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2016 Spring/Summer Banter, Complaint, Whining Thread


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Bo and I chatted about this a few months ago...but for any others who are interested, I put together a climo summary of Minocqua, WI.  It's in the north woods of WI, and I hope to retire there someday.  A beautiful area with lakes, black spruce trees, log cabins, snowmobiles, ice fishing, and many other winter activities.  I visited there several times in the summers and winters during the 1990s and 2000s, and fell in love with the town and the people.

 

Minocqua is right on the edge of the Lake Superior lake effect belt.  Some years see significant lake-effect snow, and other years see relatively little.  Snowfall increases dramatically to the NW of Minocqua, and decreases dramatically to the SE.

 

Records go back to 1904, although there is some missing data.  Snowfall data is only analyzed since 1950, as the pre-1950 data is poor quality.

 

Before looking through the data, I knew that Minocqua had significantly colder and snowier winters than Chicago…but the difference is even more impressive than I thought.  And, even the summers in Minocqua are quite a bit cooler than Chicago…especially the nighttime lows.  I didn’t think the summertime temperature difference would be as drastic. 

 

I’ll try to summarize some monthly numbers in a later post, along with other anomalous/anecdotal info.  One quick note - their warmest January on record (22.5 degrees in 2006) is roughly a "normal" January in Chicago.  This is one example that shows how different the climate is between N WI and N IL.  It really is amazing.

 

Station info

Station Network:                  GHCN:COOP

Station ID:                              USC00475516

Station Name:                       MINOCQUA

Latitude:                                45.8864

Longitude:                             -89.7322

Elevation:                              1601.1 ft

State:                                      WI

Country:                                US

 

Sunrise/sunset

June 21 sunrise:   5:11 AM

June 21 sunset:    8:55 PM

Day length:          15 hours, 44 min

 

 

Dec. 21 sunrise:   7:31 AM

Dec. 21 sunset:    4:10 PM

Day length:           8 hours, 39 min

 

All-time temp records

Max temp:                                    106 on 7/13/1936

Min temp:                                     -48 on 1/28/1915, 2/3/1996

 

Snow depth

Max snow depth:                           46” on 2/6/1971

Avg. peak annual snow depth:         23.0”

Lowest peak annual snow depth:     12” in 1958

 

Early/Late snowfall extremes

Earliest T of snow:                T on 9/18/1991

Earliest 1” of snow:              1.0” on 10/1/2003

Latest 1” of snow:                2.5” on 5/17/1997

Latest T of snow:                  T on 5/30/1947

 

Annual snowfall averages and extremes

Avg. annual snow:                96.2”

Max. annual snow:               168.9” in 1996

Min. annual snow:               38.9” in 2010

 

Snow Depth Days and snow cover

Avg. annual SDDs:                        1,593

Max annual SDDs:                        3,330 in 1971

Min annual SDDs:                         646 in 2011

Longest consecutive snow cover:    175 days (11/10/1995 to 5/2/1996)

 

Extreme cold

17 days with a low temp of -40 or colder (on average, 1 day every 6 years)

201 days with a low temp of -30 or colder (on average, 2 days per year)

A typical winter sees a coldest temp of -31.  Only one year failed to hit -20 (-18 in 2010).

 

Annual temperature normal and extremes

Largest temp variation in a calendar year:      146 degrees (-40 to 106 in 1936)

Avg. Max temp:                    51.3

Avg. Min temp:                     28.5

Avg. Mean temp:                 39.9

Warmest year:                     44.2 in 1998

Coldest year:                        35.7 in 2014

Sub-32 degree highs:          Avg. = 86

                                         Most = 116 in 2014

                                         Fewest = 54 in 1931

Sub-zero lows:                    Avg. = 44

                                          Most = 74 in 1943

                  Fewest = 17 in 2006

90-degree days:                   Avg. = 3.7

                                           Most = 16 in 1988

                                          Fewest = 0 in several years

                                          

 

That's a gorgeous area. Been there many times.

Manitowish Waters is where the good LES amounts start piling up.

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One 60° sunny day, followed by three 40° wind-driven rainy days. Wash, rinse and repeat. Warm air keeps getting pushed too.

 

..tell me about it!!!  My girl plays tennis for Marshall and is a senior. Believe it or not, 2016 is the BEST spring she's had for tennis season her entire high school experience. At least we don't have massive snow pile remnants staring us in the face like 2 yrs ago :axe:

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Been seeing some hype/chatter on Twitter about a possible pattern change coming at the middle-end of May? GFS and ensembles have been showing a warmer pattern evolving. Thoughts? Kinda want to get rid of this winter talk..

That pattern change has been in the long term since the middle of February lol. Just keeps getting pushed further and further. Keep on eye on your forecast highs. Day 5-7 will be deep into the 70s, and as the days progress, they drop until it's tomorrow and it's 60°.

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Not sure where to put this, but incredible close up video of the April 9th, 2015 Fairdale Tornado. Unfortunately with a very sad ending as well.

 

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20160403/news/160409707/

 

Longer version of that here.  

 

This ranks right up there with that Washington IL video in the top 1 and 2 for me.  Just incredible.

 

How did one of the best tornado videos just pop out of nowhere like this? It had the full package right there. I have watched tons of tornado videos and a bunch in March and April (included one's I've seen many times such as the Fritch, TX June 26, 1992 one where the guy films a giant cone after being struck by lightning). Here I was thinking he was the only one with enough bravery to do that in his circumstance and turns out the "modern" version comes up.

I'll be watching this one 200 times (I've watched the 20 seconds of peak winds to black 150 times already). One of the most shocking and mind blowing tornado videos and quite frankly there are too many to rank. As far as the audio, that is the sound

of a snuff-out. I heard the Alto IN Church audio from 1965 Palm Sunday for the first time a week before I saw this, now there are 3/4 contenders for best tornado audio recordings. This is an exaggeration, but this video coming out a year later is like a picture of the Tri-State tornado surfacing after 90 something years. Floored.

 

More of my thoughts about the audio, it maxes out the noise that can come from your headphones/speakers at whatever level you currently have it. When the tornado hits his house, the loudness is so incomprehensible that the audio crackles and becomes high pitched. I also noticed this in the only violent tornado intercept where someone filmed going through one in open field space with the TIV2 (May 27, 2013).

 

Someone should do photogrammetry on this to determine what the wind speeds were on his street during the approach and final frames before blackout. The video was studied and unveiled according to that article so it may have been done. The two main questions I had were not answered in that Herald piece: Why Clem didn't take cover (given reason didn't make sense, could have taken shelter in an interior room) and why the video took a year to come out.

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That pattern change has been in the long term since the middle of February lol. Just keeps getting pushed further and further. Keep on eye on your forecast highs. Day 5-7 will be deep into the 70s, and as the days progress, they drop until it's tomorrow and it's 60°.

 

Yep.

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Absolutely ecstatic for our sub 50° high next Saturday... When will it end?

Also, that video of the Washington, Illinois Tornado is absolutely stunning. I've watched the same scene about 50 times. I actually just looked up the extended video of the Fritch tornado... Surreal to see children on bikes playing one minute and less than 5 minutes later lightning striking so close it's distorting the video - at one point I swear you can hear the static charge building in the video before the strike, all the while a skinny rope in the background.

Very intense videos for sure.

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Absolutely ecstatic for our sub 50° high next Saturday... When will it end?

 

You wouldn't believe my face when I saw my local forecast for this weekend, smiling ear to ear and ready to do some cartwheels. I'm high on happiness as highs are going to be that of a mid-November day with lows near freezing...that means more heavy blankets and the heat being on in the middle of May! :D The cherry on top is its going to be an even worse weekend than the one we just finished (plus almost every weekend except one in April being a drag)  B) . After being told of a very warm Spring and looking forward to a scorching May, this pinch to wake me up from this desire can wait - we're all spoiled.

 

 

Also, that video of the Washington, Illinois Tornado is absolutely stunning. I've watched the same scene about 50 times. I actually just looked up the extended video of the Fritch tornado... Surreal to see children on bikes playing one minute and less than 5 minutes later lightning striking so close it's distorting the video - at one point I swear you can hear the static charge building in the video before the strike, all the while a skinny rope in the background.

Very intense videos for sure.

 

The bike thing was a nice touch, I guess you could hear something building up but I never noticed it. I wish the camera was focused on the first tornado.

 

I have the full HD clip of the Washington, Illinois tornado video mentioned so I can re-watch that and its substantially better than the shorter SD version that came out in Nov 2013. I regard it much higher now and if anyone has any doubts, check it out again on YT because the news reel version doesn't cut it.

 

Ugh... models are actually below 0°C by 18z Saturday

 

:facepalm:

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More info on the climate of Minocqua, WI – adding on to Post #185 earlier in the thread.

 

Monthly normals & records

Jan normal high/low:  20/-2…record high 56 (1/24/1944)…record low -48 (1/28/1915)

Feb normal high/low:  27/2…record high 60 (2/19/1930)…record low -48 (2/3/1996)

Mar normal high/low:  37/13…record high 78 (3/29/1910)…record low -36 (3/1/1962)

Apr normal high/low:  51/27…record high 90 (4/28/1952)…record low -18 (4/1/1924)

May normal high/low:  66/40…record high 99 (5/31/1934)…record low 15 (5/10/1966)

Jun normal high/low:  73/50…record high 99 (6/29/1910)…record low 25 (6/3/1929)

Jul normal high/low:  77/54…record high 106 (7/13/1936)…record low 30 (7/1/1945)

Aug normal high/low:  75/52…record high 99 (8/5/1947)…record low 30 (8/28/1934)

Sep normal high/low:  66/44…record high 95 (9/8/1976)…record low 19 (9/29/1945)

Oct normal high/low:  53/33…record high 86 (10/2/1976)…record low 3 (10/30/1925)

Nov normal high/low:  37/20…record high 75 (11/1/1944)…record low -18 (11/28/1976)

Dec normal high/low:  24/5…record high 57 (12/3/1982)…record low -36 (12/19/1983)

 

Cold periods

From 1/1/1912 – 1/16/1912, the average high/low was -5/-26…including -14/-41 on January 6.

 

From 1/16/1936 – 2/22/1936, every day had a sub-zero low.  This streak (38 days) is the longest

on record.  During this period, the average high/low was 6/-19.  The coldest day during this

period was -10/-40 on February 16.

 

From 1/6/1982 – 2/13/1982, the average high/low was 11/-15…including the following temps from

January 16-18:  8/-28, -26/-38, -11/-35.  The high temp of -26 on January 17 is the coldest high temp

on record, and is 46 degrees below the normal high of 20 for the date.

 

From 12/18/1983 – 12/26/1983, the average high/low was 1/-29…including a low temp of -36 on

December 19 & 20.

 

From 1/25/1996 – 2/5/1996, the average high/low was 5/-30…including low temps of -34, -37, -44,

-48, -44, -34 on January 31 – February 5 (-48 on February 3 is the all-time record low).

 

From 1/14/2009 – 1/17/2009, the low temps were -22, -24, -24, -29.

 

 

Abnormal/noteworthy snowfall

5.0” of snow on 5/10/1990 is the heaviest snowfall so late in the season, by far

 

7.0” of snow on 10/7/2000 is the heaviest snowfall so early in the season, by far

 

Abnormal/noteworthy temperatures

Low temp of -43 on 2/25/1938 is 48 degrees colder than the daily normal low of 5.  This appears to be the

largest negative departure from normal on record, for both low and high temps.

 

Low temp of -30 on 3/18/1939, just a few days before the beginning of astronomical Spring.

 

Low temp of -21 on 3/31/1923…a pre-April Fools Day joke.

 

Low temp of -11 on 4/15/1928, with 6” of snow on the ground.  Amazingly wintry for mid-April.

It did warm up to 37 later that day, though.

 

Low temp of -5 on 4/20/1928.  No other day even comes close with respect to late-season cold.

 

Low temp of 15 on 5/10/1966 (all-time May low temp occurred on the 10th day of the month).

 

Low temp of 30 on 7/1/1945 (below freezing during the peak of summer).

 

High temp of 99 on 5/31/1934 (it hasn’t been hotter in June, much less May…and no other day in

May has been warmer than 92).

 

High temp of 72 on 3/8/2000 (by far the warmest on record so early in the season;

Next earliest 72+ temp is 73 on 3/27/1910).

 

1976 had a very up-and-down Fall.  Monthly record highs were set on Sep 8 (95) and Oct 2 (86)…

followed by a monthly record low on Nov 28 (-18).

 

For all 31 days in January, the record low temp is -30 or colder

 

Jan 1 and Jan 30 are the only two dates on which a temp of 40 or higher has never been recorded.

Daily record highs are 37 and 39 respectively.

 

First temp of X or higher so early in the season

95:  5/31/1934 (99)

90:  4/28/1952 (90)

85:  4/23/1980 (89)

80:  4/17/2001 (81)

75:  3/29/1910 (78)

70:  3/8/2000 (72)

65:  3/8/2000 )72)

60:  2/19/1930 (60)

 

Last temp of X or lower so late in the season

-40:  2/25/1928 (-43)

-35:  3/1/1962 (-36)

-30:  3/18/1939 (-30)

-25:  3/23/1906 (-26)

-20:  3/31/1923 (-21)

-15:  4/1/1924 (-18)

-10:  4/15/1928 (-11)

-5:  4/20/1928 (-5)

0:  4/20/1928 (-5)

5:  4/20/1928 (-5)

10:  4/30/1945 (10)

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Someone please tell me we're eventually going to get out of this funk.  One nice day every 10 days?  If it's cloudy anymore I'm going to cry...

 

I know this is really dragging on this weather. Wish it could be cloudy and mild at least. 60s for your area on Wed and Thurs it looks like. So a little better before the big trough.

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