont Ave. 6:00 pm

4/20/13 9th Ave. 1:15 pm

The weather should remain fair today. Some clouds will move into the area by this evening, but the sky should remain clear for at least a few more hours.

Yesterday's high temperature was 36 degrees F (24 degrees below average) at 5:45 pm. The low was 28 degrees F (8 degrees below average) at 10:45 pm. Today, we are already sitting at 42.3 degrees F. This was the anticipated high for today, and we were not expected to reach it until around 5 pm tonight. We may finally see some pseudo-spring-like weather! Keep in mind that the current temperature is still about 20 degrees below average for mid-April. The warmer temperatures today is due in part to the lack of wind. Currently, the wind is blowing at 2.2 mph with gusts of 6.9 mph out of the SW. The NNW winds of 24-34 mph yesterday were not only stronger but also colder due to their northern origin.

You can see, in this image, that the deep trough that extended all the way down through Mexico Thursday has finally flattened out most of the way, restoring a bit more of the natural temperature order to the country.

Although the trough is not as deep as it was a few days ago, the jet stream is still exhibiting a meridional flow pattern uncharacteristic for mid-April. At this time of the year, we should be seeing a zonal flow pattern in the jet stream, in which the jet has exclusively horizontal movement.

The current dew point for Eau Claire is 13 degrees F, and the relative humidity is 27%. The barometric pressure is 30.26 in Hg and rising rapidly. The rapid rise in pressure is due to the high pressure system moving into the Chippewa Valley. You can see the movement from low pressure to high pressure that we experienced from yesterday morning to midday today in the following two surface maps.

early yesterday morning low pressure system over Eau Claire that brought accumulating snow



current surface map that shows a high pressure system moving into WI