Greetings and welcome!
What a week for weather! Temperatures have been mostly in the 70s this week, and very pleasant. Sign me up for about 9 months a year of that.
Last night we had another episode of ‘heat lightning’. The sky was flashing with distant lightning while we had stars shining and no rain. I would say that the show lasted at least 4 hours.
We did finally see one area of rain come in the wee hours and really pound on the roof for a few minutes. I got up and checked the radar, and it was a tiny little blob, but it rained with good enthusiasm.
As it turned out, there was a line of storms to our north that was the source of the sky show. The line went through Forest and Florence Counties in a mostly east to west direction.
Much like last Saturday’s sky show, the ‘heat lightning’ was really an over the horizon storm. It always is. Heat lightning is a bit of a misnomer.
In a storm the cloud tops can go to 30-40,000 feet. The lightning in those tops can project up to about 100 miles. We get no sound or rain, but the sky flashes. In the case of last Saturday night we were seeing lightning off of a storm near Crandon, last night it was up in Forest & Florence Counties.
It is possible to have a dry thunderstorm, where the rain hits a dry layer in the atmosphere and evaporates before it hits the ground, or convection alone triggers the lightning. Generally we don’t see those conditions, that is more out west or in unusual conditions like updrafts in forest fires.
In our neighborhood ‘heat lightning’ is an over the horizon thunderstorm. If there is enough convection to produce lightning, generally somewhere not to far away is getting wet. Like I said before, lightning can project a flash up to 100 miles away.
I recall a storm a few years back when a line of really strong storms did the train track thing, tracking one after the next about 40 miles north of here. The near constant lightning off of the storm was so bright that I could walk around the yard like it was daytime. They ended up with 9″ of rain in one night, we got nil, but it was a heck of a show.
It looks like we have a great weekend in weather ahead. Once the rain clears out Saturday morning we should see nice weather with temps in the upper 70s and low 80s.
In between now and Saturday morning there could be some active weather. We are expecting showers and thunderstorms tonight, Friday and into Friday night. Only one model shows us in the lowest band for rainfall after 6am Saturday morning, otherwise they all show us dry for the duration of the weekend.
I am not completely sold on the amount and placement of the rainfall. The models are showing a good bit to our north and south, anywhere from 0.75-2.75″, while we are in the 0.5-0.75″ band pretty consistently. I am not sold that it is that cut n dry. Predicting that we will get 0.89″ while a place 50 miles away will get 2.68″ seems a little exact for the very inexact art of predicting thunderstorm placement.
At any rate, it is expected to get wet over the next 36 hours or so, and clear out in time for a nice Saturday and Sunday. That is a good thing, because we have some great events this weekend.
On the top of the list last time was the modified garden tractor pulls at Curve Inn this Saturday. I went to one of those, and it is pretty cool. Sure there are Gilson and John Deere tractors, but the gear heads are well represented too. Some of those ‘tractors’ can sport a 350 or 400hp v8. It is a good show. I will see if I can find some pictures later.
Other events..
August 21 Stephenson Town Hall
Hwy X Twin Bridge Rescue Squad Annual Rummage/Bake Sale
8 am – 2 pm
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August 21 Village of Pound Park
Parkview Ln & Cty Q CCBA POUND THE PAVEMENT Walk/Run
7:00 am
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August 22 McCauslin Brook Golf Course
Lakewood 3rd Annual Nicolet Clinic Golf Outing
Registration 10am – Shotgun start 11am – Includes Lunch, Dinner & Awards
Raffles & Contests throughout the day
I don’t have a lot to report in the wildlife area, the last couple of days have been kept pretty full with work.
I did spot a pretty nice buck last night a few miles north of the ranch. He had decent size and nice headgear. He decided to run out in front of the truck at full ramming speed at the last second. Thanks to his speed and my reaction time, the only evidence of our encounter are some skid marks, and that buck still walks.
It was really really close. If it was a gravel road I’d be eating backstraps for lunch and wishing that I had finished welding up my brush guard. As it stands there is a pretty nice buck roaming the neighborhood.
Well the TV is showing me temps outside in the 68-74 degree range at surrounding stations, so I am off to go outside and tackle some projects. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB