Monday April 14th, 2014

Greetings and welcome!

Last night’s storm was a pretty good one for the area. It started with some pretty decent rain after dark, followed by a mix, and then snow. There were some pretty good winds for a while too.I would call it 4″ of snow here, 2-3 on Wausaukee, 5+ in Wabeno, and 4″ or so along Hwy 8 east to 141.

The rain before the snow made the trees hold the snow and gave the forests a very nice flocking. Thankfully it wasn’t too heavy and the trees handled it well. It sure was pretty.

The snow made it sloppy on the roads in the morning, but as the day progressed the sun cleared the roads pretty fast. The morning was a rough ride with the rain making an ice layer and heavy snow on top throwing me around. By lunch the main roads were clear, and on the way home county and most side roads had cleared. The un-plowed driveway still held a couple of sloppy inches on the way back in.

Last week when I updated about the broken spring it looked about the same as it did this morning. In the meantime we had some nice days and the snow pretty much all melted. I was working on soft and wet,  but clear ground yesterday, and the really sunny spot at the end of the road was firming up.

With the frost coming out of the ground a lot of driveways and roads are pretty muddy. A lot of people are parking at the end of the driveway and walking in to keep from rutting up driveways and lawns.

For the same reason, ATV trails are closed for a few weeks. Usually they reopen the first weekend in May, but that depends on how fast the ground drys out. The way that our spring has been progressing hasn’t been favorable, but the long term forecast has some warm a weather for a stretch, so it is a wait ‘n see.

Last weekend kicked off the whitewater rafting season on the Peshtigo. The river broke open just in time and pretty many people took to the river. It was running in the teens and on the rise. It is running at +20″ now, and we just had another storm.

When I was up in the watershed today it still looked a lot like winter. The rivers and creeks were swollen, and the swamps were healthy too. There is still a fair amount of snow in the woods, and plenty of water in low spots.It was starting to melt but had a long way to go.

There is a lot to look forward to rafting the Peshtigo the next couple of weekends. It is +20 and rising, and this storm hasn’t hit the river yet. There is a lot of snow and ice to melt in the northern watershed, and with some warm weather and some rain ( and both are in the long term forecast models..) it could get pretty outrageous. Any of the next three weekends should be great for big water whitewater rafting on the Peshtigo River with Kosir’s.

This week looks colder than normal right through the weekend. We are looking at a low of 11 tonight, a high of 32 Tuesday, a low of 15 Tuesday night, and another storm with a possible 2-4″ of snow Wednesday and Wednesday night. By the weekend we get back up into the 50 degree range with lows around freezing.

The week after it looks like the rubber band snaps back, and the longer term model is showing some much warmer weather. Our normal high/low for today is 53 and 29.

I mentioned before that our two wheeled friends will want to be careful spring riding up here. The road crews used a lot of sand this winter, and there is a good buildup of it in some places. It is hard to see in the picture, but you get the idea. Watch big sweeping corners and intersections where they would spread a lot of sand. We had a lot of little snow and ice storms this winter so they were out spreading sand often.

Well it is bed time for me. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!
RJB