Data Analysis


Wind: 

As usual during the winter months Westerly winds dominated, however during March and April you can see there is a lot more variability and the dominate wind direction was East.  This is likely due to the unusual weather patterns we experienced this year and the high frequency of warm weather that was coming out of the Gulf to the South East.



Figure 1 Eau Claire dominate wind direction data from UWEC rooftop station

 

 

Figure 2 Eau Claire dominate wind direction data from UWEC rooftop station







 

Figure 3 Eau Claire dominate wind direction data from UWEC rooftop station

 

Figure 4 Eau Claire dominate wind direction data from UWEC rooftop station

 Tempertures:


The daily temperature graphs for Eau Claire show January was fairly cold, we had one pretty good cold snap but thats about it. Febuary was consistantly warm, and March was just insance.  We had several days wer the temps were in the 70's, thats just unheard of weather for March.

 



Figure 5 Eau Claire Daily Temp data from UWEC rooftop station

 


Figure 6 Eau Claire Daily Temp data from UWEC rooftop station




Figure 7 Eau Claire Daily Temp data from UWEC rooftop station



Figure  8 Eau Claire Daily Temp data from UWEC rooftop station

 

Climographs

 The climographs from around the region help to illustrate the climate variation in the area.  You can see how Superior and Milwaukee are unique due to thier proximity to the Great Lakes. while madison is a little warmer than Eau Claire, Minneapolis, and Wausau since it to the south. 



Figure 9 Data from worldclimate.com 1961 to 1990




Figure 10 Data from worldclimate.com 1961 to 1990




Figure 11 Data from worldclimate.com 1961 to 1990




Figure 12 Data from worldclimate.com 1961 to 1990




Figure 13 Data from worldclimate.com 1961 to 1990




Figure 14 Data from worldclimate.com 1961 to 1990

  

Percipitation:
When Compared to the Eau Claire climograph this years percipitation seem to be about average January and Febuary were dry like usual.  As we got into March and April percipitation picked up quite a bit like normal.  During the second half of March when it was increadibly warm you can see it also rained almost every day.  That was due to the moist south winds and the omega high we were experiancing. 

Figure 15 Data from UWEC Rooftop station



Figure 16 Data from UWEC Rooftop station



Figure 17 Data from UWEC Rooftop station




Figure 18 Data from UWEC Rooftop station

NOAA yearly Temperature History for the Northeast

This chart showes the average yearly temperatures for the Northeast United States from 1895-2012.  The trend line shows the average temperature has been rising since records began.  This is an indication of a long term warming trend, and could be used to support global warming. 

 Conclusion

winter

This winter was unseasonably warm and dry.  When comparing this year’s temperature to the average of the climograph you can see January and February were much warmer that usual. The mean temperature for January is usually just above 10 degrees, but this year there were only a few days were the low even reached that.  We had far more days in the 30’s that the single digest, a very strange occurrence for January.  February was also a warm month the climogrpahy average shows it’s usually about 23, but this year the average was probably closer to 30. As far as precipitation we had a dry winter, and lacked snow cover for the majority of January and February.  We got very little snow fall and any we did get melted pretty quickly due to the warm weather.  We got several rain events through this winter that helped make up for the strange lack of snow a little bit.  It appears this winter was only slightly below normal for precipitation. However the lack of snow made for very light spring runoff that threw the natural cycles off a bit lakes and streams were unusually clear this spring from lack of runoff which will probably mean slow fishing this summer since excessive weed growth is already taking place.

Spring

The months of March and April were also much warmer than the average especially when compared to the Eau Claire climograph.  We experienced a week of weather in the high 70’s that’s shattered several records.  This march ended up being the warmest on record and caused a very early spring bloom.  Plants were blossoming two to three weeks early, again throwing off the natural cycle of the season. The early bloom endangered some agricultural crops and left some insects vulnerable to spring frost.  Even though is was warm we did get a healthy amount of rain.  Precipitation has been around normal, thanks to the moist southern air that supplied us with plenty of warm and rainy days this spring. 

Overall

The last few months have been exceptionally warm and unusual.  So far this year is the warmest on record and March shattered thousands of records across the county.  A Spring break in March were it’s in the 70’s and 80’s the whole time is unheard of.  Although it’s tempting to attribute the warm weather to global warming it was caused by unusual jet stream patters that restricted the southern movement of artic air.  Instead of the usual artic blasts we frequently get in the winter and early spring the strange jet stream patterns brought us really warm air out of the south.  However the southern air also brought rain which kept precipitation levels around normal.  There is defiantly a correlation between southerly winds precipitation events.