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Category Archives: Meteorology
How do we measure an official snowfall for Madison?
Accurate and precise measurement of snow accumulation is a difficult task.
The measurement tools are simple: a ruler or yardstick that measures in inches and tenths of an inch. Continue reading
What forces a mid-latitude cyclone to develop?
Our storm on Wednesday night and Thursday of last week was the first strong storm of the autumn/winter season. As you found yourself caught in the strong winds, you may well have wondered how do storms like this one come to be.
That has been the central motivating question in meteorological science for most of the past 100 years. Continue reading
Will this mild November weather continue?
Not necessarily. Some warm Novembers had some severe extratropical cyclones, particularly around Veteran’s Day (formally known as Armistice Day).
Tuesday marks the 40th year since a winter storm blew across the Midwest, sending the freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald to the bottom of Lake Superior with all 29 crew members. Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 ballad “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” helped make this incident the most famous disaster in Great Lakes shipping history. Continue reading
Category: Meteorology, Severe Weather, Weather Dangers
Comments Off on Will this mild November weather continue?
Comments Off on Will this mild November weather continue?
Why are cold snaps in autumn so short-lived?
Over the past weekend, southern Wisconsin experienced its first cold snap of the season with widespread morning lows in the upper 20s on Friday and Saturday mornings.
Often, cold snaps in autumn are short-lived, as this recent example was, affecting usually one or two nights at most. Continue reading
What is a 100-year flood?
A flood occurs when water flows into a region faster than it can be stored in a lake or reservoir, absorbed into the soil, or removed by runoff into a drainage basin.
There are several conditions that can result in flooding: a long-lasting rainfall over a watershed, intense thunderstorms, or rainfall that causes rapid snow melt. Continue reading
