Category Archives: Severe Weather

Are the number of thunderstorms in Wisconsin decreasing?

Posted on May 29, 2023 by WeatherGuys Editor

This question comes from one of our readers, based on casual observation. It is always good to get data and analyze such a generalization to find the best answer. So, we turned to the Wisconsin State Climatology Office.

The National Weather Service records the number of thunderstorm days at several sites across the U.S. A thunderstorm day is when thunder or lightning is detected at least once during the day. Since the mid-1990s, the nation’s primary surface weather observation network is the Automated Surface Observing Systems, or ASOS program, which has essentially replaced human observers. Continue reading →

Category: Climate, Meteorology, Severe Weather

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How are storm warnings defined?

Posted on March 13, 2023 by WeatherGuys Editor

Weather watches and warnings are issued by the National Weather Service under specific weather conditions. A watch means that you should be aware that a weather hazard may develop in your area. A warning message is when the hazard is … Continue reading →

Category: Severe Weather, Weather Dangers

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Are there rivers in the atmosphere?

Posted on January 9, 2023 by WeatherGuys Editor

The term “atmospheric river” has been in the news recently due to the flooding along the West Coast.

An atmospheric river is a narrow band of concentrated moisture in the atmosphere. It is a narrow moisture plume that is a few thousand miles long and only about 250 to 375 miles wide. The term was coined in the early 1990s. Continue reading →

Category: Meteorology, Phenomena, Severe Weather

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How remarkable was the recent winter storm?

Posted on January 2, 2023 by WeatherGuys Editor

The recent winter storm that affected large portions of the United States just days before the Christmas holiday was remarkable in a number of dimensions.

It was an example of a “bomb cyclone” which simply means that the rate at which its central pressure dropped — about 2.5% in a single day — was extremely unusual. Even though a 2.5% change in central pressure does not sound like very much, it was responsible for revving up the extreme winds that brought wind chills into the minus 30s and ground blizzard conditions to a large portion of the Great Lakes states on Dec. 23. Continue reading →

Category: Meteorology, Phenomena, Seasons, Severe Weather

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What is a mesonet?

Posted on December 26, 2022 by WeatherGuys Editor

In meteorology and climatology, a mesoscale network, or mesonet, is a network of automated environmental monitoring stations designed to observe meteorological phenomena on the mesoscale. In meteorology, “mesoscale” refers to weather events that range in size from about 1 mile to about 150 miles.

Mesoscale events last from several minutes to several hours. Thunderstorms, snow squalls and wind gusts are examples of mesoscale events. Due to the space and time scales associated with mesoscale phenomena, weather stations comprising a mesonet are spaced closer together and report more frequently than the larger synoptic scale observing networks run by the National Weather Service. Continue reading →

Category: Meteorology, Severe Weather

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