Category Archives: Seasons

Just how snowy has it been these past six weeks?

It sure has been a snowy last few weeks. As of Jan. 1, 2013, Madison had officially received only 32.4 inches of snow — nearly half of which (15.2 inches) was delivered in our Dec. 19-20 snowstorm. However, since Feb. 1 we have accumulated 30.8 additional inches of snow (as of March 14). Continue reading

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Why has it snowed nearly every day recently?

Lately our fair city has been the recipient of continuous dustings of light snow evoking images of a Brueghel painting. In fact, Thursday was the ninth consecutive day with measurable snow, tying a record set only one other time (Feb. 23-March 3, 2007) in Madison’s history. Continue reading

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How did you like that winter storm?

We loved it!

It’s not often that all-time records for high temperature and 24 hour snowfall are set in the same winter month but we made a run at it this past week. Madison’s all-time record for greatest 24 hour snowfall was on Dec. 2-3, 1990, when 17.3 inches of snow fell. The official amount of snowfall on Thursday was 15.2 inches of snow, although weather enthusiasts in the area measured more than a foot and a half of snowfall. Continue reading

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Are there fall weather changes beyond turning leaves and falling temperatures?

As we head into the second half of August a subtle transition in our weather begins to occur — a transition that is probably hard to detect at first but that eventually becomes very obvious and then lasts for approximately eight months.

We are not talking about the gradual reduction in daytime high temperatures or the increasingly cooler to cold nights, though these are also beginning to invade. Instead, we are talking about the nature of the storms that deliver our precipitation. Continue reading

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What is the summer solstice?

The summer solstice (in Latin, sol, “sun,” and stice, “come to a stop”) is the day of the year with the most daylight. The first day of the astronomical Northern Hemisphere summer is the day of the year when the sun is farthest north (on June 20 or 21). In 2012, this occurs on June 20 at 6:09 pm CDT. Continue reading

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