Posted on 12/09/2009 9:20:26 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
MADISON, WI - A combination of heavy snow, strong wind and freezing rain continued to pound Wisconsin early Wednesday as many residents attempt to dig out.
Heavy snow and strong winds pummeled Wisconsin overnight as a major snowstorm crept across southern Wisconsin on Tuesday night. The storm has caused widespread power outages, hundreds of school closings and treacherous travel for those braving the roadways. State offices and the University of Wisconsin campuses are closed as well.
The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the southwest corner of the state through Wednesday evening.
The Wisconsin State Patrol said as many as a dozen tractor-trailer trucks became stuck on interstate ramps where Interstate 39, I-90 and I-94 intersect near Madison. Patrol communications operator Lance Thomas said the heavy snow made the ramps impassible.
All Madison Mero Bus services are canceled for Wednesday.
We Energies worked Wednesday to restore power to 26,000 customers around southeastern Wisconsin. Utility spokesman Barry McNulty said the snow and high wind knocked down power lines and tree limbs. McNulty says hundreds of crew members were out in the storm working to restore service.
Forecasters expected 9 to 16 inches of snow to fall in parts of Wisconsin. The National Weather Service said some parts of the state are expected to get 15 inches of snow, with most likely to fall Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning. The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for the southwest corner of the state through Wednesday evening.
On Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Jim Doyle declared a pre-emptive state of emergency across Wisconsin. The governor said the declaration was a precaution. The declaration means in part that certain members of the Wisconsin National Guard could be activated if necessary. Doyle's declaration comes in the wake of a major 2008 storm that left thousands of motorists stranded between Madison and Janesville, some for 12 hours.
Doyle ordered state government offices and all University of Wisconsin campuses closed on Wednesday morning, except for those workers whose job duties are in the emergency response, public health or public safety arena.
The Madison Metropolitan School District, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Madison Area Technical College have all canceled classes for Wednesday due to the winter storm.
The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning until midnight on Wednesday for extreme eastern Iowa and all of southern Wisconsin. In Iowa, this includes the counties of Clayton and Allamakee. In Wisconsin, this includes the counties of Monroe, Juneau, Adams, Marquette, Green Lake, Vernon, Richland, Sauk, Columbia, Dodge, Crawford, Iowa, Dane, Jefferson, Grant, Lafayette, Green, Rock and Walworth.
A blizzard warning means severe winter weather conditions are expected or occurring. Falling and blowing snow with strong winds and poor visibilities are likely. This will lead to whiteout conditions, making travel extremely dangerous. People are advised not to travel. Those who must travel should bring a winter survival kit with them. Authorities said that if travelers become stranded, they should stay with their vehicle.
WISC-TV meteorologist Gary Cannalte said snow accumulation of 6 to 12 inches is possible by Wednesday morning. He said blowing and drifting snow will develop, especially toward Wednesday morning.
By Wednesday, total storm accumulations by midnight of 10 to 16-plus inches are possible, with the heaviest amounts near Dubuque, Iowa, to Madison to Fond du Lac line, according to Cannalte.
Blowing and drifting snow could create blizzard-like and whiteout conditions, especially in rural areas, making travel extremely dangerous and nearly impossible.
Cannalte said the high temperature Wednesday will be 28, with temperatures falling to around 20 by late afternoon. Winds on Wednesday will be north/northwest 20-35 mph with gusts to 45 mph diminishing in the afternoon.
State emergency officials said that they want people to stay home. People who must travel should prepare an emergency supply kit for their vehicles and monitor their local media for storm updates.
Just across the border south of you - same here! Must have a foot on the ground, now the wind is supposed to kick in.
But hey, this is what we practice for all year long. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger ;-) And it’s fun to ski on.
Do you have any idea how sunspots were observed “back then”?
Watched through early-morning mists? Some sort of pinhole-camera arrangement? Something else? No idea?
I don't like it, but if it keeps Al Gore away...
Mr. niteowl77
working from home. My unit is the group that gets called when others are calling in to say they won’t be in. So I checked out a laptop last night, and logged in from home. One of my co-workers drove in from Columbus. Said if the rest of us got 4WD, we would be there too. I have 4WD, but I still wasn’t going out on the roads today. Logging off in about 5 minutes.
What is causing all the power outages in your state, the wind?
Yup. Ya'll be safe out there. When we get storms like this through NM, the entire Tornado Alley lights up.
Our Big Boss called yesterday and told us to close all the stores for the day. I’m goofing off and getting paid...a RARITY, LOL!
18,000 in southern WI without power, but they’re working on it. I chatted with my Dad for a while this morning. He’s got power and is fine...he only lives about 2 miles away from us.
Filled the bird feeders twice so far.
Cleaned the path down to the coop for the 3rd time this morning, shoveled a path to the machine shed in case we lose power and need to use the wood stove. Husband trucked down to the road; the end of the drive has 5 feet of snow piled up from the plows. We’ll be here for a day or so. :)
The big malls here are closed, also a rarity. Sears is open, though...if you need a snow shovel or a snow blower, LOL!
Local bus service is shut down. Rare.
Three snowblower self-amputation injuries reported from the ER so far. One heart attack from shoveling reported so far.
No local babies born in the middle of this...yet! I’m betting there will be at least one. :)
Mostly heavy snow on power lines, or trees falling from heavy snow and taking power lines down with them when they fall.
I have 50 year old (at least!) 100 foot tall Norway Spruce along the west side of my farm as a wind break. They usually stand tall, but the snow is so heavy the lower branches are touching the ground. Had to bash them off to get to the door of the chicken coop earlier. The dogs made a ‘snow cave’ out of the white pine that is hanging low in the front yard, LOL!
Not much wind, yet. *Fingers Crossed*
Do you have any idea how sunspots were observed “back then”?
From NASA...
The Sunspot Cycle
(Updated 2009/12/08)
Sunspot Numbers
In 1610, shortly after viewing the sun with his new telescope, Galileo Galilei (or was it Thomas Harriot?) made the first European observations of Sunspots. Continuous daily observations were started at the Zurich Observatory in 1849 and earlier observations have been used to extend the records back to 1610. The sunspot number is calculated by first counting the number of sunspot groups and then the number of individual sunspots.
There was lightening last night with the snowfall. Very unusual. The snow is really heavy and really wet. A PITA to shovel but good for snowballs and snow forts and snow ice cream, though. :)
Snow Ice Cream
1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract
3/4 c. granulated sugar
1 gallon fresh clean snow
In a large bowl mix first four ingredients until smooth.
Gradually stir in snow until desired consistency.
(Or you can make it the traditional way our native Wisconsin Indians did with melted animal fat and dried blueberries.) :)
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 27 October 2004
12:58 pm ET
Sunspots have been more common in the past seven decades than at any time in the last 8,000 years, according to a new historic reconstruction of solar activity.
Many researchers have tried to link sunspot activity to climate change, but the new results cannot be used to explain global warming, according to the scientists who did the study.
Sunspots are areas of intense magnetic energy. They act like temporary caps on upwelling matter, and they are the sites of occasional ferocious eruptions of light and electrified gas. More sunspots generally means increased solar activity.
Sunspots have been studied directly for about four centuries, and these direct observations provide the most reliable historic record of solar activity. Previous studies have suggested cooler periods on Earth were related to long stretches with low sunspot counts. From the 1400s to the 1700s, for example, Europe and North America experienced a "Little Ice Age." For a period of about 50 years during that time, there were almost no sunspots.
But a firm connection between sunspot numbers and climate remains elusive, many scientists say.
Better record
The new study, led by Sami Solanki of the Max Planck Institute in Germany, employed a novel approach to pinning down sunspot activity going back 11,400 years:
Cosmic rays constantly bombard Earth's atmosphere. Chemical interactions create a fairly constant source of stuff called carbon-14, which falls to Earth and is absorbed and retained by trees. But charged particles hurled at Earth by active sunspots deflect cosmic rays. So when the Sun gets wild, trees record less carbon-14.
While trees don't typically live more than a few hundred years or perhaps a couple thousand, dead and buried trees, if preserved, carry a longer record, "as long as tree rings can be identified," said Manfred Schuessler, another Max Planck Institute researcher who worked on the study.
The study's finding: Sunspot activity has been more intense and lasted longer during the past 60 to 70 years than at anytime in more than eight millennia.
Sunspot activity is known to ebb and flow in two cycles lasting 11 and 88 years (activity is currently headed toward a short-term minimum). Astronomers think that longer cycles -- or at least long-term variations -- also occur. Scientists in other fields have shown that during the past 11,000 years, Earth's climate has had many dramatic shifts.
"Whether solar activity is a dominant influence in these [climate] changes is a subject of intense debate," says Paula Reimer, a researcher at Queen's University Belfast who wrote an analysis of the new study for Nature. Why? Because "the exact relationship of solar irradiance to sunspot number is still uncertain."
In general, studies indicate changes in solar output affect climate during periods lasting decades or centuries, "but this interpretation is controversial because it is not based on any understanding of the relevant physical processes," study member Schuessler told SPACE.com. Translation: Scientists have a lot to learn about the Sun-Earth connection.
Better understanding
The study's methods appear solid: "The models reproduce the observed record of sunspots extremely well, from almost no sunspots during the seventeenth century to the current high levels," Reimer said.
The research could eventually help scientists understand why the climate has changed in the past and allow for better predictions of future change.
"The reconstructed sunspot number will nonetheless provide a much-needed record of solar activity," Reimer said. "This can then be compared with palaeoclimate data sets to test theories of possible solar-climate connections, as well as enabling physicists to model long-term solar variability."
Whatever the result, change is likely to continue.
Solanki's team calculates that, based on history, the chances of sunspot activity remaining at the currently high levels for another 50 years is 8 percent. Odds are just 1 percent the solar exuberance will last through the end of this century.
Thanks for the close report; me mum’s down in Spooner and so far no e-mail from her reporting snowfall. She’s 86 and still going strong. Hope she’s ok.
Here in NW Lower Mich. the schools are closed until Friday.
However, we have seen only about 1 inch of snow with a little blowing and drifting. Typical of these storms, Wisconsin can get pounded, and on our side of The Lake we get a dusting.
We’ll see what the next day brings.
My ever-trusty plow truck is ready to rock, in any case.
Global warming at work.......
We get “Thunder-Snow” here, a couple of times a year.
Are you a Yooper or a Troll?
Not here in Milwaukee...nothing to even get excited about.
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