Crazy weather in Appleton, WI

Right now I'm on Spring Break, so I'm not in Eau Claire, I'm in my hometown of Appleton, WI. I just felt the need to post about the weirdest weather I've ever seen in my life (I'm sure this happens a lot in the spring, I'm just not used to it). This morning in Appleton we had snow, which then turned to rain, and then turned to sleet. At one point it felt like it was doing all three at the same time.

It has been sleeting now in Appleton for about 8 hours, and there is quite an accumulation of sleet on the ground. The sleet has been mixed with thunderstorms, so it has been sleeting and thundering and lightning for quite a while now.

Graphic courtesy of The Weather Channel - http://www.weather.com/

If we look at the current weather map we can see a low pressure system as well as a warm front that may be causing this weather. The higher temperatures in the lower part of the state are causing the precipitation to be rain, and in the northern part of the state the precipitation is snow due to the lower temperatures. In between we have the sleet, which is where Appleton lies at the moment.

Graphic courtesy of The Weather Channel - http://www.weather.com/

Another interesting thing to look at is the amount of lightning strikes in the area. A lot of these lightning strikes are occurring in the middle of blizzard-like conditions. There have been quite a few strikes in the past couple hours here in Appleton, and they are all very bright, loud, cloud-to-ground lighting strikes. So this is definitely weird weather, that I felt seemed "blog-worthy".