Tag Archives: Seasons

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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How did this recent warm March impact maple sap harvesting?

Tapping maple trees usually occurs in late winter and early spring. In Wisconsin, March is a prime month for tapping sugar maple trees and this is when the sap is sweetest. But, only about 2 percent of the sap is sugar, so it has to be boiled down to remove the water and increase the sugar concentration. Continue reading

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How unusual is this current warm spell?

Our high temperature of 78 degrees Farenheit on March 14 set the all-time record for the date and established a new record for the first 78-degree F temperature of the year, breaking the standing record of March 23, 1910 — over a century ago. Continue reading

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Does the warm winter mean a warm spring and summer?

We have continued to enjoy temperatures well above normal through most of February 2012, making this year’s Dec. 1–Feb. 20 the fifth-warmest on record with an average temperature of 28.3F in Madison. Barring an exceptionally warm last week of the month (which does not appear likely), that is where we will end up — the fifth-warmest winter (defined as December, January, February) of all time in Madison. Continue reading

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