It looks like the warm weather this week helped to open up some lakes. I have reports that High Falls and Caldron opened up. I haven’t seen the small lakes yet, but the warm week took down a lot of ice.
Also if you get a chance to go rafting this weekend pounce on it. It looks like the peak of the high water is close (or maybe not?) and the Peshtigo is running +30″ right now. That is some really huge whitewater. Don’t miss out, call Kosir’s today.
The weekend weather really brought around a lot of changes. The 70ish and mostly sunny weather knocked the winter down pretty good. There are still patches of snow in sheltered areas and in the woods, but a lot went away since last Thursday.
Someone asked if the ground is still frozen. Yes and no. In sunny spots the frost is mostly out and the ground is getting firmer.My driveway is pretty firm and the very first green grass is growing along the sunny part.
Places with mixed sun and shade are still sloppy with frost-out mud. I had spots that my foot sunk into the mud 3″ over the weekend. Shady spots can still hold 6-12″ of snow and still have frost in the ground.
Taken last Sunday afternoon-Still 6-12″ in shady spots
That is what I see right here in Silver Cliff. I would expect that if you go north 10 miles or more they are not quite as far along with the spring thaw.
The big warm spell also did wonders for breaking down the ice on area lakes. Prior to late last week some lakes had 20+ inches of ice, and north of Hwy it was closer to 30 on some of them. The opening of fishing this coming weekend looked pretty grim. That changed somewhat.
When I went past Caldron Falls Flowage close to the river and past Boat Landing 11 it was open as far as the eye could see, probably at least down to Crane’s Bay. A friend said that the big end still holds a lot of ice. (Update- A FaceBook post from Fishers Camp shows an open bay.)
When I went past Chute Pond along 32 Monday evening the little bit that I could see from the road was about 40% open, mostly along the shoreline.
Maiden Lake looked like it was pretty well iced over, though the ice looked rotten from the sun.
An over the bar report had High Falls mostly clear of ice except out by the islands. The Boat Landing right by Hwy X looked open when I went past Monday afternoon, but the parking lot looked soft.
So.. it looks like there are lakes to fish without the ice auger, but some will need to melt more before you could fish them. It is going to vary by the lake and depend on the weather this week.
That kind of goes hand in hand with the opening of the ATV trails. They have to wait until the ground firms up from the spring frost out mud before opening the trails back up. As I mentioned, I was sinking 3″ into the mud last weekend in some spots. I also walked across places that had 2″ of ice and 6-12″ of snow. ATV trails sometimes open the first weekend in May, but they won’t this year.
The warm weather melted a lot of the snow and put a lot of water into the rivers in a hurry. The Peshtigo River is really cranking, running about +30″ right now, and at 1,800cfs. That is huge. I consider anything above 300cfs the fun zone, and 800cfs really fun. Running 1,800 is monstrous.
If you want to see really big water whitewater, call Kosir’s today. This week rafting will be outrageous, and it won’t fall much by the weekend.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that rafting will probably be above average right through Memorial Day. There is still a lot of winter to melt off, and the watershed is very well charged with water.
The warm weather has brought the first frogs to the little pond out back. Both the croakers and spring peepers are quite vocal right now, and it is really loud. It is pretty late in the month for first frogs, but they finally are here. The pond’s water is at near record high levels too.
This week brings an interesting weather forecast. The scenario has a stormy boundary between colder and warm air setting up right over the state and camping there through the weekend. That is expected to bring unsettled weather and a chance of rain daily up until about Sunday.
There are a lot of question marks involved here. Right now it looks like the boundary is set up about 150 miles to our west. If it stays there, we will stay on the warmer side and miss most of the precip. Right now it looks like central MN and far NW WI could see some significant snow out of it.
The GFS forecast model is showing it eventually inching this way and having more of a effect on us late week before sputtering out over the weekend.
I have seen similar scenarios before and it is a fairly low confidence forecast. It could end up as shown, but I wouldn’t bet my last Oreo on it. I would go ahead and plan for a good weekend with an outside chance of rain, at least until it gets closer and proves me wrong.
Beyond the weekend the GFS is showing much warmer and rather active weather for the next few weeks.
That is the news for today. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!
Last weekend was a very fun one around Kosir’s and on the Peshtigo River. Quite a few people took to the river to brave the icy waters and challenge the big waves and rapids. The river was running about +10 to +12 and it ate more than a few paddlers.
By the 3pm trip the sun was doing its thing. The snow in the woods was getting soft, and the snow on the trail that I walked on top of at 10am was now soft for the first 4-5″ of its knee deep depth. On the way to the river I saw where streams of water were making thier way down the road from the snow banks on the sides.
The river came up a couple of inches over the course of the day. Ask any experienced paddler, and they will tell you that a rising river is a lot pushier than a falling one. Saturday afternoon it was rising fast and issuing lessons. I had a lot of Code 209 pictures where there was a raft with two people in the rapid, but only a paddle or helmet was showing.
At the end of the noon trip some sharp eyed bystanders spotted these guys along the river.
This weekend and next week will be spectacular for whitewater rafting. The weather from Friday to Monday is expected to start in the 60s Friday and Saturday and get up to 70 by Monday. Considering that it is still like winter in the watershed, the warm sunny days will put a lot of melt water into the river really fast and make it just roar. This is the weekend between the weather and the water. May 4th & 11th look very good too, but I can’t promise 60+ weather to go with the big water.
It does not look like April 23rd around here. The driveway is still deep with mud from the frost and the rain. The lakes are still frozen over and not really making any moves toward thawing out. When I was near Wabeno yesterday I’d guess that they had 85-90% snow cover left in the woods. Only sunny spots were bare. Here is the kicker.. We haven’t had a 60 degree day yet. Our normal high is 60, but we haven’t made it out of the 40s and 50s yet this year.
That frozen lake thing is throwing a lot of people curve balls. A check of the Lake-Link web site had fishing reports with 20-30″ of ice on Oneida Co lakes not too far from here. One friend walked across Chute pond last Friday, pretty comfortable that the 24″ of ice would hold them. When I went by Waubee Lake yesterday it was not really melting, not even by the edges. That is kind of scary stuff considering that fishing opens in 11 days.
The warm weather this weekend will be a welcome change. Last Saturday I was wearing long Johns, polar fleece, and wearing the boots that I snowmobile in. It will be nice to trade that in for jeans and a light jacket. The boots will probably stay, mostly because of the mud and melt water that I expect.
This year will be remembered as the year that winter hung on until late April. We have it bad, but to our northwest it is worse. Last week there was lake effect snow in the western UP and Vilas Co, and some places got a foot of the stuff and near blizzard conditions. Yesterday’s storm had the potential to bring those same areas another 5-10″. It could be worse.
Well I am going to run along and fill up the day. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!
This was an interesting week for weather. Monday we got the rebound from the snow and cold over the weekend and it actually went above 50. It was a very windy day though, and there were a couple of the punky dead popples and birches that got taken down. Healthy trees did fine.
The warm and sunny day humbled the snow pack, and the driveway is almost clear and fairly firm now. That is a dramatic change from what it looked like Sunday. I haven’t been north of C where it was still winter last week, but it is probably still like that now.
We were expecting two plus inches of rain late this week and even had flood watches out. That did not work out according to plan, the storms went south and east of where they were expected. We did see over 1/2″ of rain Sunday night/Monday morning, and a little yesterday and today, but not anything like where the storm hit. A little south of the state line they had 5.5″ of rain yesterday/last night. According to the USGS gauge by Kosir’s we are at about an inch for the week so far.
The Peshtigo River is on the rise. People going whitewater rafting this weekend will be in for a very good ride. The river is flowing at about 550CFS, I’d guess at about +8 or 9. It is on an upward trend, and the wet week will help. The big push of melt water has started, and it only goes up from here.
There are some events this weekend.
There is a meat raffle at Fisher’s Camp being put on by the old owners Glenn and Debbie as well as Sally and Mark. It is Saturday and it starts at 2pm.
There is also an indoor mini-golf tournament around Athelstane. Here is a poster bit from Facebook.
The Curve Inn is having their monthly birthday party for people born in April Saturday night, and this month’s theme is goofy hats. That could get interesting.
There are things that I am missing here or haven’t covered yet, but it has been a day of surprises, and I have to go and deal with the most recent one. Have a good Thursday and thank you for visiting!
