Greetings and welcome!
Last weekend brought huge water to the Peshtigo River whitewater stretch, and hundreds of people showed up to play in the big water. The weather held off until about 3pm Saturday, so people got a lot of their Saturday in without getting rained on.
I predicted 36-40″ of water in the Peshtigo River, and got close. We ended up peaking at +32″. Considering the amount of guesswork involved missing by 4″ doesn’t seem that bad. Right now we are down to about +24″ and it is falling about 6″ every 36 hours. When I was in the near watershed yesterday there was still a lot of water to drain, but it was not coming at a rate that would support a continued 24″ plus level.
The guess for this weekend is not an easy one. There is nothing carved in stone that says that it will fall at the current rate and not go down faster. At the same time there will be a floor where all of the water reserved in swamps and wetlands will hold us above normal. Right now my best guess for Saturday’s water levels is +6 to +12″ with a hope that it stays closer to 16 or 17. I don’t see a scenario with the water going much below +6″, so good water levels this weekend is almost a lock.
Item two is weather for the holiday weekend. The setup that I am seeing on the GFS forecast model has us in warm moist summer-like air. There is a very weak low pressure system that will pass over about Milwaukee Sunday. Being in the periphery of that for Saturday-Monday there will be a chance of a shower or storm popping up just about any time. We are not looking at an organized storm or all day rain, so I wouldn’t change any plans over it, but rather be prepared for it and enjoy the weekend.
People that get to start the weekend on Thursday or Friday will be well rewarded with nice 70ish weather, and we are expecting low to mid-70s all weekend. Campers will appreciate lows in the mid-50s.
Right now the events that I know of are just kind of generalized things that I recall seeing posters, signs, or Facebook posts about. I will track them down as soon as I can.
Crivitz Red White & Blue Festival
Silver Cliff Memorial Picnic Grounds- The local Legion Post will be having a memorial service and picnic. I believe that it is Sunday.
Crooked Lake- Meat raffle & picnic with the VFD??
Grand opening at Trixie’s Bar (Used to be Curve Inn)-
Grand opening at the Doghouse Bar just south of W on Parkway-
Monday Chris & I went to town and took the long way through the national forest. It rained a little on us, but not the whole time. I took a bunch of pictures of wildflowers and scenic areas. Added to a couple of rafting pictures from last weekend here is my gallery for today. I really like the trillium picture with the rain on the leaves around it, and the second pond picture that shows the various shades of green as the new leaves unfold. Other than a minor gamma adjustment on one rafting picture these are untouched other than sizing them down for the web. I love my Nikon cameras!
Many of you have seen the pictures and videos of the gas station and Burger King in Iron Mountain by Walmart burning down. The gas station caught fire and the whole building is on the ground now. While fighting the fire one fireman had the whole front of the building come down on him, and he was trapped under a burning wall for about 2 minutes before they could free him. He and two other firefighters sustained non life threatening injuries battling the blaze. Thankfully the fire did not involve the fuel storage or it could have been a lot worse.
That is my update for today. I expect to be adding to it as the week progresses with weather, river, and event updates. Stay tuned. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!
RJB