2012

Saturday October 13th, 2012

Greetings and welcome!

My apologies that I and so late with this update, I have had a very busy week.

Anyway, we have a wet weekend ahead. If it were two months from now I’d be very excited about the pending storm. Considering the timing of it in prime bow season, the weekend of my friend Dale’s softball benefit tournament, and with the other events, I have a little less enthusiasm for it.

I just did quite a bit of research on the storm and it is a fairly unusual storm for this time of year.  The NWS forecast discussion points out that the storm will bring precipitable moisture levels in the atmosphere up to around 1.5″, something like two standard deviations above normal for this time of year. The atmosphere will be loaded with moisture, bringing the possibility of some good downpours.

They said that CAPE values would be in the 500-1,000 J/kg range. Above 1,000 you are getting into a moderately unstable atmosphere, so there is a chance of some thunderstorms.

There is a big high pressure system centered over about Pennsylvania with a large clockwise circulation. To our west around Montana there is a large low pressure system rotating counterclockwise.  Between the two of them they act like a pump and pump up warm moist air from the south.

Upper air temperatures will increase something like 15ºC over the next day, and as I mentioned above, there will be some moisture.  With the track of the low pressure it is a classic southern storm like we hope for in the winter.

Like a lot of them, it looks like it will start out with the focus of the moisture downstate, and then we catch up. The QPFs that I am getting as of 2am Saturday are showing us getting between 0.25-0.5″ of rain for Saturday, and then Saturday night and Sunday bringing the total up to 1.0-1.25″ by late Sunday.

As with any storm there will probably be waves of more and less rain.

On the other side of this Thursday night/Friday morning brought a cold night. Athelstane Weather marked a low of 24.6 for Friday morning. It was a clear and starry night, and definitely a hard freeze. There were ice crystals on things like the porch rail, and the steps were a little slick. It wasn’t quite cold enough to worry about water systems, but it was getting close.

Deer sightings this week have been occasional. Wednesday night I spotted a couple of  fair sized bucks when I came around the corner and surprised them in the road. I didn’t get to see them sparring, but I’d guess that is why they were together. I didn’t see any Thursday night, and Friday night brought a single doe.

In events this weekend..

I mentioned a benefit softball tournament for a friend Dale. Dale is family over at Kosir’s and a great guy. He is one of those guys that it is always fun to be around. He had a bad car accident a few weeks ago an has spent the last couple of weeks in the ICU. There is a benefit softball tournament in Crivitz this weekend, and a raffle fundraiser January 19th.

I am pretty sure that there is a fishing tournament on High falls this weekend, that is what one of the guys at work mentioned.

Otherwise here is Chris’ event calendar..

Beyond that I have been pulling some really long work hours recently, so I am not quite as up to date as I would like to be. Again my apologies.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Tuesday October 9th, 2012

Greetings and welcome!

Well it sure feels like Fall now. It was a windy and chilly weekend, and we even had a few snow showers Saturday. That would be the first snow of the year that I have seen. Apparently areas up by Vilas Co saw some lake effect snow that actually accumulated. We didn’t have any accumulation here, but it was enough to make the roads wet.

On my grocery run to Lakewood Monday night at about sunset the deer were out in force. I saw a couple of harems of does before I got far. Along F about halfway to Lakewood, not far from where the guys park their truck in the ditch to hunt, there was a dandy buck. He was a nice one.

On the way back there were more does in totally different spots. Not too far from the Silver Cliff line I spotted another dandy buck standing on the road shoulder. Again he was a nice one. He really wanted to run in front of the truck and wreck it, but I was running 55 or so and swerved a little, so he had to settle for a glancing blow off of the back two feet of the box. He didn’t make a dent, only a clean spot, and he was nowhere to be seen, so I suspect that he still lives.

The lessons here.. drivers watch out, the deer are out and active. Hunters- the wolves and cougars and coyotes didn’t get them all. I probably saw 20 does and 2 different very nice bucks in the 12 miles between here and Lakewood.

I also spotted a black bear Friday night near High Falls Flowage by X. He ran in front of the truck and only because I am fast on the brakes we didn’t get a closer meeting. It was probably a little bigger than waist high on me, but was a real fatty.

The windy weekend definitely stripped a lot of leaves off of the trees. All of my maple, beech and other early color trees are now bare. The cottonwood/poplar family still has some color, and the oaks are nice. There is still a nice color show, but it is a late season one and there is a lot of bare stuff.

Over the weekend Chris and I did a photo booth at Liana Sikora and Tyler Richardson’s wedding at Waube Lodge. A lot of you might know Liana as one of the twin girls from Rapids Resort. It was our first try at a photo booth so it came with some lessons, but what a total blast. The people had a great time and had us laughing out loud with their antics. There are links to a regular and mobile friendly gallery on the front page of Silvercliff and NorthernDestinations.com, and now here.

www.northerndestinations.com/lianaswedding

Congratulations and best wishes to Liana and Tyler!

That is it for today’s visit. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Thursday October 4th, 2012

Greetings and welcome!

The Fall colors hit their peak this week and it was spectacular. Almost all of the species were turning colors at once with even the oaks getting into the act. Usually it is a little more stretched out, but this year it came all at once. The Green Bay TV weather guy on last night said that it was the earliest color peak in 16 years.

Yesterday and today the leaves were falling at an increasing pace. Now we have some wind blowing them around, and my early trees like the maples are getting pretty bare.

The next couple of days will not be good for the Fall colors. We have a pretty significant cold front and a storm in the area that will bring a lot of gusty winds Friday and Saturday. It will also bring a temperature drop from our 70ish weather today to highs in the upper 40s for Friday and Saturday.

The storm is a pretty good one, and it is bringing the first winter storm warnings of the season for northwestern and northern MN. They could see 6-12 and some very gusty winds. Fortunately for us the storm is expected to track northeast up into Canada.

That isn’t to say that we won’t see some effect from it. Vilas Co could see 1-3″ of lake effect snow Friday night and Saturday as the very cold air blows across the relatively warm waters of Lake Superior. While we are not expecting any accumulating snow there is the possibility of a stray flake or two being spotted Friday night  or Saturday.

As mentioned above, the high temperature behind the front will struggle to get up to 50 Friday and Saturday, and might make it Sunday. Overnight lows should be at or a little below freezing right through the weekend.

Here is the NWS take on it..

• Friday Mostly sunny, with a high near 47. West wind 14 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph.
• Friday Night Mostly cloudy, with a low around 31. West wind 11 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.
• Saturday Mostly cloudy, with a high near 45. Northwest wind 10 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.
• Saturday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 27.
• Sunday Sunny, with a high near 50.

We have some events coming up for the weekend.

Wausaukee is having their 4th Annual Fall Festival Saturday Oct 6th from 9-3. They will have crafters, a farmer’s market, live music, horse drawn wagon rides, bake sales, live music and more. Here is the poster (PDF).

If you are looking for a wood burning stove Minor’s is having an open house and sale on their inventory of wood burners the next two weekends. Click on the poster to make it bigger. I got my Napoleon stove from Minor’s and I really like it.

This coming Monday volunteers are heading out to start brushing snowmobile trails on the Iron Snowshoe snowmobile trail system, and they will take all of the help that they can get. If you are interested contact your favorite Iron Snowshoe member business.

Next weekend ( Sat Oct 13th) brings the 3rd Annual CL/Mountain Lions Club Oktoberfest Celebration 2-7 PM at the Crooked Lake Community Center.

That is the news from here for today. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Monday October 1, 2012

Greetings and welcome!

The Fall colors are out in force and are probably close to peak. It has been a strange year for the colors, but it is a very nice show.

The color came on really fast last week. Areas that had only a few splashes early week were halls of color by the weekend. A lot of species came into color at once, making it a nice show.

On my trip to Wabeno and Lakewood Saturday the colors were nice and not quite at peak. I found that surprising since my neighborhood came on so strong over the weekend, and there are nice Fall colors well downstate.

Here are a few pictures taken between Silver Cliff and Wabeno, and on 32 heading to Lakewood..

Here is the event calendar..

We had a great weekend for weather with nice days and temps around 70. There was a big full moon and fairly clear nights that let it really shine bright. Apparently there were some northern lights too.

This week in weather will start out nice, but a late week cold front will bring big changes. Today and Tuesday could get close to 70. By Friday and the weekend we will be looking for a high of 50 or so. The cold front should get here about Thursday, and it should bring some wind and a little rain. It won’t be quite cold enough to snow, but it might be close.

October can be like that with the big swings in temperature.

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

RJB