So much to talk about!

And... well, I have the time right now.

First off, I'd like to extend big congratulations to the Freeport Pretzels on a phenomenal season. It's always great to see a local team excel and you all should be proud of your accomplishments. That can-do attitude will serve you all well in your future endeavors.

Anyway, now that climatological (or meteorological, if you like more syllables) winter is finally behind us, I decided to see how we ended up in the temperature and snowfall department. This data is preliminary based on the data I had available. I imagine that the Chicago National Weather Service office will issue an official seasonal summary for Rockford in the next few days. For now, take a gander at the numbers in the graphics above. The snowfall part is no surprise, but what about the temperatures? This winter sure felt a lot colder than a mere half-degree below normal. We had a slightly warmer than normal December, and a rather warm first half of January. February ended up 4.5 degrees below normal, but it was almost totally negated by the mild temperatures we had in the first part of winter.

The next order of business is the next low pressure that'll be bugging us. We'll be very much on the warm side of the system this go around. With temperatures going into the 40s, though, we'll be melting a fair amount of snow, and the water that isn't running off will just sit in the air in a drizzly state. Maybe, just maybe, bare ground will be visible somewhere in the viewing area by Monday morning. In the meantime, it looks like we'll have some moderate rainfall amounts across the area and perhaps even a few rumbles of thunder. With snowmelt and rain, some local flooding will be something to keep in mind, just as it was a couple weeks ago.

Then our attention turns to Tuesday. As Eric blogged about yesterday, another low will be swinging northward. The most recent indications are pointing toward a more eastern track... staying far enough away that it won't really impact us. However, time and time again, the low tracks have nudged back in our direction... so I'm still not totally buying into the latest trend. I'll wait to see it in a few more consecutive model runs before I start believing it.

I've also been here just a shade under a month and haven't really had an opportunity to tell you a little about myself besides what's in my station bio. I was born and raised in Galena and I can blame an unhealthy obsession with watching The Weather Channel at age four for igniting my interest in weather (for the record, I rarely watch TWC anymore). Sometime around turning the corner into high school, I became the Galena weather spotter for Davenport NBC affiliate KWQC and ended up interning there for a couple of summers. There were also a few football games that I was consulted with regarding thunderstorm situations; dealing with postponing games, that's quite the hot seat. Once 2003 rolled around, I headed off to Iowa State University in Ames. It took me an extra semester (gotta love calc and physics), but I graduated with a degree in meteorology just as I had always wanted. While at Iowa State, I interned at KCCI in Des Moines and KCRG in Cedar Rapids. I also was an active member of the Central Iowa Chapter of the National Weather Association (serving as a Secretary and Conference registration chair one year) and the Iowa State Student Chapter of the American Meteorological Society (as Secretary one year, as President the next). I have to mention that both of those organizations are award-winning and considered top-notch by many. :)

Okay, enough droning on about myself. Some of you may have read this news story out of Huntsville, Alabama from a couple weeks ago. The radar data acquired will most certainly be helpful for tornado research. I would be remiss if I didn't congratulate those two grad students, though, because they just became engaged yesterday. Elise was a year older than me in the meteorology program at Iowa State and I consider her a good friend - and I wish them both the very best!

-JUSTIN