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Are there ideal conditions for fireworks?

The Fourth of July holiday often is celebrated with community fireworks shows, as well as some backyard fireworks. Fireworks have a broad range of good weather conditions in which to be set off and viewed.

Rain has multiple possible effects on fireworks. Fireworks get very hot. For example, when lit, the tip of a sparkler has a temperature of 1,200 degrees; so once lit, it would take a very heavy rain to extinguish the firework. Damp conditions from rain can hamper the lighting of some fireworks. Continue reading

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What kind of autumn did we have temperature-wise?

The pre-winter months of September-October-November (SON) have recently come to an end with some points of interest to be made about the average temperature both locally and around the entire Northern Hemisphere.

Here in Madison, these three months have been quite distinct from each other with September’s average temperature rising 1.7 degrees above normal and October’s rising to 5.5 degrees above normal. Continue reading

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What holds clouds up, and why are some fluffy on top but flat on the bottom?

One of our readers awoke to some beautiful clouds in the summer sky recently, and those two excellent questions popped into her mind.

Clouds are composed of tiny liquid water droplets (whose diameters are about the width of a human hair) and tiny shards of ice in a variety of shapes. Continue reading

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It’s rained a bit lately. So is the drought over yet in southern Wisconsin?

The accumulated lack of precipitation we experienced the first part of this year has produced severe drought conditions in southern Lafayette, southern Walworth, Racine and Kenosha counties as of the end of last week.

Moderate drought continues across southern Sauk, southern Columbia, Dodge, Washington, Ozaukee, Iowa, Dane, Jefferson, Waukesha, Milwaukee, Green and Rock counties as well.

Since Aug. 1, 2020, Madison has recorded a deficit of 10.34 inches of precipitation. That translates to only 71.6% of the area’s normal amount of precipitation over that interval. Continue reading

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Why is the high temperature forecast sometimes too high?

We are in the midst of another hot spell here in southern Wisconsin.

Last Friday was the first of several days that were forecast to see high temperatures at or above 90 degrees (we’ve had only six through Friday all season!). Continue reading

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