October 2019

Saturday 10-12-19

First snowflakes in Silver Cliff!

Greetings and welcome!

We had a storm hit us late this week that brought some rain but it also brought a drop in temperatures. A couple of days ago it was almost 70 outside. Today we are in the 40s.

Last night we had our first low temperatures in the 30s. The TV said that Wabeno hit 31. I did not see any signs of frost on the ground or windshield this morning so it was not a very hard frost or freeze.

This afternoon the radar was showing some patchy areas of snow over us. Several trips to the window found no snow falling. As of 4pm it was snowing but it is too light to photograph. The radar shows more on the way. We could actually see a little white grass or slushy car hoods if the storm gets a little carried away.

Fall colors- In my opinion the colors peaked Thursday. It was beautiful just about anywhere. Mother nature decided that it would be a short show. Friday’s rain and wind took some leaves down. Today we had 30+mph winds that took more. There will be fall color for a while yet, but some are on the way out.

RJB

Tuesday 10-8-19

Greetings and welcome!

I am not going to spend a lot of time here because it is not raining outside and it will soon be over 50 degrees. At this time of year I need every hour outside that I can muster when the weather is nice.

The two main topics today are the weather and the fall colors. Let’s start with the fall colors.

It has been a strange year for our foliage. Spring greening seemed to come about two weeks late. The fall colors are having a strange year too. The early colors came later than usual, and the later colors are not here yet.

We had some wind Sunday and Monday that took down some leaves from the very earliest colors. The sumac are pretty well gone along with some maples. At the same time some of the trees that are glorious in the fall are still in pretty much full green. The patchwork hillsides are kind of there but not really in their full glory yet.

The TV showed a graphic that we are right on the line between some color and peak color. I am not sure what to think about that, it seems like there are multiple peaks of color, and this year it is stretched out a little. One thing that I am sure of is that there is still a lot of fall color to come.

It finally stopped raining. Sunday was supposed to be a nice day but our fickle weather still managed a few passing showers and some mist. Yesterday was just plain a nice fall day. Today we have sun and could see the mid or upper 60s. The nice weather should last through most of Thursday.

We have not had our first frost or first snowflakes yet this fall. Both could come over the weekend. There is a storm coming late week that seems like a season changer. Today, Wednesday and Thursday we are looking at nice days with high temperatures in the mid to upper 60s. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday we are looking at high temperatures in the low to mid-40s and lows close to freezing. The rain is expected Thursday through Saturday night, and there is a decent chance that the rain will be snow or a mix toward the end of the storm. Our first frost seems likely over the weekend.

It is one of my little beliefs that the first snow can come anytime around October 10^th. It looks like that is on track again this year. I am not sure if it will add up to minor accumulations or just be a sloppy rain but it wouldn’t shock me to see some white grass. It is a little early in the week to do more than guess.

Today I am going to make a first visit to the firewood yard in quite a while. I have been incredibly busy with work and other people’s stuff and have not cut the first stick of wood yet. I am probably going to want to move that up the priority list a little. The daytime temperatures have been ok, but I have been running the wood burner at night. If we are going to have high temperatures in the low 40s that will likely change, so chop chop.

There were some kayakers around last weekend paddling the Peshtigo River. That is still well above normal, and over the weekend they found river levels in the +11 to +12” range. This morning it is down to about a +8”.

We have some events this weekend. In Crooked Lake there is an Octoberfest Saturday. The Ranger City Riders are having a fall color ATV/UTV ride in Amberg Saturday. The Near North Riders are having a brat fry at the Nimrod in Athelstane Saturday. I think that there might be a fall thing going on in Lakewood this weekend, but I haven’t seen an ad for it in the paper or on the Oconto Co website. Not sure about that one, my travels have not taken me that way in a while.

There is a weekend Haunted house on Camp 10 & Moonshine hill Rd through October, and the Corn Maze & Pumpkins on Nejedlo Rd just west of 141 (Just south of Wausaukee) is open.

That pretty much wraps it up for me for today. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday October 3rd, 2019

Greetings and welcome!

When I did my update earlier in the week I was sure that I was missing an event. It haunted me until I figured it out. Saturday is Wausaukee’s Fall Festival. They will have vendors, a farmers market, live music, and free horse drawn wagon rides. This is all right on Main St in Wausaukee.

The weather for the weekend looks like a 50/50 split. The NWS says that rain will start early Saturday morning and continue into Saturday night. They are looking at a 90% chance Saturday and 70% Saturday night

More of interest to me is both Saturday and Sunday are expected to be windy days with winds up to 30mph. Mother Nature just can’t let us have a nice fall color show without blowing some of it away. Not to worry, the fall colors are a little behind this year. The maple, beech, and cottonwood(popple) are all in color right now. Later species are not even starting yet. The patchwork hillsides are getting there but are still a little early.

The fall temperatures are making a return after a warm wet week. Tonight and Friday night we could see low temperatures around 38 degrees, and Saturday night the expected low is 45. The TV says that we could see a little patchy frost tonight in some areas. Daytime temperatures are expected to be in the mid-50s through Saturday and Sunday could get close to 60.

The USGS gauge by Rapids Resort/Kosir’s shows 1.2″ of rainfall since Monday and a 30 day total of 6.4″.

Will it ever stop raining!?! The forecast today shows dry weather possible Sunday-Wednesday or Thursday of next week. I have three decks to stain & seal before winter and they are just waterlogged from all of the rain. It seems like we can’t get three days in a row without some rain. Hopefully they will dry out enough to treat before the temperature goes below 50º. My Magic 8 Ball just laughed at me when I asked if we might have three or four dry days before it got too cold. Not cool.

One last thought.. beware of deer up by the roads. The rain makes them move around a lot and they seem to like the green grass in the ditches. They get stupid in the fall anyway as the rut approaches, and now the wet weather has them active by the roads too. Be careful.

That is it for me today. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Tuesday October 1 2019

Greetings and welcome!

Well guess what? It rained today. It rained yesterday too. There is another chance of rain Wednesday night and Saturday night too.

The storm tonight has us on the northern precipitation bands. The southern precip bands are really heavy and some places south of Lake Winnebago have flash flood and flood warnings out. My frequent thought watching the radar is that this would be a good snow storm for us, probably at least a 3-6″ snow.

At any rate the puddles, ponds, swamps, and lowlands are all full of water. The Peshtigo River continues to run at about a +6″, probably 5-6″ above its typical flow. The ground is plenty soggy.

You have seen me suggest that the USGS rainfall gauge understated what I thought that our rainfall was that day many times. I checked the graph and it shows 6.59″ for the past 30 days. That is plenty of rain, especially after our wet summer.

The damp weather and wet ground have produced quite a few mushrooms and fungi, many of which I have never seen before. Again I will try to get some pictures.

Our wet pattern is also a warm one and I don’t see a chance of snow anytime soon. My standard thought is that we could have snow anytime after October 10th. This year it might be a little later in the month. We still have not had our first frost yet. They did have a big storm in East Glacier National Park in Montana. Five feet of snow fell in 24 hours.

The view out of my kitchen window this morning was a beautiful one. The fog and mist from the warm wet weather shrouded the trees that were bright with fall color.

The fall colors are getting really nice. A few days ago there was color but I wasn’t all that impressed. My ride today was beautiful. My travels took me from Silver Cliff to Crooked Lake and to Crivitz and back home via Hwy A. The maples and beeches are just coming into their prime. Some have leaves that are partially green and bright yellow on the ends. The wet weather and heavy overcast made the colors stand out even more. I wish that I wasn’t in such a big hurry today, I would have loved to have done about 100 pictures.

This weekend there is a gun show in Crivitz, and the Happy Schnaaps Combo is playing at a party at the Pour House in Lakewood. In Townsend there is an ATV fall color ride, free booyah, and a meat raffle with the Old Town Hall restaurant and and the Red Arrow Snowmobile/ATV Club.

Last weekend and this week roughly 125 volunteers from Team Rubicon are in town. They are a veterans service group that goes around and helps with disaster recovery. They are here to clear decimated snowmobile trails in Forest, Oconto, and Langlade Counties.

The big storm wrecked over 400 square miles of forest and a lot of the snowmobile trails in three counties are in terrible shape. The clubs and forest service got the ATV trails open in about a month. They have about 400 miles of forest roads open, and almost 200 miles remain closed. The snowmobile trails were a lower priority and now need to be addressed. My hat is off to those volunteers from Team Rubicon who came with people and equipment to deal with the disaster.

Feeding 125 hard working people 3 meals a day for  9 days is no small affair. Donations and volunteers are welcome! Donations can be sent via Chute Pond Snowmobile Club, The Team Rubicon web site, or Kelly’s Mountaintop in Mountain.

That is it for me tonight. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB