Friday, April 25, 2014

Current Conditions:
Temperature: 54°F
Feels Like: 49°F
Wind: West @ 18 mph, Gusts @ 25 mph
Humidity: 59%
Pressure: 1008.3 mb é

Today is a nice, mild, spring day in the Chippewa Valley. With light winds out of the west and partly cloudy skies filled with cumulus humilis clouds, it is turning out to be a nice day, with expected temperatures to hover in the upper 50's. Looking outside it does seem like there are some clouds with vertical growth, but they are south of Eau Claire, moving east. The extended forecast has a lot of rain in the future. The trough that had developed in the jet stream is now located off to the east, so we are currently in an area of low pressure, which could potentially be the cause of the incoming precipitation. In other parts of the country, severe storms are expected to sweep through Texas and surrounding areas on Saturday.

This map shows the current pressure and frontal systems over the country currently. The string of storms over the Ohio, Pennsylvania area will most likely be dying out soon, as the front that those storms were riding along has become occluded and the moisture supply has been mostly cut off. We are currently being affected by an upper air low pressure trough in our area.

This Accuweather map shows the storms that have the potential to sweep across Texas up to the southwestern tip of Iowa, this Saturday. The storm has the potential to produce hail, tornadoes, and damaging winds.

This map shows the current track of the jet stream over the country. The there is a slight dip in the jet from Wisconsin down towards Florida. As this moves eastward it is likely we will see the development of some precipitation in our area.

This map shows the current surface conditions for the region of the Midwest. A low pressure system seems to be centered above the Upper Peninsula of Michigan currently, which is leading to some cloudy skies in the surrounding areas. Rain is being reported, along with haze, in much of the area to the easternmost side of the viewing area.

This sounding from Minneapolis, Minnesota shows the current atmospheric conditions for the area. LI and KI values show that conditions are relatively stable. The LCL values shows that the cloud deck is relatively low.