2011

Wednesday August 3rd, 2011

Greetings and welcome!

It was a weekend full of surprises. Saturday afternoon was supposed to be sunny and hot. It was, but about 3pm a big storm came through. That was not in the plan at all.

The storm featured some very strong wind gusts on the leading edge. Some peak gust measurements were in the 60mph range. There were a lot of small branches down and a few trees and bigger limbs too. It knocked out power for a lot of people in the northern half of the state, including here for 6 hours Sunday while they did repairs.

About 3pm Saturday the sky got really dark and I headed in to check  the radar. There was a fairly intense leading line and then more moderate rain behind it. The intense stuff blew through quickly, with the line moving east at 50mph. The rest of the rain took about 2 hours to clear out.

In front of the line of storms we had a hot day that got close to 90. Behind the storm the local weather stations were reporting temperatures of about 66, a solid 20 degree temperature drop. A hot day that found me in the river twice ended in jeans.  It also ended up being a pleasant night when we were down at Rustic Fest for some music.

The Saturday storm came as a surprise. When I did my weather research Friday, it showed us clear and under high pressure. It was a pretty big miss. Big H said that the Accuweather gadget on the left side of the page actually called it, including a 90% chance.

As far as damage- there was some but it was scattered. There were branches down and the occasional tree. I heard that the Wheeler Lake area had some trees down, and there are probably other localized areas with some damage. Most of what I saw was dead fall, with the occasional live oak or maple branch. The strong winds were pretty brief or it could have been worse.

We were expecting the storms Sunday afternoon, not Saturday. They never did return Sunday, and Sunday and Monday were nice days. Monday night and Tuesday brought more rain and some thunderstorms.  Those were a little milder and we saw about 3/4″ of rain. Areas to our northwest saw more, and areas northwest of about Rhinelander saw as much as 4″ of rain.

That rain will boost the Peshtigo River for rafting this weekend and put it well above normal.  Right now my guess is in the +4-6 range, with a chance of +8. The watershed saw a nice drink of rain.

The weather ahead this week looks clear at the moment until the weekend. That is a change from yesterday when the forecast held the possibility of rain Thursday or Friday. The current version has a chance of rain about Saturday night as a small system makes a quick pass through the region. The HPC has us bordering the 0.1-0.25″ to 0.25-0.5″ ranges for rainfall forecasts. Keep an eye on the timing this one, it could change.

We have some events this weekend. The annual Tug of War across the river between the Peshtigo River Resort and Dockside is this Saturday. Either place will be having a lot of fun with it.

Here is Chris’s listing..

That is a lot of events!

Summer is getting short with only 4 weekends left before Labor Day. Don’t wait too long to enjoy it!

Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday July 29th, 2011

DOH!

I am not sure how I missed it in my event listing, but this weekend is Rustic Fest right down the street from Kosir’s. They are grilling and partying outside all weekend.

Saturday night and Sunday afternoon there is live music from the Darkhorse Band featuring master fiddler Tommy Greywolf. Tommy G played with Brooks & Dunn and many other greats and is a show in himself. The Darkhorse guys are great too, having played country music for many years.

The weather looks good for the weekend with temps in the mid to upper 80s. Saturday night and Sunday there is a slight chance that a scattered shower or storm could brew up, about30%. It isn’t anything organized.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Thursday July 28th, 2011

Greetings and welcome!

I apologize for not having an early week report. I have been working away from home this week.

It has been a nice week. The sun has been out and temperatures and humidity were pretty reasonable Monday and Tuesday. It was a welcome relief from last week’s heat.

Monday I took the electric bill outside to do a meter reading to see how bad the bill for the AC during the heat wave was going to be. It ended up being about $120 for those 10 days, more than my whole July electric bill last year. It will smart a little when the bill comes, but $12 a day to stay comfortable doesn’t seem that bad.

Yesterday we saw a little rain. The area rain gauges show as little as 0.08″ and as much as 0.25″. The majority of the storm stayed south, giving southern WI and neighboring states a lot of rain. One line of storms lined up on Dubuque, IA and gave them a reported 10.3″ of rain at the airport as wave after wave of the storm came down the same path like train cars on a track. While we would be delighted if that happened in the Peshtigo River watershed, it is a disaster anywhere else, and our thoughts are with our friends in that area today.

We have a nice weekend ahead.  Friday and Saturday look like nice days in the mid-80s. Overnight lows in the low to mid-60s will make evening campfires and star gazing comfotable too.

Sunday the NWS adds in a 30% chance of rain. The NAM and GFS models don’t think much of it, giving us a QPF of 0.01-0.1″ per 6 hours.

There are not a lot of events this weekend, but there are a few.

The Crivitz Rescue Squad is having a Ride For Rescue this Saturday. It is a fundraiser for the Crivitz Rescue Squad that leaves Riverside in at 11:30am. Here is a link (PDF!).

The Crooked Lake Lion’s Club is having a Brat Fry Saturday at the Lakewood Super Value store from 10-2.

The Brazeau Fire, Rescue and Dive Team’s Annual Fundraiser Picnic is this Saturday too. Brazeau is a little south of White Potato Lake.

It was pretty pleasant working outside this week. Not only was the weather nice, the bugs were pretty much absent. I was working on a place in the woods by a lake, and I did not see a mosquito at all. I think one of the guys had a deer fly, but that was it. No complaints here!

I did have a few critter sightings this week, but two are a little in doubt. One was a little critter crossing the road about a mile west of McCaslin Mountain Campground about sunset Tuesday. I am guessing that it was a weasel, fisher or a marten, but without a better look it is speculative.

Yesterday I was heading west on Eagle River Rd near Northway Dr (Old A) when a critter ambled across the road about 1/8th of a mile ahead of me. By my assessment it was a cougar, but I can’t be sure. The size,  body shape, and walk were right, but without seeing that long tail I can’t say it was for sure a big cat.

Beyond those there were a few deer and porcupines, and an osprey on the river last weekend.

We will be having fun on the rivers again this weekend. The Peshtigo is on the low side at -2, but still runnable. The Menominee is varying between 1,000-1,800cfs, good to go either way. If fast water isn’t your thing, check out the sit on top kayaks where you can tour the upstream end of Caldron Falls Flowage, or the tubing.

Well there is much to do today, so I am off to go and jump into another full day in the beautiful north woods.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday July 22nd, 2011

Greetings and welcome!

We have a wild weekend coming up this weekend with the Hog Wrestling Competition at Caldron Falls Bar on Saturday. That is one of the biggest events of the year for the area with thousands of people that regularly attend.

We also have an interesting weekend forecast, and FINALLY some moderating temperatures and humidity. As happens sometimes, my model guidance shows a variety of opinions on how the weekend weather will unfold.

Right now it looks like we will see a cold front come through the state sometime in the early morning hours Saturday, and possibly as late as noon. Timing is everything on this one. At 6am it is a lot harder to get thunderstorms rolling than at noon after the sun has been up for 7 hours. At that point we get some varience in the amount of rain expected too, from almost nothing up to 0.75-1.0″ of rain.

Once that cold front passes we should be good for rain for most of the weekend. There is another storm headed this way for later Sunday with a warm front and closely following cold front.

Right now my focus is on the cold front line of storms. Beyond that the majority of the rain and storm activity will be to the south and west of us as has been happening the past few weeks. One area of WI near the IA/ MN/ WI border could see as much as 3″ of rain over the weekend.

For us the extremes are with the NAM model that has us in the 0.1-0.25″ band contrasting with the HPC that shows us in the 0.75-1.0″ band. In the middle is the GFS at 0.25-0.5″. Those are 60 hour totals for the whole weekend.

I kind of like the TV weather channel 2-2’s version of it. They are showing us mostly clear of the rain except for one good line of storms late Saturday morning. That line of storms is shown mostly orange and red, but their animation appears wise to the Silver Cliff Split, and has the storm weaker here as it passes. The timing isn’t ideal, but it seems like the most believable scenario.

So.. Bottom line.. I am looking for a mostly cloudy weekend with highs between 75-85 and the best chance of rain in the first 12 hours of Saturday and later Sunday.

The more normal temperatures and lower humidity will feel like air conditioning after this past week. The heat and humidity were nasty, and I won’t have any trouble seeing that go.

As far as the main event this weekend, hog wrestling at the Caldron Falls Bar, I kind of expect a big turnout this year. Between the economy and the gas prices tourism has really taken a hit. That all turned around on the 4th of July weekend when we had the busiest weekend in a couple of years.

My observation from that is that a lot of regulars that came up 4-6 weekends over the summer have cut back to a few of the big ones. That would include this weekend for many.

The Hog Wrestling event itself is pretty huge. There are thousands of people, music, food and drink, and folks chasing pigs around an arena a foot deep in mud and water. I can still hear my Mother yelling at me to stop playing with my food, I wonder if this qualifies..

This weekend also comes with the standard warning about the law enforcement presence in the area. Usually the Sheriff’s Dept and State Patrol are out in force this weekend keeping the order. Be smart about it and use designated drivers or shuttle buses. Keep it fun and safe.

As is the tradition, I will be about 10 miles NW of there at Kosir’s taking pictures and editing videos for the whitewater rafting. I am expecting a good weekend on the river. Not only will there be a lot of people around, the river came up a little from Tuesday’s storm. It is at about zero right now, and 280CFS. Normal is about 240, so we are a little above that. It isn’t high, but it is runnable and fun.

I saw a poster at the grocery store in Lakewood this week that the Doty VFD Picnic is this Saturday.  Here is a link.

That is news from here. Have a fun and safe weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB