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Category Archives: Climate
Why don’t trees freeze and burst in the winter like cold pipes?
When liquid water freezes, it expands as the water molecules spread out to form a solid crystalline lattice. If the freezing water is contained in a closed vessel, such as a metal pipe, it can press hard on the sides as it expands, causing the container to burst.
Trees contain water that is transported throughout the tree by the phloem and xylem, which we can think of as pipes.
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Why is Wisconsin winter weather so cloudy and grey?
Climatologically, the winter months are the cloudiest time of the year in Wisconsin. Wisconsin’s average monthly cloud cover for December, January, and February for the years 2006 to 2024 was 65.3%, 61.1% and 50.5% respectively. There are a few factors that contribute to this climate observation.
Wisconsin sits in a latitude band where synoptic scale storm systems often pass nearby. This scale is associated with large weather patterns like mid-latitude cyclones and anticyclones. During the winter, the mid-latitude storm tracks tend to be along the polar front and the upper tropospheric jet stream. These winter storms have large stratiform cloud shields that move across the Midwest, producing more persistent cloudy conditions. Even when storm centers miss the state, these cloud shields can linger for days afterward. Continue reading
Category: Climate, Meteorology, Seasons
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Is global warming happening?
Scientific research has awakened us to the realization that our planet is warming at an unprecedented rate, and human activities are the principal cause. Claims that the observed global warming is not occurring or not related to human activities are false. There is no scientific research that supports that misconception.
Confidence in our answer comes from decades of scientific research — a systematic investigation that acquires new knowledge, validates existing knowledge, or addresses specific questions through rigorous methodologies. Continue reading
Why should we care about NCAR?
News that the Office of Management and Budget in the Trump White House will close the National Center for Atmospheric Research, or NCAR, came earlier this month.
NCAR, established in 1960, has provided a unique public/ private partnership in the intervening several decades that has accelerated research and innovation in the weather and climate sciences. It is no exaggeration to say that without NCAR, weather forecasting — where a seven-day forecast made in 2025 is as accurate as a two-day forecast made in 1985 — would not be nearly as advanced as it is today. Continue reading
Category: Climate, History, Meteorology, Weather Dangers
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Despite record warmth, winter is coming
It is a fair bet that we would get near universal agreement that the weekend of November 15-16 was incredibly nice, even the slightly cooler Sunday that followed a truly remarkable Saturday. Both Milwaukee and Madison set all-time record high temperatures for November 15 at 69 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit, respectively.
Apart from the fact that each city recorded highs that were at least 20 degrees lower the very next day (46 for Milwaukee and 48 for Madison), the weekend was also noteworthy for another meteorological reason: At least for Madison, November 15 is the date on which the probability of precipitation falling as snow first reaches 50%. This means that, from here on out, if precipitation is in the forecast, there is at least an even chance that it will fall as snow. Only 10 days later comes the average date of our first 1-inch snowfall. Continue reading
