Smatterings of sunbathing students on the University of Wisconsin’s Bascom Hill and Memorial Union Terrace in the last few days have heralded the arrival of spring. With the memory of an April 4 ice storm fresh in their minds, students were eager to soak up what they could.
The stereotypical “April Showers,” along with cooler temperatures are forecasted to return Wednesday.
“The weather is going to go back to being fairly chilly,” said Edward Hopkins, a lecturer in atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the UW.
Hopkins said the days of sun this week were able to warm up the UW campus because of a large high-pressure system, which had been sitting over the East Coast of the United States. Because winds rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, warm Southerly winds were dragged up to the Midwest.
Hopkins said by Wednesday temperatures would most likely be back down to seasonal averages. The record and above average high temperatures recorded around the state Monday and Tuesday were unseasonably warm but not preposterously hot, according to Hopkins.
“One year ago today, we had a high of 87 degrees, while today we only had a high of 84,” Hopkins said.
The month of March featured weeks of temperatures much higher and then much lower than averages, but the average temperature for the entire month of April so far is still below average.
Hopkins said the weather patterns causing the warm weather were most likely not a result of an El Nino system, where weather patterns are thrown asunder by unusually high water temperatures in pockets of the Pacific Ocean.
“What some people were calling an El Nino effect has really weakened considerably,” Hopkins said. “While there is some warmer-than-average water sitting in the Pacific Ocean around the international dateline, there is actually colder-than-average water sitting next to the South American continent.”
Mollie Karon, a UW sophomore studying elementary education, squeezed as much as she could out of the hours of sunshine.
“I was lying out on the balcony of our house with a bunch of sorority girls,” Karon said.
Karon said she is sensitive to the sun and hadn’t bought sunscreen yet, but that didn’t stop her from going out. Although she got fairly sunburned, she said it was worth it.
“I have five layers of aloe on it right now, and I took a bunch of Advil,” Karon said. “It was worth the increase in good mood. Having it be nice outside makes me happier.”
James Igielski of the UW’s Men’s Ultimate Frisbee club said that his team was practicing through sun or sleet in preparation for regional competition in Iowa next week.
“We’ve had practices since the end of March,” Igielski said. “We practiced when it was really windy and cold. We basically practiced until the recreational-sports-facility people asked us to stop.”
Igielski said the recreational-sports-facility staff was concerned about the team tearing up practice fields in wet, slushy conditions and that they had been able to practice unfettered during the days of warm, dry weather.
