2012

Friday May 11th, 2012

Greetings and welcome!

It is a pretty nice day outside today. It is partly cloudy and about 75, with a little bit of wind.

The weekend weather looks pretty good too. We have a fast moving cold front that will come through later tonight with a (50%) chance of showers and T-storms. The guess is that it will come about sunset and be gone quickly. The HPC has the front here about 7pm, and over Milwaukee and Chicago by 1am.

Behind that we are expecting high pressure, which means clear weather. Saturday I am looking for clearing skies and about 65 for a high with a little wind. Sunday looks 5-10 degrees warmer and maybe a little sunnier.

Clear skies behind cold fronts make for cold nights, and that it the scoop this weekend. Saturday night’s low could go into the upper 30s.

Those same clear skies make for some good sky gazing. We have amazing stars around here on dark nights. The moon rises late Saturday night (1:17am) and is waning at 62%. Between sunset and midnight there should be good stars.

Also of interest, there is a major sunspot pointed directly at earth. From today’s Spaceweather.com update..

NOAA forecasters estimate a 75% chance of M-class solar flares and a 20% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours. Any eruptions are likely to be geoeffective because the source, sunspot AR1476, is directly facing our planet.

In other words, there is a pretty decent chance of some northern lights over the weekend, and skies clear enough to see them if they do happen.

The rain this week had a lot of effects. It definitely helped the plant world with the Spring growth. It also seemed to favor the insect world.  I have been seeing a lot of moths and butterflies, and other insects in the past few days. I haven’t needed Repel yet, but this could be the first weekend.

The rain was also good for the whitewater rafting. The rivers didn’t get as high as I had guessed, but it will still be good for the weekend. The Peshtigo peaked at about +5 Thursday and will be about +2 to +3 for the weekend. That is still well into the fun zone, so I wouldn’t hesitate to take Kosir’s up on the free rafting trip for Moms with a paid person. The Menominee River is still rockin’ too, with good water in the 2,000 to 2,500 range. Yeeha.

Don’t forget that they offer flat water tubing on the Peshtigo and kayak rentals on Caldron Falls flowage. Those are fun too.

I am expecting decent fishing this weekend. The moon phase and high pressure aren’t ideal, but there have been a lot of bug hatches. That should help things.

I have a couple of events for this weekend. Chris’ calendar has the following..

Tiger Chase 5K Run/Walk
Sponsored by the Gillett PTO – Proceeds to benefit the Gillett School District students
Visit our Website for Details

There is also a live band down at Curve Inn Saturday night. They have a birthday club with a party for all of the people with birthdays that month, and May’s party comes with a live band. The bands at Curve are usually pretty good.

I am sure that there are other events, but I am not aware of them. I had pretty limited travels this week.

For taking Mom out to dinner on Sunday I would start at Peshtigo River Resort or Hilltop Resort. Both have Mother’s Day dinner specials. For someplace different you might try Whispering Pine Lodge by White Potato Lake. The cabins are very nice and the gardens are beautiful.

I was in a hurry on my last update and never posted pictures. Here are a couple..

That is about it for our visit today. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

.

Wednesday May 9th, 2012

(Written Tuesday night, posted Wed Am)

Greetings and welcome!

I am running a little late today, my apologies.

It looks like I blew the forecast for last Saturday pretty bad. The models showed rain coming in at about 9-10am and staying through the day. We ended up getting a little wet on either side of a pretty nice day.

The clouds from Saturday night’s storm hampered our ‘Super Moon’ a little. We didn’t get the big giant clear moon rising off of the horizon as was hoped. It was still big and bad enough to shine through the clouds a little. There was also some confusion on the moonrise time. My solunar tables said that sunset and moon rise were 8:11 and 8:13. The TV news had moonrise close to 11pm, and it happened somewhere in the middle according to Chris.

Anyway we ended up with a pretty nice Saturday. Chris and I took a ride to a couple of parks and waterfalls, and there were a lot of people around. Some were fishing, some were boating, some were just enjoying the day.

Along the way I saw the first trillium of the year, the marsh marigolds are up and in bloom, and more than a few other wildflowers are starting up. I also spotted my first fern fiddle heads sprouting up. I saw today that the trillium are now much more abundant, and they should be common by the weekend.

Also new this week are the chippies. The chipmunks are pretty common around here, but I just saw my first couple of the year over the weekend. Other sightings included the deer, bear, squirrels, and a lot of different birds. There was a picture perfect family of geese down by the boat landing the other day, with Mom & Pop and a gaggle of little fuzzballs in between.

The grass needs cutting pretty badly now. It is definitely time. I tried today but the hit and miss rain cancelled that plan. The day progressed and it became more hit than miss, and we ended up with a lot of rain for the day. Based on the puddles and runoff alone I’d call it close to an inch.

It has been a rainy week or so. We have gotten a lot of water and a lot of it was nice soaking rains without a lot of runoff. Today’s rain had breaks between the waves, but there was definitely runoff and puddles mid-day when I went to town, and the rain got heavier later in the day.

With all of the rain that we have seen recently the whitewater rafting this weekend will be very fun. The Peshtigo has come up about 6″ to about +5, and the graph is going up. We are definitely in the fun zone, and there is more to come. Weekday trips this week will see a spunky river, it gets pushy and feisty when it is rising fast like this. Weekend paddlers will probably time out just in time for the peak flow. A wild guess would be +8 to +12 for Saturday morning.

The Menominee River will be prime this weekend too. That one is running at about 3,000cfs and like the Peshtigo, it is on the rise. The watershed for that river saw some heavy rain bands, so I would expect big water for the weekend. The Menominee gets really big and bold at about 3,000 and beyond, and is a Grade A adrenaline rush. It should be a good ride this weekend.

This weekend is Mother’s Day weekend. It is a tradition at Kosir’s that Mom gets to raft free on Mother’s Day. Now they have extended that to Friday-Sunday of this weekend. All weekend Moms get a free raft trip with a paid trip. They will even set her up with a wetsuit and booties at no charge.

MOTHERS’ DAY MADNESS!

Take Your Mom out(side) for Mothers Day!

Moms Raft Free !**

May 11th – 13th, 2012

** When accompanied by a full paid rafter.

*Price includes wet suit & booties!

For taking Mom out to dinner I would start at Peshtigo River Resort or Hilltop Resort. Both have Mother’s Day dinner specials. For someplace different you might try Whispering Pine Lodge by White Potato Lake. The cabins are very nice and the gardens are beautiful.

A hat tip to Dan Sanchez for his comment on the power line project.People WILL want to know about this.

Dan Sanchez says:

May 4, 2012 at 8:00 pm

We own property in Pound and received a notice in the mail this week from American Transmission Company regarding some new utility lines that will be going through Marinette county. They have several public meetings that are scheduled, in the next few weeks. Is there a thread somewhere on the site where people are discussing the proposed route and private land that the new wires are going to intersect? I feel like this is a major project that will affect many land and home owners in Marinette county and should have some public discussion.

http://www.atc-projects.com/BayLakeProject.shtml
Click Northern Wisconsin, Bay Lake Project. A semi detail PDF map is included.

I looked into it and a lot of the possible corridors for the power lines land between Hwy 141 and the western boundary of Marinette Co, and from Athelstane south to 64. Take a look at this map (PDF).

There is a local meeting about it Wed May 16th from 1-7 at Shaffer’s Park Resort near Crivitz.

That’s news for today, be back soon! Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday May 4th, 2012

Greetings and welcome!

We had a mixed week for weather this week. We had a couple of days where it rained pretty good, and we had some nice ones. Wednesday’s rain filled up puddles, but Thursday’s rain filled them up and kept them full, and the driveway even got a little soft. The USGS gauge by Kosir’s is only reporting 6/10th of an inch, but it seems like about double that.

The weekend weather looks like another mixed bag, and it looks nothing like the early week forecast. My guidance is suggesting that early fishermen Saturday might get a few hours in before the rain comes late morning. One model isn’t quite as optimistic and starts the rain a little after dawn. There is a 40% chance of rain Saturday, and the NWS is expecting cloudy day in the mid-50s and a 10-15mph east wind.

Saturday night and Sunday look a little better with reduced rain chances until Sunday afternoon and Sunday night. Some forecasts have us for strong storms later Sunday, but I see them as going south again.

Fishermen like myself that are believers in the solunar tables have a lot to look forward to. The full moon is the peak of peak times on the solunar tables, and that full moon is on for Saturday night.

But wait, that’s not all.. This full moon is the perigee moon.  What is that? The moon has an elliptical orbit. In the case of the perigee moon, it is the closest to the earth that it will be all year. According to NASA, “This May’s full Moon is a “super Moon,” as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full Moons of 2012. ” The moon will rise in the east, and moonrise is at about sunset. If the clouds don’t obscure it too badly it should be a huge moon.

Between the big bad moon and the unsettled weather the opening day holds a lot of promise. I can tell you for sure that the deer were very active last night. I saw a lot on the way home from work.

Beyond the opening day of fishing, Saturday is also the Kentucky Derby. The nice folks at Bear Point Yacht Club have a tradition of a derby party, and the ladies are encouraged to wear their nicest derby hats. Chris said that Slug sent a picture, and here it is. Very nice..

This week’s rain and warm weather had a lot of effect on the great outdoors. The understory in the woods is starting to get a nice green carpet as plants emerge, and I expect to see trillium soon. A lot of trees and brush are starting to fill in a little with leaves, and I can’t see as far into the woods as I could a few days or a week ago. The frogs in/around the pond have been noisy, and there were a lot of moths and bugs out last night. Spring is here, hopefully for good this time.

The rain will be good for the whitewater rafting. I am not expecting huge  water levels out of it, but it will be a rising river and well into the fun zone for the weekend. Right now the Peshtigo is running about 300cfs, and is on the rise. That is about +1 for now, and we could add an inch or two by Saturday noon thanks to the Thursday rain taking a few days to reach the whitewater stretch.

The weather outlook might not be perfect this weekend, but I think that fishermen have a lot on their side with the weather and the moon phase. A fella might want to spend some of his worm money on a helmet and body armor, because the fish will be jumping into the boats on their own, tired of waiting for you to bait the hook.. Ok, maybe not, but it was funny when he said it.

Speaking of baiting hooks, I did a web site for a guy south of the flowages that makes a neat little gadget that helps you get the line through the hook eye.

I have one of these , and as the local phrase goes, it is slicker ‘n owl snot*. It is a handy item, and it is available at local bait stores in Crivitz and Townsend as well as on line at Hookholder.net. The guy that sells them is a nice guy too.

 * I am curious how they established the lubricity or friction coefficient of that particular substance, or why they researched it, but that might be a different day’s topic.

Gas prices locally have been in the $3.83 range for a while now, but the market is down about a dime today. I don’t know if that will translate through to a drop in pump prices in time for the weekend, but it is moving in the right direction.

I think that is about it for today. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Monday April 30th, 2012

Greetings and welcome!

We had a rainy start to what looks like a rainy week. Monday brought rain early that was enough to get everything wet, but not enough to make puddles or run off. The local mechanical rain gauges said 0.06″-0.08″, but that seems a little low.

Our Tuesday looks nice with highs in the mid-70s, but with some strong winds kicking up in the afternoon.

From Tuesday night through Saturday afternoon there is rain in the forecast daily. The HPC forecast puts us in the 1.0-1.25″ range for the next five days.

I am not expecting constant rain for the next 5 days, there will be breaks in the action. It looks like 3 different storms that could affect our weather, and there will be heavier rain at times and breaks between them.

Also very notable, our daytime high temperatures will move from the 40s and 50s up into the 70s as the storms draw up warmer air. That will be a welcome change from the 44 degree high of last Thursday and the 23 degree low temp that we had last Saturday night.

Right now the forecast for Saturday is for upper 60s with some rain in the morning clearing out early afternoon. That is a little specific for 5 days out, but that is what the GFS is showing.  Follow that up with a pretty clear 60 degree day for Sunday.

The fishing forecast looks pretty good. I am a believer in solunar tables, and opening day Saturday happens to be the peak of peaks, the full moon. I am also of the opinion that rain makes fish more active feeders as it washes food into the water. It will also be a little unsettled in the weather department, bringing in an overcast Saturday morning. I would guess that the water temperature is a little ahead of normal too. It certainly sounds promising.

Trout fishermen will find rivers that are rising. They are low right now with pretty normal summer flows, but we are expecting an inch plus of rain this week. The increased flow and food that it washes in should again be a good thing to get the fish biting.

The great outdoors is greening up slowly, but this week’s rain will probably change that. It is about time for the first grass cutting. The choke cherries are still blooming. The red maples in the yard are heavy with little helicopter bunches. I haven’t seen any ferns yet. Gators and ticks have been minimal. The frogs in the pond have been noisy on warmer days, and will probably be loud with the warm wet week ahead.

I don’t have any events on the calendar for this weekend.

People that haven’t been in the area for a while might be surprised that the big rock at the west end of Hwy X at Parkway Rd got a lot smaller. Early this spring they blasted the big rock and moved it back about 50 feet. Now the road from Ranch Rd down to the boat landing just south of X has been pulverized and is in gravel. They are pretty far along in the construction, so hopefully they will pave it soon.

That is news for today. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB