Friday October 7th, 2011

Greetings and welcome!

It is another beautiful Fall day outside. At 10:30am it is already 67 and climbing toward our high of 77. Our normal high temperature is 57.

We are in store for a nice weekend with more of the warm weather. The big high pressure system is still influencing our weather, and it is about 3/4 of the way past us. The nice weather will be coming out of the south and southwest.

Eventually as it progresses the weather will get more unsettled. We will see the rain on the north and west side of the high pressure eventually pushing our way. Right now the NWS and Accuweather have that happening about Wednesday of next week, the GFS shows the first of it about Tuesday.

I am not sure that it will take that long. The timing of it isn’t carved in stone by any means. Yesterday’s forecast had rain pushing in Monday or Tuesday.

We do have a few sprinkles in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning. That isn’t anything organized in our area, it is some instability brought by a storm well north of us. The NWS forecast discussion said that it could rain in the mid levels a little, and it would be falling into dry lower levels. Some or all could easily evaporate before it hits the ground, thus the sprinkles.

So the outlook is for nice weather until early next week and well above normal temperatures.

The fall colors have changed a lot this week. We are now into a different color scheme than last week as the earlier maples, sumac, and cherry fade away. The new wave is a lot of oak, aspen, and birch. Some are very bright yellow, some are deep red, some are rusty. Together they make a nice patchwork on hillsides. It was a pretty scene this morning with a little fog and all of the color.

Is it past peak? Which peak? The early stuff is past, the late colors are prime. There is a layer of leaves to rake and that fall leaf smell is there when you go for a walk.

It is a great time of year to go for a walk in the woods. The smells, the critters all running around in preparation for winter, and the sound of leaves crunching under your feet are all delicious.

The warm days also mean warm nights, and our low of 51 instead of 36 makes that sunset chill a little nicer for sitting around a fire.

At this time of year we often see big temperature swings between day and night. Going from the mid-70s to the low 50s is a pretty big swing, so bring a jacket and long pants for when sunset comes, and shorts to change into after about 11am.

As far as fall stuff to to, the corn maze on Nejedlo Road (off of 141 between Crivitz and Wausaukee) should still be going, and the Lakewood Zoo has their Haunted Zoo and fall activities like hay rides. An article in the paper said that the baby white tigers at Lakewood Zoo are up to about 8 pounds and are getting very playful, so that is a bonus too.

Here is a copy n paste of the weekend events from Tuesday..

I also got word that they will be out brushing trails on the Iron Snowshoe trail system Monday.

That is about it for today. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB