There's a 100% Chance That It's Already Raining

 

 

The dreary, blustery morning turned into a dreary, blustery, rainy midday today. Below, you can see the transition from earlier this morning to midday. 

 



 

 

 

The fog that was occurring in the early morning in the eastern part of our state was evaporation fog, since there is still quite a bit of snow on the ground in the NE and Green Bay areas of Wisconsin.

 

 

Below, you can see the transition of the rain coming...

 

 

 

...to the rain arriving in Eau Claire, flooding my parking lot.

 

 

...And temperatures that remained about the same. Currently, Eau Claire is sitting at 37 degrees F with a wind chill of 31 degrees F.



 

Since it is raining, the dew point equals the temperature and the relative humidity is 100%. Winds are coming out the ENE at 9 mph, gusting at 18 mph.

The good news? The snow in Wisconsin is diminishing.

The bad news? You may not be able to walk on the footpath next to the river for much longer due to flooding. But at least we won't be experiencing the tornados expected in Oklahoma today.

About to See Our First April T-Storm?

The ever-photogenic nimbostratus clouds blanketed Eau Claire's sky with a thick, gray sheet all day today. The gloomy weather began yesterday afternoon and brought precipitation in the form of measurable rain to the Chippewa Valley last night. The gray sky never wavered today, keeping the temperatures about ten degrees cooler in our area in comparison to the surrounding region. The Eau Claire sky is still overcast this evening. The current temperature is 40 degrees F with a dew point of 37 degrees F and a slowly rising barometric pressure reading of 30.01 in Hg.  The relative humidity is 87%, visibility is 8 miles, and the winds are still.

Over the past 24 hours, Eau Claire has received about 0.34 inches of precipitation. There is a twenty percent chance of rain tonight. But pack your rain gear tomorrow, as we are looking at a 90% chance of thunderstorms. Nothing says spring quite like a nice April thunderstorm. Be on the lookout for flooding, though, as a floodwatch has been issued from Tuesday evening through Thursday.

the moisture is here to stay for a while

The current jet stream is bringing moist WSW air into our area from where it has been accumulating in the Rockies. The good news is that this moist air will be warm enough to bring us rain.

Unfortunately, the stalled front to our south will likely have some low pressure air masses forming along it. This could mean potential for a return of some winter weather this week.

April 6th Update

Yesterday was a bit bipolar as far as the weather went. I was excited to get out and take a walk in the nice weather, just to be rained on a few minutes into the walk. Eau Claire's temperature hit a high of 47 degrees F at 2:45 pm (6 degrees below average) and a low of 33 degrees F at 2:45 am (3 degrees above average).

In the afternoon hours, we received 0.20 inches of rain precipitation. Winds, although high, were warm yesterday, blowing from the SE at 20-28 mph.

April 5th: It's Snowing.

To keep it short and sweet, the skies are overcast, wet snow is falling, and this is a very strange April evening. The temperature right now is 34 degrees F, feeling like 28 degrees F. The barometric pressure is 30.08 in Hg and has been falling rapidly as the low pressure air mass moves toward Eau Claire. This will bring warmer temperatures as the warm front comes with the low pressure air mass.

As the low pressure air mass makes its way to Eau Claire tomorrow, more precipitation is expected.

Most of the moisture is remaining to the north of Eau Claire.

The 3-6 mph South winds blowing the wet snow onto your vehicle wind shields will result in less visibility. Current visibility is 1.5 miles.

As you can see in the map below, there is a lot of moisture in the air here. This moisture is being pushed into our area by the approaching low pressure air mass.

With the extra precipitation and the approaching warm front bringing melting, there is a chance that we will see some flooding in Eau Claire this weekend. The following article discusses this issue further.

http://www.weau.com/weather/weathernotebook/headlines/Warmer-temperatures-and-heavy-rains-increasing-the-weekend-flooding-threat-201537341.html

April 4th Update

Thursday, Eau Claire finally experienced an above average temperature!...It was only for the low, but I'm still excited about it. The high was 47 degrees F at 1:45 pm (4 degrees below average) and the low was 34 degrees F at 1:45 am (5 degrees above average). It was a partly cloudy morning with a clear and sunny afternoon. Winds from the WNW were around 15 mph, gusting at 25 mph, causing the temperatures to feel much colder.

Eau Claire escaped precipitation yesterday, but nearby areas experienced some trace amounts.

Warmer Winds for a Nicer Day

Right now in Eau Claire, the temperature is 18 degrees F. Current winds are out of the SW at 1.6 mph, gusting at 2.2 mph. The dew point is 11 degrees F. The barometric pressure is 30.41 in Hg and slowly rising, and the relative humidity is 72%.

Looking to the sky this morning, there is not a cloud as far as the eye can see. Conditions are expected to remain clear and sunny all day.

The clear conditions today are thanks to the continuing high pressure air mass over our area.

To give you a large scale perspective, this is am infrared satellite radar map of the globe.

Temperatures today in Eau Claire will be warmer than yesterday now that the winds have switched to being out of the south. This will bring in much warmer air than we had been receiving from the NW. Right about now, I could definitely go for some maritime tropical air as opposed to the biting continental polar air. We should be feeling 45 degree F temperatures by 4 pm today.

Finally, that snow cover is getting lighter.

Tuesday Conditions

Tuesday was a bit less spring-like than many of us would have liked to see. Even though the sun was shining through the partly cloudy sky all day, the high temperature was only 33 degrees F (17 degrees below average), reached at 3:45 pm. The low was 15 degrees F (14 degrees below average), hit at 7:05 am.

Fair weather cumulus humilis clouds dotted the sky like a splatter paint canvas. It was the wind that kept it cold Tuesday. The wins were moving across the area from the W at 13 mph. Gusts reached 22 mph throughout the day.

It has been staying chilly in Eau Claire the last few days due to the nature of the cold front leading the high pressure air mass. The high pressure air mass that is over our area and dipping down to the south is an extension of the continental polar air mass. As you can see in the following radar map, the high pressure air mass ends where the precipitation to the south begins.