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Category Archives: Seasons
How unusual was the past weekend’s fantastic weather?
It is a fair bet that we would get near universal agreement that this October has been pretty spectacular here in southern Wisconsin. Through the 29th, the average temperature has been exactly normal, and we have had only 11 days … Continue reading
What is graupel?
Graupel is a type of frozen precipitation. Southern Wisconsin experienced this on Thursday afternoon.
Most clouds outside the tropical regions have temperatures that are below freezing somewhere in the cloud. These cold clouds are likely to have frozen cloud particles. They are also likely to include supercooled water drops, drops made of water that are below the freezing point. Continue reading
Will we hit 80 degrees again this year?
We will not see 80 degrees again this year.
The last time Madison was officially 80 degrees or warmer was Sept. 21, the last official day of summer. In fact, 13 of the first 21 days of last month we were at least that warm — fairly remarkable. Continue reading
How is this year’s Atlantic hurricane season measuring up?
The Atlantic hurricane season is now more than two months old and has so far been fairly quiet with only three storms — all of them in the weakest category of tropical depression. This may well have been the case in the summer and fall of 1492 as well.
It is interesting to note that among the seemingly endless list of superstitions and fantastical falsehoods that surrounded voyages of exploration in the age of discovery — ranging from sea serpents of all kinds to boiling waters near the equator — there was no mention of hurricanes. This is obviously because no European had yet witnessed (and could not imagine) the frothing seas, with towering 100 foot waves, that these ferocious storms can create. Continue reading
Can dust from Africa reach the United States?
Yes. Soil-derived aerosols, or dust, are abundant in our atmosphere. One source of dust is sandstorms over the Sahara. These storms whip small pieces of mineral dust from the desert into the atmosphere. Easterly winds then carry large plumes of Saharan dust away from the desert and over the Atlantic Ocean.
This weather system is referred to as a Saharan air layer, or SAL, and at times dust in the SAL has traveled to the Caribbean, Texas and Florida. Desert dust from the Sahara and Gobi deserts has been observed on the ice sheet of Greenland. Ice cores in Greenland provide a history of the dust deposition as it appears as layers in the ice. Continue reading
Category: Climate, Meteorology, Seasons
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