Greetings and welcome!
Hey that’s not later.. that’s tomorrow. Sorry, but it will be worth it.
Let us start with the easy stuff. The weather looks excellent for the weekend. We are under the center of a big area of high pressure and bluebird weather and mid-80s is what is on tap.
As the high pressure slowly moves east it will warm up a little. Highs today look like 82-85, tomorrow about 85, and Sunday in the upper 80s. Overnight lows should go from upper 50s to low 60s.
Like I said it looks like a bluebird weekend. It is the second last weekend of summer and a great chance to go camping/rafting/tubing/kayaking/fishing/hiking/biking/BBQing and all of the other fun stuff that we do around here. I caught on the Kosir’s blog that tubing is on special, only $5.
Rafting this weekend should be good for late August. The Menominee is saving the day with it’s dam controlled flows and giving people great raft trips.
The Peshtigo is just below normal, which at this time of year is a little rocky. Normal flow is 187, we are at 177, and I like to see it over 200CFS. It sn’t as bad as it could be, but it is low. We did not see rain this week for the first time since June.
The night skies will be nice too. We have a big bright waning moon that will be up all night. Last night it was aligned with a bright planet or star and made a good show, the night before I caught a planet a little after sunset.
I got an e-mail this morning that you will want to know about. Steve at Athelstane Weather set up a cool new web cam. This one is a very sensitive high res camera pointing up at the northern sky. It is actually a 5 megapixel digital camera with a very light sensitive lens (F1.8). He said that it might wash out a little because of the bright moon, but it works great on dark skies.
You should be able to see stars, meteors, and the northern lights very well with it, as well as the current sky conditions day or night. Athelstane weather is already a great resource. I use it all of the time. This new camera is a great addition.
Someone asked about the lack of northern lights a while back. That should be getting better soon. Solar cycle 24 has been very late and slow to ramp up. It does not look like a real active cycle, in fact they are comparing it to the Dalton Minimum. Other articles that I have seen are looking for a peak of about 75 on that chart for solar cycle 24.
However, more recently solar flux is up a little and there are a few small sun spots. It is still very low, but it is on the way up. As it progresses the chances of seeing northern lights will increase.
I did not light the wood burner yesterday morning. It was cold enough, but I manned up and slept through it. We saw a low of 44.2F, according to Athelstane Weather. It was, to use a technical term, nippy.
We do not have any rain in the forecast until next Wednesday. As the big high pressure moves off to the east, eventually the southwest flow on the back of it will come our way. Look for increasing temps and humidity after the weekend.
There is debate about how much rain the back of the high will bring. The model I saw last night showed active weather with the jet stream right over us, and several inches of rain possible. The TV this morning is only showing minor rain. My bet is on the first option. If the jet stream sits over us for a couple of days in those conditions we could clearly see some rain add up.
In events we have the Oconto County and Marinette County Fairs this weekend. Marinette County’s is in Wausaukee, Oconto County’s is in Gillet.
Well, I am off to go and dive into another really full day. Have a great weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB