29. Sunny and warm days, but cool nights... warm-up in the forecast!
Today's satellite imagery, from the SSEC at the UW, (to the right) shows a few clouds and some light snow showers across southern Wisconsin, but clear skies across the north.
NWS Duluth calls the warm days with cool nights the "pine-needle effect": the dark forests absorb sunshine and warm up during the day, but the needles are poor at retaining heat so temperatures quickly plummet with snow pack and clear skies at night.
Quiet weather across the area.
A weak surface low continues to slowly drift east across the Illinois/Wisconsin border, allowing a high pressure (1029 mb = 30.39 " Hg) to move down from the north. This surface map (to the left) is from the HPC.
Calm winds and clear skies will continue across the north tonight and tomorrow under the high pressure.
Arctic air behind, a little warmth ahead.
My chart (to the right) shows my measured temperatures the last five days, and the forecast temperatures for my location for the next five. The solid blue & red lines on the left-side of the chart are from my weather station, the right-side are NWS forecast temperatures, and the dashed lines show average temperatures. We're right between an arctic cool-down behind us and several days of warm air ahead.
Two pictures from this afternoon.
The first one is looking at the front yard as the sunlight still illuminates the treetops. My weather station can be seen on a pole between the deck and the first big tree (Basswood) out in the yard. Clear skies and plenty of sun today made it almost seem like Spring, but it was a little too cool.
Today's Numbers here: Temperature: 6.3 / 24.4 Dewpoint: rose from 2 degrees to 10 Barometer: from 30.15 to 30.38 " Hg Winds: 2 mph gusting to 10 from NE Snowpack: 17.2"
While I've posted several pictures of the sunrise, I have none of a sunset yet. This one (to the left) is the first on my blog, taken at 17:30. With the hill on the south/southwest side of the house (and the trees covering the hill) the sun sets a little early here. Next weather maker...
Thursday looks a little wet, maybe some rain changing to snow.
Quiet weather across the area. 
Two pictures from this afternoon.
