Thanks to Larry and Tess Wilke of Durand for sending in these photos of a golden cross in their backyard. As always, you can send in your photos to weather@wrex.com.

Be ready for some patchy frost early Saturday night with likely frost, even in the city Sunday morning! -ES

Posted under weather

I have a math problem for you. What do clear skies, northerly flow, and a cool high of 60 this afternoon equal? Frost!

A Frost Advisory has been issued for Stephenson, JoDaviess, and Carroll counties tonight and early tomorrow morning. Look for temperatures to take a big dive tonight to the middle 30s with a few spots locally reaching 32-34 degrees, plenty cool for frost on grassy surfaces.

Posted under cold blast, weather

Our forecast of 50-60mph wind gusts came to fruition early this evening as a line of weak showers mixed down powerful winds from cloud-level. A measured 68mph wind was reported in Monroe, Wisconsin downing several trees.

During our 5pm newscast, the wind increased to severe limits. What was odd was the fact that instead of a quick burst of wind, it was extremely strong for 2-3 minutes. Numerous small branches were downed here. Shortly thereafter, the Chicago/Rockford Int’l Airport anemometer recorded a 58mph wind from the same line of showers.

The wind will stay strong tonight but will ease just a bit on Friday.

Other high wind remarks include Janesville and Freeport. If you have a photo of storm damage, please send to weather@wrex.com. -ES

Posted under Wind

Thanks to fellow NIU and WREX weather guru Gilbert Sebenste for sending in this photo from the campus of NIU. He reports “I know how bad the winds were today, but be strong, NIU…we WILL rebuild!” Yeah, we weather guys always have a good sense of humor! -ES

(6:18:08 PM) nwsbot: LOT: Rockford [Winnebago Co, IL] broadcast media reports NON-TSTM WND DMG at 05:30 PM CDT — 6 to 8 inch tree snapped at the base near charles and 29th street in rockford. public report relayed via wrex

(6:01:13 PM) nwsbot: MKX: 1 S Monroe [Green Co, WI] trained spotter reports NON-TSTM WND GST of M68 MPH at 04:52 PM CDT — large tree branches down.

(5:25:52 PM) nwsbot: DVN: Freeport [Stephenson Co, IL] public reports NON-TSTM WND DMG at 03:59 PM CDT — 6-7 inch diameter tree branch fell onto power line at intersection on empire and locust street…relayed by media.
(5:28:18 PM) nwsbot: DVN: Freeport Albertus Airpo [Stephenson Co, IL] awos reports NON-TSTM WND GST of M53 MPH at 05:15 PM CDT -

(5:35:36 PM) nwsbot: LOT: Rockford [Winnebago Co, IL] asos reports NON-TSTM WND GST of M58 MPH at 05:31 PM CDT — 58 mph gust measured at the greater rockford airport asos at 531 pm cdt.

(5:32:52 PM) nwsbot: LOT: Pecatonica [Winnebago Co, IL] broadcast media reports NON-TSTM WND GST of E60 MPH at 05:20 PM CDT — lasted 2 to 3 minutes. numerous branches down.

5:30pm – We just experienced an estimated 60mph wind at the WREX studios at about 5:22pm. The wind is being transferred from aloft due to

a line of showers working in from the northwest. Be ready for damaging wind ahead of these showers. Will affect Rockford now, Cherry Valley around 5:40pm, Belvidere at 5:40pm, and Marengo by 5:55pm. -ES

\(5:25:52 PM) nwsbot: DVN: Freeport [Stephenson Co, IL] public reports NON-TSTM WND DMG at 03:59 PM CDT — 6-7 inch diameter tree branch fell onto power line at intersection on empire and locust street…relayed by media.
(5:28:18 PM) nwsbot: DVN: Freeport Albertus Airpo [Stephenson Co, IL] awos reports NON-TSTM WND GST of M53 MPH at 05:15 PM CDT —

(5:02:57 PM) nwsbot: MKX: Monroe Airport [Green Co, WI] awos reports NON-TSTM WND GST of M55 MPH at 04:55 PM CDT — sustained wind 43 mph gusting to 55 mph at keft awos.

(4:46:47 PM) nwsbot: MKX: Monroe Airport [Green Co, WI] awos reports NON-TSTM WND GST of M54.00 MPH at 03:55 PM CDT — measured 54 mph gust at the monroe airport awos.

(4:46:46 PM) nwsbot: MKX: Janesville Airport [Rock Co, WI] awos reports HIGH SUST WINDS of M32.00 MPH at 02:45 PM CDT — measured 32 mph sustained winds at janesville airport awos.

(4:22:31 PM) nwsbot: MKX: Lone Rock Airport [Sauk Co, WI] 911 call center reports NON-TSTM WND GST of M54 MPH at 02:58 PM CDT —

4:08pm – A wind gust of 54 mph was just reported at Monroe, WI.

4:00pm – A 6-7″ diameter tree branch also fell at Empire and Locust in Freeport downing a cable line. Mediacom was working to fix the line at the time of the report. -ES

3:15pm – A High Wind Warning is in effect until 4am for Walworth County for wind gusts that will near 60mph. I do believe there is that potential areawide this evening. Considering Severe Thunderstorm criteria begins at 58mph, this will provide us with the possibility of significant, widespread power outages this evening.

Be sure to secure all outdoor items soon and watch for falling tree limbs and branches. Allow extra time to get to your destination and stay indoors, if possible! -ES

Posted under severe weather, Wind

I got this YouTube link e-mailed to me a few months ago but just heard this song on Q98.5 yesterday. We are officially making this our new theme song.

Posted under news, weather geek

We talk about Doppler radar for detecting precipitation all of the time, but in reality, it has a few other uses. One of the coolest in my opinion allows us to see the wind at different levels of the atmosphere.

What you are looking at to the left is a VAD profile (Velocity Azimuth Display). Each of the wind barbs are placed at 1,000ft increments going upward. The wind blows from the side of the “stick” that has a flag. As for the flags and ticks, they tell us how fast the wind is moving. A short tick mark is 5 kts, long mark is 10, and a triangular flag equals 50kts (roughly 58 mph).

The graph to the left is from Des Moines’ radar. Notice how the strong winds are blowing nearly to the ground as the cold front begins to pass through this area. As a contrast, the right panel shows wind near Chicago’s radar. Notice how speeds are far less, not just up high, but all the way through the atmospheric column as the boundary is still a few hours out.

A Wind Advisory is in effect for all of northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin through early tomorrow. Look for gusts to 45 mph at times.

-Aaron

Posted under science, weather geek, Wind

If you thought the wind was strong on Monday, just wait until Thursday afternoon. A powerful cold front with a close-proximity high to its west will create a strong pressure gradient force over the region. Wind Advisories are up for all of Northern Illinois and the entire state of Wisconsin. Peak wind gusts could approach 55mph. Any thunderstorms could go severe if they form however with such strong wind, most thunderstorms will get blown apart before they mature.

Wind speeds will be above 25mph with gusts higher than that for Thursday night as well. 15-25mph wind is likely for Friday with some higher gusts. Conditions like this will make Friday Night Football interesting to watch! Just get ready for some serious chills as the temperatures drop.

Posted under Wind

A strong cold front will pass through Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin on Thursday.

While widespread thunderstorms are not anticipated, any that do form could produce some wind gusts above severe limits. Our Threatrack model shows the higher probability of this happening east of I-39. Because most of the viewing area will likely not see severe storms, we will keep Threatrack at Level 1 right now. Meteorologist Aaron Brackett will have another run of Threatrack in the morning on 13News Today. -ES

Posted under Threatrack

Many of us dealt with patchy fog this morning and some had it really bad. A Dense Fog Advisory was issued to the west in Jo Daviess, Carroll, and Whiteside counties very early this morning.  This happened thanks to the perfect combination of a few patches of clear skies, light winds and our recent rainfall.  The conditions got worse as you headed west into Eastern Iowa.  The graphic is a snapshot of the conditions around 8:00 a.m. this morning.  The good thing is since we will have a few breaks in our cloud cover, it will help burn off the fog by later this morning.

Posted under fog, weather

Let’s officially name our never-moving low-pressure system Jack, because now we can sing, “Hit the road Jack and don’t ya come back!”  The jet stream that is in charge of moving our weather systems around has been on vacation in Canada for too long and will finally come back to the States starting Thursday.  As our next cold front moves in, it will push our existing low east.  This will allow Canadian high-pressure to slide in by Friday, which will bring us more sunshine.  However, with two low-pressure systems along the East Coast, we’ll experience gusty winds on Friday as a traffic jam of weather systems occurs.  Once the jam is cleared, we’ll have loads of sunshine and as the high-pressure slides to our east, we will then get to enjoy south winds, which will really boost our temperatures by the beginning of next week.

Posted under weather