Easter bunny

Well this morning the Easter bunny was at my place...He didn't leave no Easter basket filled with candy,but sure left..Well you know LOL....He's the one of many I have been feeding all winter long...This one comes up and eats out of my hand,the only one to do so....He still does not like the camera...However I still get some pictures of him from time to time....

Now taking the stage..Tonigh't Moon

Well tonight the Moon was great..So out came the camera once again..No telescope used just my camera and different lens...Sorry about the dust specks on the picutres,I forgot to check the lens..

This morning's Moon

I was playing around with this morning's moon...I did off center the pictures just to see how it would look....Not to bad I rather like the way they turned out....Click on pictures to see full size....

It's time to play the flip flop game.....

Forecast headaches....Temps through out the whole FCST cycle....With off and precip chances next week....

CURRENT CONDITIONS....

Temps greeting the early morning risers in the middle 20s to a few upper 20s...High clouds moving into the area,for the most part clear to partly cloudy skies rule....

SFC ANALYSIS......

996 MB low pressure over Northern NY bringing precip through out the Northern States....Meanwhile large high 1023 high pressure sitting over ND..Large ridge of high pressure controlling the weather through out much or the 3/4 of the CONUS....

TODAY THROUGH SUNDAY.....

For the most part FCST cut and dry....However the main battle today was how warm to go with temps...High pressure in control of our weather will assure us with a mostly sunny sky today....Winds will be lighter today,still out of the NW..So have chosen to keep temps in the lower 40s for my Northern and Eastern forecast areas,Meanwhile will run with middle 40s through out my Central FA...Will go with upper 40s in my Southern Counties.Points South of Eau Claire...Tonight temps throttle back into the upper 20s through out my Central and Southern sections of the FA,up North and out East middle 20s look fine under partly cloudy skies..00z Wed we see a cold front dropping into ND/far NW MN This system is moving rather fast so by 06z Wed cold front shall be knocking on our door step..By 12z Wed cold front clears the area...Will see a few more clouds on Wed,may see some LES on the South shore of Lake Superior,other than that cold front comes through dry..Winds will be a little stronger on Wed from the NW...Will run with the same set up with temps as I did for Tuesday...On Thur will warm temps a few degree through out the forecast..So middle 40s Central,Northern,and Eastern Sections...Upper 40s to 50 in the Southern areas..Again points South of Eau Claire....Lows Thur night lower to middle 20s North,Central,and Easter sections...While our Southern areas bask in the upper 20s for lows....Friday temps warm up more Middle 40s North..Upper 40s Central and Eastern areas..Southern areas head into the lower 50s.....Sat...Upper 40s shall rule our Northern areas along with our Eastern areas...Central areas upper 40s here also...May hit 50...Southern areas warm into the middle 50...Lower 50s rule most of the FA on Sun...Middle 50s in the Southern,and Central areas...Lows upper 20s to lower 30s possible...

LONGER TERM APR 13 THROUGH APR 23......

Note Models have been playing the flip flop game in the longer term over the past few days.Mainly with temps..So confidence level for this period rather low..Until we see more of a consisted pattern taking shape I would not hold this long term FCST to heart...As this FCST period now shows warmer temps,and many of us are hoping for it..Bottom line here is don't buy into this just yet...
We start the period in the lower 50s on Monday We do cool off some for Tuesday and Wed...40s seem the way to run for those days...middle to upper 40s seem the way to run from 15 through 17...Upper 40s to low 50s for 18 and 19...Models hinting a big warm up at the end of the time frame....Again we are playing the flip flop game and the models are playing it hard..One day the longer term is warm than the next day the long term is cold,now we are back into the warm side....One of the reasons why Forecasters hate doing longer term FCST......How about precip chances....Will be off and on chance of precip..Some which may be snow during the over night hours...Will worry about all this later...See above...

Cold warm than cold...Short/middle/long term Fcst

Forecast problems....How cold to keep temps today...How long to delay the warmer temps....Other than rather easy forecast as far as precip goes..Looks like a spring pattern setting up for the end of the work week into the weekend...Than cooling back to below Norms in the longer term FSCT......

CURRENT CONDITIONS......

Temps for the most part are in the middle to upper 20s...The Rice Lake 31° reading is bogus...The heat island effect playing havoc with that reading,just like yesterday when that had a high of 44...Here at the office 39.9 and our low here so far as been 25.7..Seems like when the winds are out of the North the heat island effect cranks right up...So everyone needs to keep that in mind....Most stations are reporting ptcldy skies this morning..Satellite confirms this rather well...What is interesting we have a flow right off of Lake Superior so my Central and Eastern areas in Barron County and into Rusk County,and points North are seeing that effect from time to time.In fact we can see the change starting to take place up around my far Northern areas as clouds have a SE movement to them..WV also showing that rather well...This should change as winds become more Northwest this morning....Speaking of winds...Wind range from 5 to 13 MPH across the FA...

SFC ANALYSIS.....

This morning's SFC weather map show a low pressure that was reasonable for yesterday morning's snowfall,well to the East of the area..Centered over Central OH...Meanwhile there is a 1038 MB high pressure centered just North of the MT/ND border...Pressure gradients have increased over the FA yesterday and still hold strong this morning...See above for details on this...

TODAY THROUGH TUESDAY....

Cold air is the rule for this time frame...By 12z today 1038 MB high pressure builds South into ND and SD..Meanwhile 992 MB low pressure is forecasted to lift into NE OH..Pressure gradients between these two system will crank back up today to produce winds in the range of 10 to 20 MPH with gusts up to 25 MPH..CAA will wring out what little moisture is left..So look for a ptcldy to mocldy day...There may be a few flurries around from time to time...Not a big deal...Highs today shall range from the middle 30s to upper 30s just like yesterday...With winds howling out of the N/NW it will feel like Nov not April...Temps still running well below norms for this time of year....Getting to sound like a stuck record...Tonight Low pressure moves into NY,High pressure builds into NE as it does it does weaken to around 1031 MBs..Ridging of high into the area will cause winds to lighten up some as pressure gradients decrease...5 to 10 MPH or so should work out fine....How low to go with over night lows....This will depend on if we can rid our area of clouds and if winds drop over more...For now I'm going to run with lower 20s across the broad..May have to adjust them down more this afternoon...Will watch the trend in the clouds and winds...Tue looks to be a quite day as the FA will be under high pressure/ridging high pressure...However temps will still be well below norms even under mostly sunny skies....Low Tue night will range from the lower 20s to the middle 20s....

WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY......

NW flow will still keep temps down on Wed....Though will be warmer than what have seen in some time....Highs on Wed and Thur should be in the middle 40s to around the upper 40s...Will still hold onto the lower to middle 20s for lows right through Thur night...Friday....High will warm into the upper 40s across much of the FA..Lows middle to upper 20s looks to be the way to run this race....Sat,and Sun..Southerly winds finally take over the FA this will usher in warmer air with temps lower 50s on Sat and middle 50s by Sun...Lows upper 20s to lower 30s....Could this be what everyone has been waiting for ? Will spring stay this time? Lets find out in the longer term FCST.....

LONGER TERM....MONDAY APR 13 THROUGH WED APR 22......

First off let us talk about temps...Then secondly we will talk about precip....
Temps do cool back into the 40s for the start of this period,and hold that way for the most part...Lows in to middle 20s to lower 30s through out this time frame...So if long range computer models are right we will fall to below norms once again......Lets see what the precip dept is up to,since the temp dept can't seem to do their jobs very good this spring....In the pecip dept we see some what of active period.....Mon we see a low pressure moving into SE WI...This should spread in rain into the area...Models want to keep some precip in the are right through Wed morning...We get a break from Thu through Sat before our next system is forecasted to bring precip back into play for Sun into Mon morning...Then another break to finish off the time frame....
So looks like spring will be on vacation once again in the longer term as temps remain below norms...

March stats

The stats for March are as follows...Temps were well below norms for this month..Keeping people asking where is spring?....Snowfall for Mar was below norms,nevertheless for the winter we are way above norms in Northwestern WI...Days we saw snow...Mar 10 and 11th we saw 2.50 inches..Than on the 20th we saw another 1" of snow..Total snowfall for the Month was 3.50 inches....Below snowfall norms for Mar...While temps did warm up through the Month the ave was well below norms,thanks to a NW flow most of the month that kept Arctic air hanging around longer...There were two thunderstorm days...First one was on Mar 23....The second one was on Mar 24.......There you have it......
So what will April bring...Well it's starting of colder than norm..And so far this Month we have picked up 3.25 inches of snow....Which I think is already above the Monthly snowfall ave....
At the end of this month I will have a very detailed write up on this past winter,and see how spring is doing....Right now this spring has been very cold and wet...More on that at the end of the month......
ONCE AGAIN THIS DATA IS FOR BARRON COUNTY WI ONLY....All weather info was compiled here at the Weather Center

Forecast(AFD)

Note...1.50 Inches so far at the Weather Center still snowing rather hard at this hour..Should not really see much more than 2.00 inches for totals

Forecast problems....How far to bring the snow North today,and how much more snow will fall over our Southern Counties of WI,Barron,Polk,Rusk,along with possible LES for Ashland,and Iron Counties....

CURRENT CONDITIONS...

Radar is showing light snow/flurries through out my Southern zones of WI into a small part of my Southern MN zones a Heavier band of snow has set up over Northern Barron,and Polk Counties along with the Southern parts of Burnett,and Washburn Counites into Sawyer County...Temps in the lower 30s through much of my Central and Southern areas...While in my Northern areas of MN temps in the lower 20 to middle 20s.....Skies for the most part are cloudy with some Northern areas of MN reporting clear skies at this hour...

SFC ANALYSIS....

999 MB low pressure centered over SW IA this morning some what weaker than models had it yesterday.Which is also nicely seen on all the satellite imagery....Strong 1038 MB Arctic high pressure over Canada's mid section.....

TODAY THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT.....

999 MB low pressure is forecasted to move into Northern MO/far Southern IA by 12z today..Said low is forecasted to trek through said areas and move onto the door step of IL by 18z today...Then off to the Northeast towards NY areas by 00z Tuesday...As said low makes to trip across said areas it is forecasted to pull down a few shortwaves out of Canada so flurries up in out Northern areas of MN possible Monday,and Monday night...Down through our Central and Southern zones of WI light snow is possible through out the day and tonight....Main areas to see snow would be Barron,Polk,Rusk,and parts of Sawyer Counties...Here there has been a range of .50 to 1.50 of snow over the last 8 hours....Not looking for much more in them areas maybe another .25 to .50 if we are lucky.....Strong 1038 MB high pressure builds into the upper mid-west pressure gradients between the low and high increase so winds will be kicking up out of the North..Not as bad as we were forecasting yesterday...Still could see gust in the 20 to 25 MPH...Still not to thrilled about LES accumulations attm...However there will be a rather good amount of fetch of the Lake,still other indicators aren't point to big event attm...We will watch this and see how it unfolds through out the day....

TUESDAY THROUGH MONDAY....

Still held onto LES/rain for Ashland,and Iron Counties for Tuesday into part of Wed...Other than that looks to be a rather quiet period...Temps start the new work well below norms,however the good news is they do moderate back to the norms by the end of the work week into the weekend...Should remain dry into much of the weekend..With warm temps..More clouds on Sun as a low pressure system moves towards the area....Mon..I did bring in some rain showers and thunderstorms......

LONGER TERM FORECAST....(TUE APR 14 THROUGH TUE APR 21)

Tuesday Low pressure is forecasted to move over my WI FA..This will allow for rain showers may also may mix snow from time to time by Tuesday afternoon...System still holds onto my Eastern MN and all of my WI areas so rain/snow still possible..Models have really backed down from the big warm that was forecasted yesterday.So yesterday's long term forecast needs to be updated to account for this.Highs still look to be in the middle to upper 40s for the most part ...Models showing 50s by Sat the 18....With lows in the middle to upper 20s still ruling the FA..upper 40s to lower 50s look good for the rest of this time frame...Lets go back and talk about precip through the rest of this time frame.......Looks like another shot of precip moving back into the for this weekend......