Category Archives: Seasons

You thought Wisconsin’s winter was warm? Wait till summer

Changes in the weather patterns that brought record-breaking warm temperatures to the Madison area this winter might also mean that a warmer-than-usual summer lies ahead.

There’s a fair chance that temperatures could rise above normal in June, July and August, and even into early fall, climate scientists say. Continue reading

Category: Climate, Seasons

Comments Off on You thought Wisconsin’s winter was warm? Wait till summer

How did this mild winter compare to previous such years?

We are now past the end of the meteorological winter, which consists of the months of December, January and February.

This season has been a remarkably mild one for most of its duration. With the exception of a week of desperate cold in mid-January, there was hardly any cold air to speak of in southern Wisconsin all winter. In fact, Madison was 9.5 degrees above normal for December, 3.5 degrees above normal for January (reduced because of the cold snap Jan. 14-21, during which the temperature was 14 degrees below normal!) and 11 degrees above normal for February. Continue reading

Category: Climate, Seasons

Comments Off on How did this mild winter compare to previous such years?

What is latent heat?

Since the beginning of the 2023-24 snow season, Madison and Dane County have received approximately 32 inches of snow.

Snow is a form of solid water, and water is the only substance that occurs naturally in all three phases — solid, liquid and invisible gas — in the Earth’s atmosphere. Of course, that means that the 32 inches of snow began as the equivalent amount of water in the invisible vapor (gas) phase before it transformed into solid water. Continue reading

Category: Meteorology, Seasons

Comments Off on What is latent heat?

What are folklore weather forecasts?

Folklore forecasts, often in the form of short rhymes, help farmers and mariners predict short term weather. Continue reading

Category: History, Seasons

Comments Off on What are folklore weather forecasts?

Are the Madison lakes ice-covered?

The Wisconsin State Climatology Office, housed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, monitors and reports on the ice coverage of Madison lakes.

The office keeps a database of the ice-over and ice-out dates for three Madison-area lakes: Mendota, Monona and Wingra. These records extend back to the winters of 1855-1856 for Mendota and Monona. The record of annual ice cover of Wingra is spotty, but consistent starting in the winter of 1982-83. Due to the long record based on visual observations, it is no surprise that the rules of opening and closing have been handed down by oral tradition. Continue reading

Category: Climate, History, Seasons

Comments Off on Are the Madison lakes ice-covered?