July 2015

Friday night 7-17-15

Greetings and welcome!

It is the eve of the World Championship Hog Wrestle at the Caldron Falls Bar. Thousands will come to join the fun, and I will be one of them. The hog wrestling action starts at noon till about 5, and the fun and goes on into the night with live music. It is rain or shine, and as always you will want to bring your safe ride home/designated driver.

The weather for tomorrow has me a little nervous. It will be hot and muggy with temps in the 85-90ºF range. The NWS has the rain chances at 50%, with the best chance between 1-7pm.

The setup with the hot humid air and a cold front coming though in the afternoon is impressive. We will have a very unstable atmosphere and a cold front for a trigger. It should bring a line of strong storms at some point, and possibly even severe weather.

When I see CAPE values over 2,000 I expect that a thunderstorm is likely. Tomorrow’s maps are showing CAPE values in the 3-4,000 j/Kg range. That is impressive and kinda scary. Between the humidity and unstable air we could see some strong storms and heavy downpours.

A big factor is how much sun we get. If it stays cloudy the chances of strong storms goes down. A sunny day will bring a better chance of big storms.

Don’t let it change your day, but keep an eye on the sky and take shelter if it gets big.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Tuesday july 14th, 2015

Greetings and welcome!

Last weekend turned out pretty good considering the chances of rain late Saturday and Sunday. As it turned out we didn’t get rain until late Sunday night.

About 3am I woke up and checked the radar. There was an enormous blob of red and yellow and a pretty rowdy looking initial line of storms about two counties away and heading in this direction. I went around unplugging stuff in case of a lightning strike, and even emptied the 5 gallon pail that I use as a rain gauge. As it turned out the storm pretty much evaporated about 40 miles west of here and wasn’t much when it got here. It might have been a half inch of rain at best.

The atmosphere remained hot and juicy and Monday evening it all came together. There were many reports of wind damage south of Green Bay and in the Fox Valley and northwest. Around here it was mostly heavy rain and some rumbles of thunder.

On the way home after work I stopped to get a phone pic of this cloud about a mile east of the house. You should have seen it from the side. It was enormous.

The septic guy (Hardings) met me at the house. Before he got started and I checked the radar, and there were a couple of minor green spots to the immediate west. We tried to get ‘er done before the rain came, but it ended up with us in a heavy downpour. Apparently the storm formed right over us.

Here is a wider view of the storm. The one arrow shows my location, about a mile north of the top step of western Marinette County, and close to the edge.

The other lines show that the areas of heavier rain followed a fairly pronounced line one after another like train cars on a track. In the end my rain bucket showed about 2″ for Sunday night and Monday’s rain.

Today was much cooler and pretty windy. Tonight will be a chilly one with the cold air mass and a clear sky.

This coming weekend is a big one for events. The top of the list is Hog Wrestling at Caldron Falls Bar. This a huge event with thousands of people having a wild time.

You will want to bring your designated driver this weekend. It is always a big weekend for the OWI Task Force, the State Patrol etc. looking for drunk drivers.

Also on the event list are the Cruisin’ Oldies show at the Porterfield Country Music Festival site, and in Lakewood there is the Mardi Gras. That has live music Friday & Saturday night and Sunday afternoon There is a parade Sat morning too. There are carnival rides too. The church on the north end of town is having a big Fleazar flea market.

I am not sure, but I think that the Town of Wagner FVD picnic is this weekend, and the Town of Doty VFD picnic is this Saturday.

There is a chance of thunderstorms Thursday and Thursday night, and then we are expecting a big warm-up for the weekend. I am expecting mid-80s Friday and Saturday (Green Bay weather says 88 Sat) and then mid-80s again, Sunday with an increasing chance of a t-storm later Saturday night and Sunday. Must be July.

That is it from here. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Wednesday July 8th, 2015

Greetings and welcome!

The 4th of July weekend was pretty busy around here. The roads were already busy Thursday, and were still busy Monday. It is good to see the area busy with people having fun.

The weather wasn’t quite as nice as I expected, but it wasn’t too bad. One thing that stood out was the hazy sky. By now your news buddies have probably told you about the big fires up in Canada. Saturday was pretty hazy and had a ring around the sun. When I was in Antigo Saturday afternoon I swear that I could smell smoke above and beyond the occasional campfire. It is still hazy tonight.

Monday we had some rain as a storm moved through. I don’t have an honest total but I’d guess it for at least an inch. It left runoff tracks in the driveway and the wood cart filled up pretty good.

Farther to our south there were 4(?) EF0 and EF1 tornadoes. Those hit a few scattered spots near Shawano, Pella, and Gillett. A friend of a FaceBook friend posted a picture from Peshtigo that looked a lot like a funnel. Here in Silver Cliff it got a little windy and rained a lot, but that is about it.

This coming weekend brings two events so far. One is the Athelstane VFD Picnic on Saturday the 11th. I haven’t made it there in a few years, but I remember winning a bunch of beer in the raffles and having a good time. I am always in for a good time for a good cause.

The other event for the weekend is the Bear Point Yacht Club Menominee River Float Trip. I have always had a good time at Bear Point and this sounds like a fun one. It is hard to beat floating down a lazy river on a summer afternoon.

This coming weekend looks to be in the low to mid-80s and a little humid. As that humidity builds we could see some of those summer thunderstorms pop up late Saturday afternoon and Saturday night, and the chances go up a little for Sunday. Until later Sunday it doesn’t look like anything organized, mostly warm air in advance of some low pressure and rain Sunday night into Monday.

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

RJB

Thursday 7/2/15

Greetings and welcome!

The big weekend is almost here. Well.. as my favorite line in the movie Twister goes.. “It isn’t coming, it’s already here..“. When I went to Crivitz after work tonight it was pretty nuts. A lot of people apparently have tomorrow off, and some of them are already here. Expect some company this weekend.

I have a long list of events today.

Let’s start with Amberg. They are having a parade Saturday. That is all that I know, though I’d speculate that they are having a picnic and fireworks as well.

Here are some links to other towns and events events in no particular order.

Crivitz Ski Cats Water Ski Show & Fireworks

Twin Bridge Ski Team Water Ski Show & Fireworks

Crivitz parade picnic, and fireworks

Townsend picnic & fireworks

Kid’s Fishing Tournament-Birch Hills Resort Townsend

Friends of Mountain Ambulance Service Drive Thru Fish Fry Friday July 3rd

Fox 11 Green Bay Northeast Wisconsin Fireworks Display List

Bring Repel. Some places aren’t bad for gators (mosquitoes), some are. I used up all of my stashed cans of Repel in the past few weeks and got tagged 6.79 for a can tonight. Owie. Don’t tell the retailer, but it is still worth the money if you hit a cloud of ’em.

People that like to go out prowling for bargains will like all of the rummage sale and garage sale signs that I have been seeing the past few days. There were plenty of them so you shouldn’t have to wander far to find some bargains.

There is a 20-30% chance of showers or storms tomorrow night as a little disturbance from a low pressure area up in Canada comes our way.

It doesn’t look like much on the models, but with some sun and convection it could turn into some rain. Right now the TV weather channel is showing a line of light showers that sort of scatters as it comes our way. The GFS is showing it a little more robust than that, but mostly after dark.

Beyond that the weekend looks very nice. Until Sunday afternoon we are expecting fair weather and temps in the low to mid-80s.

The skies should be fairly clear for star gazing, but it was a full moon Wednesday. According to the solunar tables moonrise is at 9:48 Friday, and 10:28 Saturday. Sunset is at 8:45 both days.

Along that line, there is some cool stuff happening this weekend in stargazing. Take a look if you are into that sort of thing.

One last thought.. When I was going to Crivitz at about 5pm all of the road crews had cleared out of the construction zone between Crivitz and Wausaukee. It is still a construction zone, so watch out for those double fines.  They are progressing well with the passing lanes, and should be done with that phase of construction in a few weeks. It will be very nice to have those passing lanes when they are done.

That is about it from here. Have fun and be safe this weekend, and thank you for visiting!

RJB