Greetings and welcome!
We had a colder than normal week this week. It took until Thursday to get the melting back in force. It was being held back by cold overnight temperatures, a few clouds, and days in the high 30s and low 40s.
As of Tuesday the snowmobile trails still looked great from the big storm. There was even full coverage on the railroad grade in Lakewood and Townsend and only one minor spot on the golf course was burned through. The trails in the forest looked great. Too bad that the ground had thawed under the snow and kept the trails closed.
There was a little melting daily, but it took until Thursday for the sun and warmth to start winning. There were streams of melt water running down the driveway yesterday, and the usual spots were deep with mud.
Thanks to the much colder than normal temps and snow cover it does not look like we will be rafting this weekend. That might change, but I doubt it. Not only is there a lot of ice to melt in the slow spots, the river level is way down as the areas that feed it froze back up. The Peshtigo was running about +9 a week ago and is about zero now. In the case of the Wolf that same period brought a drop of 18″.
Not only is it still too frozen up, the water is low now. That is disappointing on one level and better on another. It would be great to raft this weekend, but it doesn’t always happen. I like that all of that water and snow is still stored up waiting for a couple of warm days and some rain to really set it off. The longer that we wait, the better the prospects are for a big push of water, and for good water levels for April in general.
We have a small storm coming our way for today and tonight. The models and animations showed it to be pretty weak, but there will be a chance of some rain or snow as it passes. It could linger into Saturday with some scattered stuff. We are looking at upper 30s or low 40s Friday through Sunday with low temps in the upper 20s.
The one that has been holding my attention is the storm for about Sunday-Tuesday. It looks like a big one, and the models are struggling with it. It looks like there will be a sharp temperature gradient, and pretty good upper level moisture support. On the far ends it could be a 6-9 snow or a 0.5-1″ rain.
Earlier model runs have shown it for a foot plus of snow for the folks around here and a lot of rain for our friends to the south. Right now the GFS is showing it starting and ending as snow with rain in between.
I think that the North American Model(NAM) has a better handle on it, showing us as mostly snow and probably on the high end of 6-9″ of it. Based on the setup, I think it might be showing less moisture than there will be to work with, but that is just my guess.
This one will bear watching as it gets closer in the time frame. There is already a hazardous weather outlook from the NWS in some areas, and I would expect to see more watches and notifications if it unfolds anything close to my vision of it.
Behind the storm the GFS is showing a brief cold blast and then a warming late next week. There is another storm for later next weekend(April 9 & 10) that looks like another good one. Late in the model about the 15th-17th, the GFS is showing would should be our first 65-70 degree days in advance of what looks like another big storm.
W have an event for this weekend and it is a good one. It is sort of mini-golf meets the pub crawl. Each stop has a home made mini-golf hole, and you go from place to place to play the round.
April 1-2 Twin Bridge/Parkway Area 2nd Annual Indoor Mini-Golf Tournament
Check for details by clicking the link above. – Participants include:
Caldron Falls Bar, Curve Inn, Dock Side, Fishers Camp, Parkway Inn,
Peshtigo River Resort, Pine Acres, Thornton’s, Thunder Mt. Valley Inn, Twin Bridge Resort
That pretty much wraps it up for today. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB