Sunday August 8th, 2010
Greetings and welcome!
We had rain Saturday night that really added up. I still need to survey a little, but totals that people told me over the bar went from 1.3″ to around 4″. It really added up fast, and the Peshtigo River got smacked right in the watershed.
The river went from -4″ on Saturday to +2″ Sunday morning. Right now, 11:30 Sunday night, I am guessing that it is about +5″ and heading for +6 for tomorrow. That is pretty cool stuff for August.
The graph on the net continues to go straight up, making me think that there might be even more water coming. It hasn’t even started to arch over yet to make the typical haystack shape. This is just the rise from the water that landed between here and Goodman Park or so. The majority of the water from the watershed is still a day out.
The Peshtigo has a long narrow watershed. It takes a lot of local rain to raise the river since it is a pretty narrow drainage corridor in our area. Normally a mid-week rain will peak the river for the weekend. There is a 2-3 day lag due to the long narrow watershed. Usually when local rain raises it this much and the whole watershed got hit, golly, that is pretty epic.
We are setting records for Peshtigo River levels today. The old record from 12 years of documentation was in 2003 when the Peshtigo ran at 385CFS, and as of 10pm Sunday it was running 457CFS.
How about that.. two months ago we were shattering 96 year record lows because of the drought. Now we are setting record highs in August.
If you have ever come rafting and dragged your boat along rocks in low water, find your way to Kosir’s this week and see what it is really about. At plus 5 or 6 they might even start using the donut rafts, which are huge fun. This is one of the times where I use the old cliche, Use Your Sick Days Wisely.
If the whitewater is your cup, things are looking great for the near future. To hit the Peshtigo in August at +5 or +6 is a total treat.
But wait.. that’s not all. If you order now..
It looks like we will have a couple of decent days Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday or so the GFS is showing a storm with a QPF of 1.75-2″ here and over 2.5″ not too far west of here. It is also showing another heavy band late week with an inch plus.
Sometimes the GFS overstates things a little (convective feedback in the model), so let’s do a wait ‘n see on the heavy rain forecast. Saturday night’s rain was not in the outlook, or you would have known about it. At that point take it for what it is. The possibility certainly exists, we have seen a lot of focused heavy rain in the region this summer.
Saturday night was interesting. The sunset was worthy of painting. There were storms to the north & south of us, but we were being spared. The distant high cloud tops added a lot of majesty to the sunset.
About sunset I walked around the cabin to the truck. I got quite poured on while I got what I needed out of the truck. I walked 100’ back to the picnic table and it was completely dry. Not a drop of rain had fallen. I walked over and found the line, and it was like someone drew it with chalk. On one side there were plenty of drop marks, on the south side, not one. I even summoned other people to look. Amazing.
After sunset the rain came. It was steady and plentiful, and it added up fast. Huge puddles formed in low spots, and the typical spots that erode in heavy rains did so. It went on until a few hours before dawn. By early afternoon Sunday the puddles had mostly soaked in, but there were some surprising mud lines showing how enormous the puddles had become.
Another surprise came Sunday when I saw how clear the river was. Normally the river has a deep tannin stain to it that makes it brown. The same stuff that leaves leaf marks on a patio colors the water in our rivers and lakes.
The river is actually very clean, it is just leaf stained because it’s watershed is in the great forests and swamps in the Nicolet National Forest and Marinette County forest.
Anyway, Sunday the water was surprisingly clear and white. Usually you only see that when it is really low and the only water in the river is the base flow that is fed by the spring creeks.
Bottom line, we had a lot of rain. If you are interested in whitewater rafting or paddling, go for it! The river is getting big and fun and summer is going away too fast.
Have a good week and thank you for visiting!
RJB