May 2012

Wednesday May 30th, 2012

Greetings and welcome!

We had a pretty good weekend considering everything. The forecast of rain Saturday night and Monday worked out, and we ended up with a decent Saturday, Sunday, and early Monday.

The rain Saturday night was pretty heavy as I mentioned in my Sunday update. The USGS gauge by the Peshtigo River measured about 1.5″.  Sunday morning another wave of storms came through with a lot of lightning and about another quarter inch of rain.

The lightning hit some power lines and took the area out of power at about 8:30am. Apparently this wasn’t the usual tree across the power lines stuff. According to calls to WPS it took down a major component on the high tension lines that feed the area. Power was finally restored here at about 11 or 11:30pm, though the grid to our east came on a couple of hours sooner.

The power outage was not well timed, and caused some problems. A lot of people were stranded without the gas station being able to pump gas. The gas station and local businesses had to loose thousands of dollars in business. We ended up running the photo business on my generator. Rapids had one too, and they managed to get enough stuff running to cook a limited menu and stay open.

The repair estimates kept changing. Initially power was going to be back at 6:30, then it was 7:30, 8:30, and then they said that they didn’t know, it was up to ATC the high line operator. The outage affected 1,000-2,000 people, so it was pretty localized. After a 15 hour outage on a major holiday weekend it probably wouldn’t be too hard to sell some standby generators around here.

The early afternoon storm Monday brought a round of heavy rain for a little while, but none of the severe stuff that could have been. I did hear a report of some penny or dime sized hail from the wave that went through Crivitz, but we saw just rain here.

The storm Monday was in advance of a pretty major cold front. We probably got close to 80 on Monday, and today we are looking at a high in the upper 50s and a chance of frost tonight as the low temps could go into the low 30s. Thursday and Friday look to be on the cool side too, with highs in the low 60s.

The weekend looks pretty good. There is a minor chance of showers Friday-Sunday as a storm to our east could spin off a small shower or two, but we are looking at a 30% chance and low rainfall expectations. Friday could hit 60, Saturday could hit the mid 60s, and Sunday’s predicted high is in the mid-70s.

The weekend brings a lot of events. This is the weekend where you don’t need a fishing license to fish in WI, the state parks are open with free admission and open houses, and the Marinette County parks are having free admission on Saturday. Here is the current event list. As usual I will add any more that I see in my late week update.

I am also pretty sure that this is the weekend that the FOMA, Friends of Mountain Ambulance Service will be starting their drive through fish fry and brat/burger fry on Friday nights in Mountain. I don’t have it in front of me, but I recall an article saying that they have raised over 150K for the Mountain Fire & Rescue/Ambulance services so far.

That is about it from here for today. I will be back later in the week with an events and weather update along with anything else that crosses my path.

Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

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Sunday May 27th, 2012

Greetings and welcome!

The weekend is off to a good start. My prediction of no rain until late yesterday worked out pretty well. We had a few sprinkles in the afternoon, but it was barely enough to get the ground wet. Last night about 10 or 10:30 we started seeing lightning and a few more sprinkles.

Overnight the skies opened up and gave us what gauges saw as about 3/4″. It most have been a good pounding storm, there was water inside around the chimney of the wood burner, and that usually doesn’t leak. This morning brought another wave of storms with thunder, lightning, and more hard rain. The last check of Athelstane Weather had 1.1″ in their rain gauge for the night and morning.

Eventually the power and cell towers went down about 8 or 8:30am, and a couple of hours later at 11am I am still on generator power, but the cell towers are back up.

The rain will help the rafting, but people already were having a good time with it yesterday even though the river was low. I am going to guess that it will come up a couple of inches this morning from local rainfall, and keep rising over the next few days. It should be a good weekend to hit Kosir’s for some rafting or tubing, a rising river is a fun river.

A couple of events coming up for today include the memorial service and VFW picnic at the Silver Cliff Memorial Picnic Grounds, The McCaslin Lioness Faire in Lakewood, and the closing party for the Firelane Bar. Tonight there is live music at Curve Inn with Reset to Zero.

A new event to my calendar this morning, Fisher’s Camp is having a pig roast today, and they start serving around 2pm. Sides include all homemade potato salad, scalloped potatoes, coleslaw, sauerkraut, Italian salad, and baked beans and corn and chips. If you would like to bring a dish to pass you are more than welcome. Also Handcuff pool tournament starting at 3:30 $5 a person 100% payout. and V.I.P. Drawing for a pontoon rental for a day. And they will be doing a drawing for 2 Portifield country music festival tickets $5 a ticket (all proceeds are for Kwasny family). Also the Race will be on!!!

We should be out of the woods for rain today. There are a few isolated spots on the radar in western WI,  but for the most part the rain has passed. Look for a warm day in the low to mid-80s.

Monday may prove interesting for weather. There is supposed to be a strong cold front coming through with some showers and storms, and they could get strong. The contrast in temperatures behind the front would support strong storms somewhere. We are looking at going from mid to upper 80s Monday to mid to upper 60s Tuesday, and upper 50s Wednesday. Usually a change in temperature of that magnitude comes with some fanfare, normally with some strong storms. Keep an eye on Monday’s weather forecast.

Well I am off to get ready for another day of rafting and fun in the north woods. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday May 25th, 2012

Greetings and happy Friday!

The holiday weekend is here and so there is a lot to cover. First of all people traveling to the area from the south will want to know that the big bridge on I-43 in Green Bay went down to one lane last week for construction. Common sense would hope that they would open it for the holiday weekend, but if they don’t it will be a bottleneck deluxe on Friday night. There is also construction on 141 between Amberg and Beecher as they improve the road and put in passing lanes.

The weather outlook for the weekend is the next hot item. There are a mixture of ideas on how the weekend weather will go down. The long and short of it is that there will be a warm front lifting north through the state early in the weekend that will bring some rain and storms. Right now it looks like the rain will time out for late Saturday and Saturday night. Going with that scenario, Sunday would be mostly rain free and in the mid-80s, followed by another chance at rain Monday.

There is another scenario being offered that holds the rain off for the most part until Sunday, and giving us a wet day. So far the Saturday night timing is the most popular.

The NWS has us for a 60% chance Saturday, 70% Saturday night, and then 50% for the balance of Sunday and Monday.

The HPC QPF is showing the most precip Saturday afternoon and night, with 1/10th of an inch for Sunday.

Here is a web feed of the Green Bay TV-2 weather forecast from the noon news today. They also are on board with the Saturday night scenario.

So.. I do expect rain over the weekend, but a wave or two of storms, not an all weekend rain. Saturday looks cool in the mid to upper 60s, and Sunday and Monday much warmer with temps in the 80s.

We had some weather to talk about yesterday. The day was windy and gusty, and it knocked power out for a lot of the area. At one point WPS had about 19,000 customers out, but as usual, they got it fixed pretty quickly. The noon news showed peak wind gusts in the 40-48mph range. I did not see many downed branches or trees, or any widespread damage.

After dark a line of showers and thunderstorms came through with about 1/2″ of rain, maybe a little less in some areas. It was a decent downpour, but it didn’t last as long as we would have liked it to. I was not aware of a lot of wind with the storms, but apparently they had a tornado and straight line wind damage in areas near Wausau.

Also somewhat weather related, there are a couple of big wildfires up in the UP of Michigan, one at about 17,000 acres, one at about 3,200. The wind was whipping those up yesterday.

Here is the updated event calendar..

In addition to Chris’ calendar, I saw that the Town of Stephenson is having a rummage and bake sale at the town/fire hall Saturday from 8-1. I our last visit I wasn’t sure if it was a rummage or bake sale, it is both.

The McCaslin Lioness Faire is in Lakewood Sunday.

There is live music Friday night at Firelane with Paul Hanna from annex. Sunday is their closing party. The bar was sold, and Sunday is the going away and bottle emptying party.

Saturday night the Garbage Men will be playing the Rapids Resort by Kosir’s.

Saturday night there is live music at Curve Inn with Reset to Zero.

That is pretty much it from here. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Wednesday May 23rd, 2012

Update- I can’t believe that I missed this in my update, but I did. The Firelane Bar is having live music Friday night with Paul Hanna from Annex. The bar has been sold, and their last day is Sunday the 27th, and that will be the big going away and empty the bottle party starting at 2pm. Best wishes to Terry & Jabber, Snail & Michelle, Shelly, and the other Firelane crew.

Greetings and welcome!

Last weekend was pretty nice for weather. It was warm out with temps around 90 and a wind that made it a lot more comfortable. It was warm enough that I got my first dip in the river while I was there doing pictures, and it felt pretty good.

Sunday afternoon tthere were some big mean looking thunderstorms headed our way. The sky was dark and rumbling, and the TV had severe thunderstorm warnings for us and surrounding counties. As happens sometimes, it hit our area and evaporated. It didn’t rain at all by W & Parkway, there was a little at Parkway and X, and here in Silver Cliff, it didn’t get wet at all. For those of us that want rain it was discouraging, but it made for a better Sunday afternoon for outside play.

That storm came with a cold front, and I think that we had a night in the 40 degree range right after that. I have been seeing temps of about 60 in the house each morning, but held out on starting the wood burner until today. Yesterday was pretty comfortable outside, and I got a little yard work done. I might follow up with some more today since it is cool out again (75 & overcast).

There is some news brewing this morning. The first item is that the paper mill in Niagara is on fire. I am waiting for updated news at noon. The other item is that the Marinette County Sheriff’s Department is looking for a big guy with a red star tat on his right wrist. Apparently he robbed the bank in Pembine yesterday and managed an escape. The last guy didn’t get far.

Being the fourth week in May the forests are pretty well filled in and the animal and insect world is alive and well. The forests that I could see into a month ago are now a wall of green. There are still a lot of plants and trees coming in, but it is pretty well along. There are some trillium around still, but they are becoming less common.

The insect world, on the other hand, is flourishing. Last weekend found a few friendly flies, some river bugs like mayflies, and our old friend the wood tick. Moths and butterflies are becoming very common and wide of variety. I am happy to report that I still haven’t encountered any mosquitoes, other than the few pioneers in the warm stretch in March. The wood ticks are pretty common though, prepare yourself for them with a little Repel around your legs and pants cuffs and you are good to go.

There are more critters around this week. The squirrels and chipmunks are very active. The deer are present in the roads at night. Driving some forest roads the other evening at sunset I found a lot of whippoorwills near the road as evidenced by their very insistent calls.

This coming weekend is Memorial Day Weekend. There will hopefully be a lot of people visiting the area. There are some events lined up. One is the VFW memorial service and picnic at the Silver Cliff Memorial Picnic Grounds. There is the McCaslin Lioness Faire in Lakewood, note that both events are on a Sunday. I recall hearing about the Town of Stephenson VFD having an event this weekend, but I don’t have a date on it yet, and I am not sure if it is a rummage or bake sale. I will catch up with that and other events when I get a paper tomorrow or Friday.

Speaking of rummage sales, the signs are already up at a lot of houses between here and Crivitz. Rummage sale fans should have a good weekend.

Weekend weather… can you get back to me in a few days?

Thursday and Thursday night there is a chance of rain and storms coming our way, but——– the latest models have it big and mean until it gets to our area, and then it evaporates like the last one did. Previous models have shown it giving us some decent rains, so in my opinion, that one could still go either way. My bias is toward it evaporating. We could use the rain. That and we have seen it so often that we have a name for the phenomenon, the Silver Cliff Split.

Behind that Friday looks nice, with a mix of sun and clouds, and a high of about 75.

The weekend weather will be dominated by a storm coming in Friday and Friday night, and staying in the region until Monday. The NWS has rain chances at 30% Friday night, 50% Saturday and Saturday night, a 30% chance Sunday night, and 40% chance for Sunday, Monday, and Monday night.

Friday is predicted to be about 75, Saturday looks like it will be about 70, and Sunday about 80, and Monday could see mid-80s.

The rain chance daily sounds a lot worse than it actually is. Right now it looks like the people that skip the weekend over weather will miss out on a good one. I looked at the forecast models and the HPC QPF to see what we are really in for. Most of the time frames with rain for our area have us in the lightest bands, and those frequently don’t bring us rain. The QPF on the weekend suggests that we will see a total of 0.25-0.5″ over the weekend. That is one good downpour, or maybe two medium ones, and the heaviest rain is centered on Saturday night.

Here is the HPC prediction. With daylight savings time we are GMT -5 hours, so this is valid from 7pm Friday night through 7pm Sunday night. We are in the third level of green,  1/4-1/2″ for the weekend.

Here is the latest model animation from the NCEP GFS forecast model. The first storm is our Thursday storm, the second one is the weekend storm. As you can see, the weekend storm mostly goes around us. It might change, but right now it looks like a mostly rain-free weekend in spite of a chance of it daily.

Well there are a million and one things on the to-do list, so I am off to dive in. My plan is to return Friday with a weather update and events once I get the local paper.

Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB