2018

Sunday April 15th, 2018

11pm- I guess that we really did dodge a bullet on this storm at only 11+”. A lot of Facebook friends have it a lot worse.. cars completely covered by snowdrifts, doors drifted in 6 feet plus deep. Here is the best one so far from the Shawano Co Sherriff’s office. This was in Tigerton, where someone said that they had about 33″, and it drifted.

9pm- There are a couple of blobs of snow on the radar but the storm is pretty much over. I went out at 7pm and cleaned up the driveway where the county snowplow leaves a pile and a couple of passes on the main driveway. I had two additional inches on the car since I cleaned it off at 3. I measured 10-11″ consistently with a foot in deep spots..

From the sound of it we got off easy. The TV showed areas 40-100 miles from here that got over 20″ (Lena) and one spot had 29″ (Shiocton).

One notable aspect of this storm is how cold it was. According to Weather Underground the average high for 4-15 is 55 with an average low of 27. Most area stations stayed in the low or mid-20s. Just think.. if we were 20 degrees above normal instead of 20 degrees below normal it would have been 75 out today.

One happy thought.. I did not have to wear Repel at all today. Not a mosquito in sight.

Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

5pm- The snow has stopped for now. We have had 1-2″ since I plowed. Is it really over?

3pm- There is a lot of snow out there. I measured 9-10″ consistently, and there were deeper spots. I am very happy that I plowed and ran the snowblower, both had about as full of a load as I like to run them.

(I am near Hwy C & F in Silver Cliff) County C was dead quiet, there was no waiting for traffic when I turned around and cleared the mailbox. It was about 3-4″ deep. I know that it had been plowed at least once. They left a nice pile at the end of the driveway and mauled my mailbox.

150pm- 7-8″ for sure, probably more where the wind pushed it.

130PM

That is more like it. It has been snowing like this for a few hours now and it is adding up. Time to go plow while it is manageable. Looks like some heavy waves on the way. I will bring the tape measure along when I go out. RJB

10:45am

Greetings and welcome!

We are under a winter storm warning, but only a couple of miles southeast they are under a blizzard warning.

A Blizzard Warning (code: BZW) is an advisory issued by the National Weather Service of the United States which means sustained winds or frequent gusts of 35 mph / 15 m/s or greater with heavy snow is forecast for a period of 3 hours or more. A tends to reduce visibility to 1/4 of a mile (400 m) or less.

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Ok.. umm.. we don’ have that here. I went out at 10:30am and measured snow in the yard on the north, east and south sides of the house. My lowest measurement was 3″ and my highest was six. Most were between 3- 5″. The wind was blowing the snow at an angle but it was not particularly strong wind or heavy snow.

There were a lot of places on the morning news that had a lot stronger winds and a lot more snow. I am not sure how or why we are getting off easy, but it seems to be going that way. I was thinking to myself on the way back in.. what is this, snowmobile season? We are supposed to get a foot plus and a blizzard and we have 3-5″ and a little wind?

I am a little puzzled by it, but believe me I am not complaining.

I checked the WPS power outages web site and they are doing a lot better than expected too. There are no outages in our area, and a grand total of 225 people out in their entire service area. They probably aren’t too mad about it either.

Here are a couple of pictures..

RJB

Saturday 4-14-18

Greetings and welcome!

This is one crazy snowstorm.

Last night the radar looked impressive. I woke up quite surprised that we only had about an inch and a half of new snow. I expected much more. Going to Lakewood on Hwy F, starting at about Wheeler Lake, they had about 4″ on the ground. The TV said that Shawano had 15″ and they are what, about 60 miles away? Crazy.

Today the radar again was quite impressive. It snowed all day and into the night. Looking out of the front door at 8pm I have just a little accumulation on my windshield wipers. If I went by only looking at the radar I would expect 6″  just from today alone, but my storm grand total so far is less than 2″.

At that point I think that the word of the day should be virga. That is where precip falls but evaporates before it gets to the ground.

The NWS is still predicting 5″ tonight, 9″ tomorrow, and 2″ Sunday night. If you add that to what they got in  Shawano last night some of the crazy 24-34″ totals are not that far out of line.

Today was not a pleasant day. There were strong winds blowing last night’s snow across fields, out of trees, and off of rooftops. There were occasional flurries where snow pellets actually made it to the ground. Late afternoon my car said that it was 27 degrees out. The only thing missing was the snow. It looks like it is still coming.

One element of this storm that has my attention is the wind. The ground is soft from the frost coming out of it, so in theory the trees don’t have their usual anchor. My guess is that if we have heavy snow and strong winds as predicted we could see some come down and possibly hit power lines. We didn’t have any of that today that I saw, but the heavy snow was missing. I am hoping for the best for tomorrow.

The first whitewater rafting trips of the year running the Peshtigo River with Kosir’s went out this weekend. We had groups of the hearty go out both Friday and Saturday. The weather wasn’t balmy, but it was a lot warmer than last weekend. The water level varied from +6 to +8.

RJB

Friday April 13th, 2018

Greetings and welcome!

As expected the forecast has calmed down a little. The peak snow total that I saw predicted was 34″. Now we are more level headed with  8-14 inches of snow . We will see round one today, then a break, then the main event tonight into Sunday.

It wouldn’t surprise me to still see significant snow totals, the forecast models still have us in the 1-2 inch rainfall equivalent bands. Right now the models that I looked at all have us in at about 14″.

I still have concerns about wet heavy snow and the wind combining with the soft muddy ground to take down some trees, so I am expecting some power outages.

It still looks like a significant storm with 12+ inches of snow and a lot of wind.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

April 12, 2018

Greetings and welcome!

Thursday afternoon

Here is a pinpoint prediction of new snow near my house over the next 5 days from the European model. That same model had Crivitz closer to two feet. The snow is expected to come a little at a time, with about a foot by Saturday night and the rest by Monday.

Something that will be a concern is the wind. The forecasts include wind gusts in the 30-40mph range. With some heavy snow on the trees and the soft ground from the frost coming out of it, there is a chance of some trees coming down. At that point I am not just getting the plow truck and firewood squared away, I am preparing for some time with the power out.

I am skeptical of this forecast. A lot of well advertised big storms don’t work out as expected. I said that last time and the 11″ of snow really came. Can we believe this one? I am not sure but the Boy Scout in me demands that I be prepared so I am off to go get ready.

RJB

PS- I just saw that the latest GFS model is backing off on the snow, and has us only in for about a foot.

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Thursday am

I have been watching our weekend storm closely. The models have been very consistent with a strong storm slowly moving over the area between Friday and Sunday night or possibly into Monday.

The guidance that I use has been showing the potential for 2-4″.. of rainfall equivalent. Usually I use a 10-12″ to the inch of rain to convert that to snowfall. Because it will start as rain, turn to a mix and then snow I am inclined to use about an 8:1 ratio. That still puts us in for a tremendous storm.

Right now the NWS is being very reserved and is not starting to predict totals. This was on the morning news on WBAY Channel 2 out of Green Bay this morning. My guidance supports these total. Buckle up for this one!

RJB