Greetings and welcome!
Saturday we got up into the 70s. That will probably be the last time that we see the 70 degree mark this year.
Yesterday we only got up into the mid-40s. That big of a change is usually accompanied by a big storm, and we had one of those. Around here it was mostly wind with sustained 20-30 mph winds gusting into the 40s. There were a lot of dead branches and trees down from the wind, but nothing all that unusual. The power flickered here a couple of times, but never went out.
There was some snow on the radar yesterday for far northern Forest Co and the UP from mid-afternoon on. This morning the radar is showing the center of the state getting a little snow, and even showed brief squalls a little south and west of here. I am not sure about the last part though.. The radar showed the snow as close as about McCaslin Mt Campground right on the county line, but when I went to take the garbage out to the road there was nothing but clear blue skies. It is only about 4 miles away I expected to see clouds or something.
The fall color is just about gone after our windy days. The tamarack, oaks, paper birch, and a few other species are still holding leaves, but most of the woods are bare trees again. I can also see into the woods again. In June when the underbrush is full, it is hard to see 100′ into the woods. Now I can see 10x that far.
I have not seen the first snowflakes here yet, but this weekend it seems very likely. We have a storm coming Fri night through Sunday that should at least make the grass white. It it all lines up right we could see an inch or two. We are looking at a high of about 42 for both days with lows around 30. Depending on the time of day we could see rain or snow. This will be the 4th weekend in a row that brought rain.
This is the big Halloween weekend, and just about every bar and trail stop that I passed is having a Halloween party and most of them involve a costume contest and live music. It should be a fun weekend. One of the more interesting entries is from the Caldron Falls Bar..
Halloween Party Punkin Chunkin Contest Live Music
Punkin Chunkin Contest…..”throw the pumpkin the farthest” starts at 3:30 pm please pre register ,the cost is $10.00, Eddy Munster Band plays at 7pm costume contest and prizes at 9pm.
For my whitewater paddling friends.. the Peshtigo River still has not reached the zero mark since ice-out. It looks like it has settled down into a comfortable base flow of about +4″ and about 400cfs. If the watershed freezes that saturated we will have a lot to look forward to for spring rafting.
Here is my latest winter prediction from last night on the Big Snow Page..
Seasonal Outlook…
I continue to be very optimistic about this winter. It has been a very unusual year in weather and I don’t think that will change in the next 6 weeks. I am expecting a lot of snow, more than a few storms that are mostly rain, and both very warm and very cold stretches. While I don’t expect our 9″ of rain in June to translate to nine feet of snow in January, I am hoping for the above normal precipitation trend to continue.
One recurring thought is that I don’t remember the last time that we had one of those double whammy low pressure systems that brought us a 16+ inch snowstorm and high winds. I expect to see that storm happen at least once this year.
I do have some concerns that it won’t be all honey and roses. The 8.6 degrees above normal for October is a little scary. If that happened in January, hooray, I don’t like that -30º stuff anyway. However, in February or March it would be bad timing for us.
I have my concerns, but overall my outlook for a good snowmobiling season is very positive.
Time to make the donuts. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB