I got a warning on my weather warning system on my phone this morning. We have some pretty dangerous wildfire conditions today. The Key elements are warm temperatures, sun, low humidity and high winds..
We have a beautiful 71 degree morning going on as of 11am. It is going to be a nice day. I can see the big pine outside of my window blowing around so the wind is already here. The NWS is predicting 11-15mph winds gusting to 30. The other key part is that the humidity is very low. Right now it is about 40% and it could go into the 20% range, really really dry. With the sun, wind, and humidity the dead grass and brush from last year will dry out fast.
Personally I would love to have a little campfire later today for happy hour. I will have to wait. Even one little spark could set off a bad fire, and with the winds it will spread really fast. No thanks.
You guys know what is best for your particular situation. Just be careful.
Here is a link to the NWS Special Weather statement-
...NEAR-CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS OVER THE WEEKEND...
It is a nice sunny morning outside this morning. The beginning of the week was cool and damp and now we have traded that for a nice weekend.
There is a lot going on this weekend. First up fishing season opens Saturday morning. The ATV trails opened today, and Kosir’s is opening whitewater rafting.
According to the USGS gauge by Kosir’s we saw about 1.75″ of rain this week. The ditches and low areas suggest that it is probably twice that much. There is standing water in any low spots and streams are flooded over their banks. This is not lost when it comes to whitewater rafting. The Peshtigo River is running at about +24″ with a little bit of an upward angle on the graph. For those of you that haven’t rafted the Peshtigo in high water I can tell you that +24″ is a great and very wild ride. it will be memorable.
Kosir’s is re-opening the campground this weekend and running raft trips in a state compliant manner. That means that you can camp, but the main shower house can’t open and raft trips will be in small groups. Rapids Resort will be open for carry-out food, ice, and package goods only.
That brings me to the next topic.. I have been seeing menus and indications that Rustic Inn and Jungle Jim’s plan on opening for carry out food soon too. I assume that they will be opening this weekend with ATV trails and fishing season opening.
I am not sure if it is going to change with the busy weekend, buy the Red Pine BP has been closing at 5pm. If that is still the case you will want to plan ahead.
Something that we had a lot of this week was wind. We had gusts yesterday that had to go 40+mph. We are expecting a little more of that this weekend. Saturday the NWS says south winds at 6-14 gusting to 25mph. Sunday they are predicting “West northwest wind 6 to 11 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 33 mph.”
There is a small area of rain coming for tonight. The NWS says that it will mainly be between 11pm and 3am, but it could bring up to 1/4″ of rain.
Other than the wind and rain we are in for a very pleasant weekend. We are expecting mostly sunny days and are likely to get into the upper 60s today, the low 70s Saturday, and mid-60’s Sunday. Get it while you can, Monday and the first part of the week temps are going to drop back down to the low 50s.
One last thought.. This might be a good weekend to go and see some of our waterfalls. The rivers are going to be really full and really moving.
That is it from here. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
It was a really nice weekend with warm days in the 60’s. To the best of my recollection, they were the warmest two days of the spring so far.
I made the best of it by cleaning up the yard, working on power equipment and all sorts of outside stuff. It wasn’t all work, and late in the day Saturday we went for a little ride. a trip to Caldron Falls Flowage found a mostly deserted lake with only a couple of people at the boat landing.
After that we went for a ride in the Nicolet to see how the spring thaw was coming along. There were some pretty deep tracks in the mud that were recent, so some of the ride was cancelled. I was surprised by how much snow still remained in sheltered areas where the sun could not hit it. I guess that it makes sense since it has not been a warm spring.
That does not bode well for opening of ATV trails in the short term. The only good thing here is that there is not much frost in the ground under that snow, so once it warms up the ground should firm up pretty quickly.
I have seen a couple of posts about that. One was from the Dusty Trails club showing long stretches of the trail still under water. The other was from a different club saying that the USFS will not let them onto trails to do brushing, signs, and other trail prep work. I am not sure if that is COVID related or if it is just too wet. Whatever the case the ATV trails will remain closed for the short term.
The whitewater rafting is still closed too. It is a real tragedy too because river levels have been outstanding for the past month. The Peshtigo got as high as +37″. It remains over the 12″ mark today, and is on the rise. The rain this week will add to the flow. It just slays me that only private boaters like canoeists and kayakers can enjoy it.
The first wave of rain came last night and into today. It didn’t seem like a lot, but much of it came in the overnight hours when I was not paying attention. The USGS gauge by Kosir’s shows about 0.30″ of rain.
The next wave is expected late Tuesday through Wednesday afternoon. That one could bring a little more rain and maybe even a thunderstorm Tuesday night.
After that the forecast looks very nice through the weekend. We are looking at sunny and 58 Thursday, 65 Friday, 69 Saturday, and 63 Sunday. You can sign me up for a whole bunch of that.
The grass is green but not really growing yet. My sister downstate has dandelions already. We definitely aren’t there yet. There is not much for green yet in general and you can still see well into the woods. I have seen a few things sprouting in my travels and I expect the explosive greening of the land and forests to start any day now.
We lost a very good friend last week. When I first started coming to the area 30+ years ago I kept wondering who is this guy? He was in the newspaper just about every week as the contact for softball and all sorts of activities. I was thinking that the guy must be superman to keep up with all of that stuff. We went on to be friends and he helped me in many many ways. We lost a good man last week and my heart is heavy with the loss. Here is the stuff from FaceBook..
Hilbert R. “Slug” Radtke age 73, of Wausaukee, died unexpectedly from natural causes Saturday April 25, 2020. He was born in Marinette on October 19, 1946; son of the late Hilbert and Virginia (Mason) Radtke. Slug married Lyla Peters on February 14, 1976. He graduated from Wausaukee High School in 1964. Slug worked for Bolens Snowmobile Co. in the late 60’s until early 70’s in sales and promotions where he traveled the United States. Then he worked as a heavy equipment operator for many years. His picture appeared in National Geographic magazine. He belonged to the International Union of Operating Engineers for 50 years. He was very proud to be associated with companies in Wisconsin. Slug was the current Village of Wausaukee President for the past 8 years. He also was Village Trustee for 12 years, President of Marinette County Snowmobile Alliance, and President of Bear Point Sno-Crusiers Club. He was involved with many snowmobile clubs. Slug was known to speak of snowmobiling 365 days of the year. He joined the National Guard Reserves and was a life-time member of the Wausaukee American Legion.
Slug’s parents bought Bear Point in 1945 and Slug took over the bar in 1981; renaming it to Bear Point Yacht Club. He ran it until the present time. He loved his family bar and most importantly loved talking to many friends and customers. He was also well known for his $2 bills and people always knew where they came from. Slug also donated proudly to Pastor Fred’s Food Pantry. He was a wealth of knowledge; if you needed to know anything just ask him. He enjoyed traveling the US with his wife, Lyla. He was also known for driving Miss Daisy (his wife) to the casinos.
Slug is survived by his wife of 44 years, Lyla; three sons: Jeff (Robyn), Hilbert III, and Peter (Teresa Welty) Lund; granddaughter, Peyton; and special cousins: Susan (Larry) Hannah. He was preceded in death by his granddaughter, Isabel.
Due to the current public health restrictions, Slug’s family will have a private viewing with burial to follow in Evergreen Cemetery with Pastor Lin Wittmann providing a committal service.
Roubal Funeral Home of Wausaukee is assisting Slug’s family with arrangements.
I would expect that there will be a celebration of life of memorial of some sort once the virus stuff is over. I will be sure to keep you up to date.
That is about it for today. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!
