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Category Archives: Seasons
How do you measure how hot the summer is?
After experiencing our first 90-degree day of the season on Friday, many people are wondering what we might expect this summer.
It turns out that the number or 90-degree days each summer is extremely variable here in Madison. From 1971 to 2015, the average number of days at or above 90 in Madison was 10.96. This average, however, struggles to convey a sense of the variability. Continue reading
Is our growing season getting longer?
Yes. There are several studies that demonstrate shifts in the timing and length of the growing season.
One way to measure the length of the growing season is to count the number of days between the last frost in spring and the first frost in fall. By this measure, Wisconsin’s growing season lengthened by about 12 days between 1950 and 2006. Continue reading
When can it get really hot in southern Wisconsin?
Our cold early April seems to have finally given way to a surging spring. Now that we have seemingly emerged from winter, with reasonable confidence that we will not go back, it is interesting to consider when truly summerlike weather might first appear in southern Wisconsin.
One measure of summer here is a daytime high temperature at or above 90 degrees. In Madison, there have been only three April days when the high temperature was that warm. Continue reading
Category: Climate, Meteorology, Seasons
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What is the effect of snow cover on weather and climate?
Even as a few flurries filled the sky on Friday, it is clearly almost the end of the snow season for southern Wisconsin.
While few mourn its passing by this time every year, it is interesting to consider the profound effect that snow cover has on the weather and climate of the middle latitudes. Continue reading
Category: Meteorology, Seasons
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Why are there different types of precipitation?
When particles fall from clouds and reach the surface as precipitation, they do so primarily as rain, snow, freezing rain or sleet.
The main difference between these different types of precipitation is the temperature variations between the cloud base and the ground. Last week, Madison experienced all four of these precipitation types. Continue reading
