Greetings and welcome!
We are on the edge of a very nice 3 day holiday weekend this morning.
Today is expected to get very hot and humid as a warm front passes us and brings juicy southern air. Temperatures in the low 90s doesn’t sound too bad until you figure in that dew points in the 70s will make it extremely humid. That will lift the ‘feels like’ temperature over 100F this afternoon.
That heat and humidity is expected to break overnight as a cold front passes through and brings high pressure for the weekend. The passing front could trigger some showers or storms late tonight or early in the morning Saturday.
The rain is not expected to add up to a lot around here, it looks like more of a demonstration of the cold front passing than a protracted rain. The HPC QPF has us in the 1/4-1/2″ range. To the northwest of Eagle River it goes as high as an inch. The difference is probably timing with the storm calming down as the night progresses. The morning TV news is showing it down to a hit or miss line of scattered storms by the time that it gets here.
Once our line of rain passes we are expecting a great summer weekend. High pressure should bring clear weather. We are expecting mid-80s for Saturday and low 80s for Sunday and Monday, and overnight temps in the high 50s. The next mention of rain in the forecast comes Tuesday.
As predicted the Peshtigo River will be above normal this weekend for all of you rafters out there. My early prediction was +6-12 and I revised it down to 4-6, maybe a little higher. Right now it is about +10, and it should be about +7 or 8 tomorrow.
People should be really happy about that, it is a Goldilocks level. It isn’t huge so anyone can do it, and it isn’t rocky, so it is a lot more fun. This is the best water for the 4th of July in recent memory. Don’t hesitate to go rafting this weekend.
I was saddened this week to read about the passing of a local fellow named Gervase Hemphner. He was a town board member in the Town of Stephenson for a while, and was a state legislator. He was also a spirited guy who could get people fired up.
I knew Geravse from my work with the Wild Shores Preservation Alliance, a group that we founded to keep the High Falls and Caldron Falls Flowages from becoming a 1,200 lot subdivision when WPS sold them off. His contacts in the state government were invaluable as was his knowledge of the process and contributions at meetings. Part of his legacy will always be the formation of the Peshtigo River State Forest and Tommy Thompson State Park.
The DNR has been on TV a lot this week saying that they will be at state boat landings over the weekend checking for people that don’t drain the water and clean the weeds from their boats and trailers. They are trying to raise awareness about transferring invasive species and VHS fish virus between lakes. As usual they will also be on OWI boating and playing unsafely too close to shore and swimmers, and sticker & PFD (life jacket) enforcement.
You can probably expect the same kind of push from law enforcement watching for OWI, seat belts or aggressive/unsafe driving. That is standard holiday weekend stuff.
The only thing that I have to add to my event calendar below is that they are having a DJ at Caldron Falls Bar. Beyond that the list is up to date with everything that I’m aware of.
Have a fun and safe holiday weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB