2022

Wednesday 6-15-2022 Severe Weather Hit The Area!! Updated 10:20pm

10Pm

I got really lucky. Others didn’t.

The area around the Silver Cliff fire department, Van Ark’s, and the town park got hit hard. From what I hear it got wild from about Rustic Inn over to Jungle Jim’s. Reliable reports say that it’s really bad. Was it a tornado (probably) or straight line winds? They will know tomorrow when they can survey the debris path.

Here is a picture of the VFD from Facebook. Note all of the big trees from the park next door missing. One source said that the town shed got hit hard too.

Going north on Parkway from Fisher’s Camp there were several trees down across the road that were quickly cleared. The WI Fish & Hunt Club has a tree down on their roof. South of Fisher’s Camp on Parkway there was very little damage as far south as Ranch Rd.

Other reports include many trees down on Hwy X east of Popps, a probable tornado near Middle Inlet, and damage in Athelstane, Crivitz and Wausaukee. Reports from western Silver Cliff said that they did OK.

There were trees down here and there including one on Ranch Rd and one by Dockside.

Early reports are rarely reliable. This is the best info that I have now. Check out the group Crivitz Area Talk on Facebook for more reports.

RJB

Update 7:30pm-

At the GF’s house near Thornton’s and Fisher’s Camp we had a rowdy little storm with constant thunder, heavy rain, and some strong wind gusts. I cruised the block afterward and there were only a couple of small maple branches down.

Radar showed a stronger cell going just north of Hwy C. I am not sure how they fared.

At one point there was a radar indicated a tornado that went from by Antigo, over Lilly, and it moved east in Langlade and Oconto Counties. If it held together Lakewood and Townsend would have been in it’s path with us on the southern end of the warned area. Again I won’t know anything until some storm reports come in or I get eyes on.

The TV says that there was damage from about Waupaca and east and south of Shawano. They are showing straight line wind damage in Green Bay. Most of the warned areas were down that way.

Right now I am going to tell cabin owners to relax a little. I have a very limited view, but the storm was not damaging here at all. I will update when I know more.

RJB

Be ready for severe weather today and tonight!

As I type this at 5pm there is a major storm bearing down on most of eastern WI. The past day has been very hot (almost 90 now) with very high humidity. There is a cold front coming that will set off our hot juicy atmosphere like a stick of dynamite.

We are under a tornado watch right now. As I watch the line of storms approach I see quite a few areas being severe warned to our south and west. Unfortunately that part of the storm is heading this way.

The risk is that we could see high winds, big hail, quickly forming and large tornadoes, and straight line winds. There is also a risk of flash flooding with very high levels of moisture in the atmosphere, possibly coming as an inch or two of rain falling in a very short period of time.

This is a really dangerous atmosphere. We have CAPE values in the 2-3,000 J/kg range, and some areas downstate are in the 4,000 J/Kg range. With CAPE values over about 2,500 severe weather is pretty much as close to a sure thing as it gets. The Bear Paw/Riverview tornado and the super-destructive Drechero a few years ago came under similar conditions.

The big question is who is going to see the destructive or severe weather. It could be here, it could be the Fox Valley, it could be both. Make sure that you have your tornado and severe weather precautions and plans ready to go.

If you look at this graphic from the Severe Weather Prediction Center in Norman, OK you will see that most of the state is under a level 3 or level 4 risk of severe weather. The scale only goes to 5. At a 5 there are usually widespread tornado outbreaks.

I don’t want to be the little boy that cried wolf here. I rang the alarm bell last year under similar conditions and I’m happy that the severe weather went somewhere else. Prior to that I was right about the drechero and the Bear Paw tornado. Right now I am very concerned. My hope right now is that the storm will crap out as the sun input gets weaker later in the day.

Good luck!

RJB

Thursday 6-9-2022

Greetings and welcome!

It is a beautiful time of year in Wisconsin’s north woods. Everywhere that you look there is a different kind of plant flowering or having emerging leaves.

Recently I have been seeing a lot of deer fawns. The first one was about two weeks ago. It is cool seeing the spindly legged youngsters trying to keep up with Mom or playing and chasing each other. In addition to the fawns, the turtles are up out of the water and trying to lay eggs in the sand or gravel along roads and trails that are near wetlands.

I actually saw my first mosquito yesterday. That comes as a surprise. I expected that a month ago. More of interest the moths and butterflies are now very active. I have been seeing a lot of Viceroy butterflies (they almost look like a Monarch, but not quite). There have been quite a few sightings of the giants of the moth world, the Cecropia and Luna moths. There are many other moths too. Driving slowly after sunset will produce hundreds or maybe thousands in the headlights. Every year seems to be a stand out year for a certain species of bug. This year it is the Rosy Maple Moth.

There was some discussion on the local Facebook page about reduced activity at bird feeders. The consensus was that some had just stopped off for a visit and continued north in their migration. The other answer was that they are nesting and tending to their young. Still others speculated that natural food sources had started to produce. No one was really worried about it.

The rain has been reasonably steady recently and the grass is growing like crazy. The ditch line that I only cut once is now 9-10″ high.

The whitewater rafting and tubing continues to be good. I look for a minimum of 300CFS on the Peshtigo, and it is still a little above that. They have opened the Menominee River for rafting as well, and that will bring a fun ride.

I have one event on the calendar for this weekend… The Oconto County Breakfast On The Farm. Here is a link to information on that.

It looks like we have low fire danger for the weekend. It is low now and we are expecting a little rain possible for Friday and Saturday. Maybe I will finally catch a day where it isn’t too windy and I am not too busy to burn my brush.

That’s it from here. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Thursday 6-2-2022

Greetings and welcome!

These weeks shortened by a holiday Monday really throw me for a loop. At that point I am not as prepared as I’d like to be. At the moment the only thing that I have on the blotter is a big ATV/UTV ride at Uncle Mike’s (the old Tommy’s Corner Pub). Here is the poster.

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

RJB

Wednesday 5-25-2022

Greetings and welcome!

We have the big Memorial Day weekend coming up so there is some stuff to talk about.

First up- The great awakening of the plant kingdom is well under way. In the past week the leaves on trees have emerged or continued to grow. The ferns are coming up. Just about everywhere that you look there is something with new leaves, new flowers, or something changing. The cherry trees are in bloom as are the marsh marigold, trillium and countless other plants large and tiny. It is a pretty cool time of year for the plant kingdom. The star of the show will probably be the trillium. They are really starting to fill in the forest floor.

The insect world is alive and well. One place that I went to this week had plentiful gnats and a few mosquitoes. That wasn’t my experience working outside at my house or the GF’s house this week, but that could easily change tomorrow. I have had some wood ticks, but bug spray on my shoes and pants have kept most of them away. Bring Repel. I use the Sportsman’s 40% DEET and it has worked very well for me over the years, including some really heavy mosquito populated areas. A passing thought.. don’t forget about Fido. Make sure they are up to date with their Frontline or other flee/tick treatment.

I have been watching the weekend weather forecast for over a week now. At first the model was showing a stalled system with all weekend light rain. Not good. Thankfully that all sped up and we are seeing the three days of light rain during the week. That is wonderful. Not only will the whitewater rivers be at excellent levels for rafting and boating, the rain will significantly help with the fire danger.

When I looked a little while ago I saw a summer-like setup where the weather looked pretty good as far as not having a significant or organized system affecting out area. What we have instead is the impossible to predict setup where daytime heating could stir up a storm in the afternoon if conditions line up just right. As the weekend progresses the chances for rain increase. Sunday and Monday are a question mark as the next organized system approaches.

The bottom line? Plan for a nice weekend but be ready for a surprise rain storm to pop up.

One other weather note, Friday night we are expecting clear skies and a low of 42. If you are camping bring warm clothes and sleeping bags. Saturday night and Sunday night look nicer with a low of 53 and 63 respectively.

For high temperatures we are looking at about 70 Friday and Saturday, 80 Sunday and 87 Monday.

I tease at the bar that you know that someone is from around here if they have the following items in their truck.. A t-shirt and shorts, long pants and a sweatshirt, a light jacket, a heavy jacket, Repel, and an umbrella. There is a very good chance that you could use all of them in the same day.

As far as events this weekend I am not all of the way up to date. I know that there is a brat fry at the Lakewood Super Value store, but I need to track down when. The same goes for the flea market at the Crivitz museum. There is live music each day or night at Rustic, but again I need to track down dates and times. One of my GF’s friend’s bands is playing Saturday night, Zoomie & the Sonics.

I need to track down when the Silver Cliff memorial services are. The Crivitz and Middle Inlet services are on Monday and details are listed on the Crivitz event site below.

Over the course of the weekend there is live music at Lil Tipsy’s in Townsend, Gateway Bar, Uncle Mikes, The Rustic, and Woody’s. Lil Tipsie’s has a major act, Vic Ferrari, Friday night.

Anyway, here are the event calendars for Crivitz and Oconto County.

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

RJB