Maple Syrup and Maybe 50

You hear the dripping, the trickling, and the sound of splats of heavy, wet snow hitting the ground from the roof above you.  Yes, it is time for spring, unless you live in western Wisconsin this year, then, it is a hope for spring!

But, the spring has been nice to some people across the Chippewa Valley.  For example: Maple Syrup Producers.  Mmmmm....maple syrup has to be one of my favorite "sauces" in the whole wide world.  And, better yet, the making of maple syrup ties directly into weather.  Did you know that the "perfect" conditions for making maple syrup are 50 degree days, 20 degree nights, sunny skies and calm winds?  I helped my dad make maple syrup years ago, and I always thought that when the sap stops running, then "that's it!"  That is usually true, but the reality is, the season can last a lot longer with consistent and close to normal temperatures - meaning more maple syrup!

However, every now and then during maple syrup season, we get one of those wet, sloppy March snow storms.  Recently, people asked me why the snow gets so wet and sloppy in the month of March.  This is for many reasons.  First, the air about 5,000 feet above us this time of year is much warmer than in the late fall or the majority of the winter season.  Because the air is much warmer due to southerly winds aloft, it is able to carry a lot more moisture.  That means that in the Bergeron-Findeisen process, a snow formation process named after the Swedish meteorologists, snow flakes are able to grow much larger than usual.  Also, as they fall to the Earth, the snow flakes get stuck together with other snow flakes, which is why you can get that "clumping" effect sometimes in snow storms. 

Which brings me to my next factoid - Did you know that 99.9% of the precipitation over Wisconsin falls  as snow?  Yes, and the reality is, it has to fall this way.  If the precipitation didn't form and fall as snow first, we would be a parched piece a landscape.  Here's why:  Precipitation in much of the Midwest depends on Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) to form.  CCN are made out of anything small and fine, such as dust particles, fine sand grains, pollutant particles, etc.  Water vapor droplets form around these particles, which then leads to the Bergeron-Findeisen process, the snow formation process that we talked about in the previous paragraph.  That's why snow falls to the Earth, all year around.  It is the temperature, in the cloud and the atmosphere between the cloud and the ground which determines whether we see snow, sleet, or rain.  Hawaii is one place in the world where the precipitation doesn't fall as snow.  That's because enough moisture is able to be pumped aloft with the help of the island's landscape.  See, you didn't know you can learn so much from one reading, and go from maple syrup to Hawaii.  Thanks for reading this week, and feel free to comment!

Meteorologist Nick Grunseth