Current Weather Conditions for Sunday February 26th, 2012

Well the prediction I made last night didn't quite come to fruition today. Today I will show you what happened overnight that made my prediction inaccurate, how that is affecting current weather conditions, and what you can expect for later this evening. Let's take a look at the big picture by looking at the surface map.

 

So that warm I was talking about last night did in fact move north, right now it is moving through southern Wisconsin and central Michigan. Take note of the pink line over Eau Claire on the map stemming from where the cold and warm fronts are meeting. This is what is known as an occluded front. This occluded front is basically the boundary separating the cold and dry air mass to the west from the cool and moist air mass from the warm front to the southeast. This is evident on the surface plot below when you look at the dew-point temperatures. 

As you can see dew-point temperatures where winds are NW are much lower than those belonging to the SW and SE winds pushing that warm front through Southern Wisconsin. The weather pattern we are currently experiencing has made for some thick cloud cover with predominately alto-stratus clouds mixed in with some cumulus clouds to the southeast with 10mph SE winds. Currently Eau Claire is enjoying a mild 41 degree Fahrenheit February day. However as the day progresses the faster moving cold front is going to push the warm front we are currently enjoying out of the area. This means dropping temperatures and a shift in wind direction to SW winds. As the warm front is displaced by the cold front to the west we could some flurries as result.