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Category Archives: Meteorology
Is it Spring Time?
Spring marks the transition from winter to summer. In astronomical terms, the date that marks the spring in the Northern Hemisphere is the vernal equinox. This year the spring equinox occurred on at 10:33 a.m. Sunday. This is the first … Continue reading
Is mathematical pi used in meteorology?
The ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is a constant value. The size of the circle does not matter; this ratio is always the same value and is called pi.
The existence of this constant was known by the Babylonians and the Egyptians dating back to at least 2000 B.C. The numerical value is represented by the Greek letter for p, or π. Continue reading
Is Wisconsin getting windier?
Before we delve into the question of whether Wisconsin is getting windier, let’s review some basics regarding wind.
Wind is moving air. Weather reports include observations of wind speed and direction measured at the height of approximately 1.5 meters (about 4.9 feet) above the surface. If the wind speed is strong — greater than 17 mph — and highly variable, the weather report will include the wind gust, which is the maximum observed wind speed. Continue reading
How are we doing for snowfall this season?
Despite the persistence of snow and ice on the ground this winter, since our first real covering appeared just after Christmas Day, it has been a remarkably snowless winter thus far.
After Thursday night’s 2.7-inch snowfall, the season total for Madison rose to a paltry 21.4 inches, which places us well behind the average for the season to this point, which is 41.3 inches. Continue reading
When was the National Weather Service created?
While successfully prosecuting the Civil War against the Confederacy, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had learned that weather information — even if not in the form of a forecast — was extremely valuable for operations.
Then, in the years after the war, Dr. Increase Lapham, a Milwaukee scientist, lobbied Milwaukee’s congressman, Gen. Halbert Paine, to push for the establishment of a storm warning service for the Great Lakes. On Feb. 2, 1870, Paine introduced a Joint Congressional Resolution requiring the Secretary of War “to provide for taking meteorological observations at the military stations in the interior of the continent, and at other points in the States and Territories … and for giving notice on the northern lakes and on the seacoast, by magnetic telegraph and marine signals, of the approach and force of storms.” Continue reading
