Updraft®

In the past couple of days NOAA websites have proudly posted the news of the next frontier for environmental study. Space Weather, according to NOAA, has now become part of our concern for economic and homeland security. Their press release raises the awareness of communication calamities that can result from solar activity. Read it for…

The aurora has been active every night this year in the northern latitudes. Though sunspot activity is minimal now, it may be worth watching for the Northern Lights in the coming weeks. Follow the action at spaceweather.com PH

My wife took me to the movie theater yesterday afternoon and we sat through about a half dozen previews before the feature film. It reminded me of the winter of 2007/2008, where we have had sneak previews of arctic air since the first of December. Well, it appears that the featured insurgence of arctic air…

Dave Moore, legendary WCCO anchor, used to say, “Make no big life decisions in Minnesota in March.” His wisdom is evident, and could also be applied to the last two weeks of January. Welcome to the coldest week of the year on average in Minnesota. In the metro, our average high this week is 21…

Looks like an invasion of arctic air is in the cards for later next week. Outbreaks of polar air from the higher latitudes are a signature pattern of La Nina, and the current episode (moderate in strength) is expected to last until the April to June period, at least according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.…

Check out these amazing photos of damage from the rare January tornadoes in southeast Wisconsin and nortern Illinois Monday. The damage surveys are included, along with doppler images of the event. Milwaukee NWS event report Chicago NWS event report PH

A fading weather system sent a few flurries flying in the metro today, but that’s about it. We got skunked here as the models (and the meteorologists) overestimated the intensity and organization of the storm passing to our south. West of the metro, they got snow. Here is a look at snow amounts for areas…

Winter weather systems are like snowflakes. No two are alike. Yes there are Panhandle Hookers, Gulf Storms, and Alberta Clippers, but like people each one is different. Then there are the systems like today. They’re not strong enough to have names. These non-descript “open wave” systems slide through with barely enough to shovel away from…

After examining the imagery from the Doppler radar archive posted on the Milwaukee Weather Service website it is clear that this was a disaster that could have been much worse on Monday afternoon. The talk amongst meteorologists and climatologists is the rarity of this very destructive family of tornadoes in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin…

Twenty-four hours ago I was writing about the unusual severe weather that was occurring in central Wisconsin in the heart of winter. In the weather forecasting and warning business you learn to take advantage of clues that Mother Nature presents about the short term potential for disaster. While listening to Paul Huttner doing his 345PM…