Water Logged

OSNW3 received quite a bit of rain lately. Enough to surpass the monthly average in seven days (Apr 7-13). April 2008 is blowing April 2007 "out of the water" so to speak. Total precipitation this month to date is 4.02" compared to 2.49" for the entire month in 2007.

(OSNW3 Observations | Apr 7-13, 2008)


The standing water is receding slowly as dryer conditions move in. The photo below is, what I will call, the height of the deluge. Yesterday it was quite breezy and the video below represents that fairly well. The video takes place at the shore of Lake Winnebago on the property of, our pals, Jason and Courtney.

(OSNW3 - Apr 11, 2008)


(Lake Winnebago - Apr 12, 2008)


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Northern MN & WI Snow
The two snowstorms to our north this past week disrupted the lives of many folks in Minnesota and Wisconsin including, our pals, Eric and Annette who live in Grand Rapids, MN. Eric described huge snowflakes falling sideways and blizzard conditions. Shortly after the time of the photos below, he reported 8" of new snow had fallen on top of the previous 23" they received a few days prior. Check out the Northern Wisconsin Weather blog for more in depth details on the storms. (us radar - storm 1 | us radar - storm 2)

(Grand Rapids, MN - Apr 11, 2008)


(Grand Rapids, MN - Apr 11, 2008)


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PCAMS Meeting
The latest meeting of the American Meteorology Society Packerland Chapter had us taking a tour of the WFRV-TV studio. We were a live studio audience of the six o'clock newscast and learned what it takes to produce the weather segment. Tom Mahoney and Dave Miller did much of the explaining during the broadcast and then Rebecca Schuld took over and gave us an in depth hands on look at what takes place behind the scenes. The TrueView radar (I have no idea if the link is the actual technology) was extremely entertaining to drive! A big thanks goes out the PCAMS and WFRV-TV. That was fun.

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COOP Observer "quality control"
Step one, perhaps?! Who's reporting?!

Winnebago County has 6 CoCoRaHS observers with 2 or 3 observing daily which are listed below.

(4/1/2007 through 4/13/2008)
WI-WN-1 : last report 01/15/2008
WI-WN-2 : last report 04/12/2008
WI-WN-3 : last report NEVER
WI-WN-4 : last report TODAY
WI-WN-5 : last report TODAY
WI-WN-6 : last report 11/07/2007

Winnebago County has 6 NWS observers, along with 6 automated rain gauges... that only work during the warm months and are only partially quality controlled. The NWS official data provider for Oshkosh is the WWTP. Stations are listed below.

MNSW3 : MENASHA-JEFFERSON PK*
OSKW3 : MENASHA-1W-FRITSE PK*
INCW3 : WINCHESTER-2 SW
EENW3 : NEENAH-5 NW-CLAYTON
NAHW3 : WNEENAH-EAST
WNCW3 : WINNECONNE-5NW-LK POY*
OMOW3 : OMRO-2 SW-WAUKAU-USGS*
OSNW3 : OSHKOSH-NORTH
OSH : OSHKOSH-AIRPORT
OKHW3 : OSHKOSH-WWTP
OSSW3 : OSHKOSH-FOX RIV.*
OSHW3 : OSHKOSH-LAKE WINN.*
*Automated rain gauge

That's a total of 17 observing stations with 5 to 8 active daily observations. Less then 50%. (OSNW3 data is reported to the NWS and CoCoRaHS so it was not counted twice as an active observer). Some is better then none!

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Another WI CoCoRaHS Observer
Weather Scout is now a member of CoCoRaHS down in Waukesha County! Welcome to the network WI-WK-15!

Comments

  1. Sweet Video on Lake Winnebago!

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  2. I second Scout's comment, nice footage!

    Looking at your monthly precipitation numbers, except for a drier March, you seem to be experiencing an above average year so far. Think it's going to continue?

    Near 70 by Wednesday with some thunder chances... lucky you! Enjoy the sun!!

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  3. I try my best to capture the weather moment, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

    I am not much of a forecaster, but if I could lick my thumb and feel the wind to receive a premonition, I'd say... NO. It's not going to continue like last week for the rest of the month. The precipitation spikes will flatten out. But what the hell do I know!

    70F is going to feel like heaven. :)

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  4. Wow, that is a cool video of the lake! i never seen Lake Winnebago, it sure looks pretty!

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  5. The lake shore isn't so pretty when the swarms of lake flies intrude in on everything living thing. I live far enough away from the lake that they do not bother us in our backyard, but where the video was taken... some years they need to shovel the dead ones like snow.

    cmlnmbs, seems like the models are projecting another system similar to others the past few months... perhaps this pattern hasn't stopped. I should recalibrate my licking of the thumb to the wind forecasting.

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  6. I'm not sure I'd put much faith in the models right now, with so many things in flux, they might be missing a lot the details. But I see the GFS showing a system to our south throwing some QPF over your part of the state. I wouldn't be surprised if the overall pattern hasn't changed and will be nudging northwards as we progress through spring. Of course, we'll just have to sit back and watch, but I think there's a gremlin in the system and it will continue to hang around for a while yet.

    And now Derek has alerted me to MPX's wording of a possible deep system the beginning of next week. I see it in the models, but I'll remain skeptical until there is continuity and proof the models have a good grasp.

    Lick your digits if you think it'll help! :)

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