Greetings and welcome!
We have a wild weekend coming up this weekend with the Hog Wrestling Competition at Caldron Falls Bar on Saturday. That is one of the biggest events of the year for the area with thousands of people that regularly attend.
We also have an interesting weekend forecast, and FINALLY some moderating temperatures and humidity. As happens sometimes, my model guidance shows a variety of opinions on how the weekend weather will unfold.
Right now it looks like we will see a cold front come through the state sometime in the early morning hours Saturday, and possibly as late as noon. Timing is everything on this one. At 6am it is a lot harder to get thunderstorms rolling than at noon after the sun has been up for 7 hours. At that point we get some varience in the amount of rain expected too, from almost nothing up to 0.75-1.0″ of rain.
Once that cold front passes we should be good for rain for most of the weekend. There is another storm headed this way for later Sunday with a warm front and closely following cold front.
Right now my focus is on the cold front line of storms. Beyond that the majority of the rain and storm activity will be to the south and west of us as has been happening the past few weeks. One area of WI near the IA/ MN/ WI border could see as much as 3″ of rain over the weekend.
For us the extremes are with the NAM model that has us in the 0.1-0.25″ band contrasting with the HPC that shows us in the 0.75-1.0″ band. In the middle is the GFS at 0.25-0.5″. Those are 60 hour totals for the whole weekend.
I kind of like the TV weather channel 2-2’s version of it. They are showing us mostly clear of the rain except for one good line of storms late Saturday morning. That line of storms is shown mostly orange and red, but their animation appears wise to the Silver Cliff Split, and has the storm weaker here as it passes. The timing isn’t ideal, but it seems like the most believable scenario.
So.. Bottom line.. I am looking for a mostly cloudy weekend with highs between 75-85 and the best chance of rain in the first 12 hours of Saturday and later Sunday.
The more normal temperatures and lower humidity will feel like air conditioning after this past week. The heat and humidity were nasty, and I won’t have any trouble seeing that go.
As far as the main event this weekend, hog wrestling at the Caldron Falls Bar, I kind of expect a big turnout this year. Between the economy and the gas prices tourism has really taken a hit. That all turned around on the 4th of July weekend when we had the busiest weekend in a couple of years.
My observation from that is that a lot of regulars that came up 4-6 weekends over the summer have cut back to a few of the big ones. That would include this weekend for many.
The Hog Wrestling event itself is pretty huge. There are thousands of people, music, food and drink, and folks chasing pigs around an arena a foot deep in mud and water. I can still hear my Mother yelling at me to stop playing with my food, I wonder if this qualifies..
This weekend also comes with the standard warning about the law enforcement presence in the area. Usually the Sheriff’s Dept and State Patrol are out in force this weekend keeping the order. Be smart about it and use designated drivers or shuttle buses. Keep it fun and safe.
As is the tradition, I will be about 10 miles NW of there at Kosir’s taking pictures and editing videos for the whitewater rafting. I am expecting a good weekend on the river. Not only will there be a lot of people around, the river came up a little from Tuesday’s storm. It is at about zero right now, and 280CFS. Normal is about 240, so we are a little above that. It isn’t high, but it is runnable and fun.
I saw a poster at the grocery store in Lakewood this week that the Doty VFD Picnic is this Saturday. Here is a link.
That is news from here. Have a fun and safe weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB