NorthernDestinations.com

Thursday June 3rd, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

Wednesday was a cloudy and cool day with temps in the mid-60s. After some inside work I took advantage of the cool day and went on a firewood run. I missed the last few weeks due to either hot weather, the holidays, or being busy. It felt good to make another load of wood.

On the way there I spotted a skinny little fox running across the road in a spot where I don’t usually see them. It was a different one than I saw a mile east of there last weekend, so I will guess that one or some of the local dens had some reproductive success recently.

On the way to the wood yard I got a few sprinkles on the windshield. I knew that there was rain coming, but I expected that it would be light or virgo where it shows up  on radar and not on the ground.

I was hauling big cut off stumps 100′ or so to the truck, and eventually 4′ lengths of 6-12″ wood to process later and split. The focus was on oak for the splitter, the big stuff. It was a grade A workout.

I had a pretty nice pile going by the truck when the skies opened up with a steady medium rain. It felt really good, I was working hard and it cooled me off nicely. Eventually it started fouling my safety glasses and I took a break in the back of the truck for a while.

After 20 minutes or so it was obvious that it was not going to abate, so I went back to work. It was probably good that the rain stopped me from cutting and hauling, the wood that I had already piled was about max capacity for the truck. She was sagged good and I could feel the load when I tried to stop or go.

I got pretty wet but it felt good. The end yield was a dozen or so 18-24″ diameter stump cut-offs, plus enough 6″ plus diameter wood to fill it to the top, all oak. The adventure was Repel free, but I encountered no mosquitoes, and only 4 wood ticks found me, two of which got a little lunch before their demise.

I knew the rain was coming, it wasn’t a surprise.  I told Chris that it could end up like Tuesday’s rain where it just stopped raining before it got here, I am going to go cut wood and see if something good happens. It did.

It was not a lot of rain, probably a couple of tenths of an inch. It was a steady soaking 2 hour shower though. It should make all things green very happy. It did make a few little puddles, but was not enough to get to runoff.

A look ahead shows something very different from what we have been seeing in the weather. The models are showing a strong jet stream over us between now and about Wednesday of next week. That should bring us some rain as a parade of storms and disturbances come in succession down the great river in the sky.

Right now it looks like there is a dandy storm for about Friday that is currently shown bringing us 0.5-1.0″ of rain on both the GFS and NAM. If that times out right, it should clear out just in time for a decent Saturday.

After that the timing on the storms becomes difficult to call. The next disturbances should come about Saturday night, Sunday evening, and about Tuesday. QPF numbers vary a lot, but it looks like the Friday night, Sunday night and Tuesday storms are expected to bring the most rain.

How to call the weekend is a toughy. The jet stream scenario makes timing the storms a challenge. It will be a cloudy and cool weekend, but will the rain time out for us to get good days? It looks promising right now, but a minor shift in timing could change a lot.

As I was sitting in the back of the truck watching it rain it was amazing how many shades of green that there were in my view. As  more and more flora get their leaves the numbers of shades and variances almost rivals a fall show. It also occurred to me that with the ferns now well along finding my oak would be more challenging. NBD, I have plenty scouted out.

Something else that I contemplated was that this was not the drought of the past few summers any more. There were stretches of six weeks at a time between rains the past few summers. Here we were seeing rain from two out of the past three storms, and there are 4-5 more rain producing storms on the 16 days GFS that might actually hit far NE WI.

A couple of storms is not the end of the drought, but it is a start. We are not falling behind any more, and if it keeps up, we could be on the path to catching up. It is not uncommon for us to see a good bit of rain in early June in a normal year. The fact that we are seeing the early June rain this year is very encouraging.

The first weekend of June brings some good events. First of all, it is free fishing weekend. You do not need a fishing license this weekend to fish in WI.

An event that is not listed is that it is a free parks weekend in Marinette County this weekend. Most of the parks and waterfalls require a $3 daily tag or an annual sticker to enter. This weekend you can go and see what you have been missing for free. We do have some exceptional parks and waterfalls in Marinette County.

Well that is about it from here. Have a good Thursday and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Tuesday June 1st, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

The weather for the big holiday weekend worked out pretty well for the most part. The exception was Sunday night when a thunderstorm rolled through and stayed a while. The storm brought thunder and lightning but was benign with the winds. It rumbled and rained for a few hours.

The rain gauges between here and Iron Mountain are showing between 1/4″ and 1/2″. That seems low to me. I could hear the rain pounding on the roof for quite a while in some of the good downpours.

Monday started off a little cloudy and gave way to a very nice day. Monday night around the campfire a cold front came through and dropped temps 5-10 degrees immediately.

Today we have another nice day, but it is already clouding up a little in advance of the next storm. That is expected to come tonight into tomorrow.

After that the weather forecasts start getting less clear. The models are not in agreement on if we will have a mid-week storm behind tonight’s, and on the timing of the storm for Friday or the weekend. In the case of the midweek storm, the GFS says that it will stay downstate, the NAM has it coming our way a little.

The weekend goes the same way. The GFS is showing a storm coming Friday and Friday night, and the precip done by Saturday morning. The NAM has it timed out about 24 hours later with rain still on it’s way here Friday night, and rain for Saturday and Saturday night, and lingering into Sunday.

The NWS seems to subscribe to the latter scenario, leaving a chance of rain in the forecast all weekend.

I think that the whole thing needs to stew a little and get another look once some consensus starts forming.

The weekend seemed to go pretty well. There were pretty many people around to do all of the fun things that we do around here. It was not as crowded as some years, something easily blamed on the economy and high unemployment. There were still a lot of people around.

From what I heard the sit on top kayaks and tubing at Kosir’s was a smash hit last weekend. Apparently a lot of people tried it out and loved it. Both are very fun, but I am partial to the sit on tops and exploring the Caldron Falls Flowage.

The first weekend of June brings some good events. First of all, it is free fishing weekend. You do not need a fishing license this weekend to fish in WI next weekend.

An event that is not listed is that it is a free parks weekend in Marinette County this weekend. Most of the parks and waterfalls require a $3 daily tag or an annual sticker to enter. This weekend you can go and see what you have been missing for free. We do have some exceptional parks and waterfalls in Marinette County.

There was a lot of discussion about the drought over the weekend. I am not sold that we are out of the woods yet, but I think that we might be heading that way. There was actual rain for more than 10 minutes last weekend, and all of the forecasts have more. The HPC QPF is for an inch of rain this week. The GFS which can be a little excitable (convective feedback) does show several large rain producing storms possible over the next two weeks.

The words of encouragement that I had for people was to consider the plight of Atlanta. Last year they were in crisis as the drought drained their reservoir. Since January they have had enough rain and snow to raise Lake Lanier levels 7′, half of their deficit from normal levels. That is a lot of change in six months.

I am also hoping that we are at the bottom of the cycle or coming back up.  In my research last night I encountered a dam that has been measuring flow for 96 years. The previous low flow record was in 1958 was 815cfs, and today’s flow is a record shattering 450. That is fairly significant.

I see some hope ahead. The dreaded El Nino is fading into memory. There are some other teleconnections in flux, and it looks like we are in for a strong hurricane season. Sometimes played out hurricanes from the Gulf of Mexico travel up the Mississippi River Valley and end up giving us a few inches of rain. Sometimes they get cut off and bring more.

The downside to that is that we could see rising gas prices as the summer progresses. A significant amount of our gasoline infrastructure is near the Gulf of Mexico and vulnerable to hurricanes.

That is about it from here. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday May 28th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

There are not a lot of major updates today. The big weekend is off to a start for a lot of people. A few weekend people were around last night, and that will increase a lot today.

The weather outlook remains the same. It is expected to be a nice weekend until Sunday night when a line of rain should pass through. Monday will be cooler.

In my travels last night I found that the new growth in the woods is really taking off. We had an early start, then the lack of rain slowed it down. It is filling in nicely now.

I also spotted a snapping turtle up on the road by the river and a courageous sandhill crane. Two adult cranes had crossed the road. As I got close one of them ran back out in front of the truck at the last second jumping around and flapping it’s wings because a baby on the other side had run into the road. I was aware of them and going slow so an expected e-stop gave the whole situation a happy ending. I was quite impressed with the bird’s courage and glad that it ended well.

Last night was the full moon. At that point we can expect some moonlight over the weekend. Something that I really enjoyed on the last full moon was going to a remote clear cut in the forest and parking on a hilltop to watch and listen to the world go by late at night. That might be a good choice for this weekend.

The full moon should make the fishing better too. Supposedly the solunar tables are for both fish and game, and there were plenty of active deer.

The only event that I have to add is that Bob Heckler and his brother will be playing at the Rapids Resort Saturday night, otherwise there is a DJ there the other nights.

Well I am off to go and dive into the day. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Thursday May 27th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

The cold front finally came through yesterday and put an end to the heat and humidity. Yesterday it gave north central WI 1-3 inches of rain in places, and similar totals across the Fox Valley. It was hit and miss with areas only a few miles apart seeing very different totals.

That was our story here. The storms along the front died down overnight as the front advanced our way. They started back up again pretty much right here. For at least an hour yesterday we had rumbles of thunder, but the rain was only enough to make dust droplets on the truck.

The storm grew quickly as it moved east. A friend said that it was pouring in Crivitz hard enough to make the parking lot fill with water. The radar returns showed about 0.66″ in Pembine, and 0.88″ in Mountain, but 0.1″ here.

There have been a lot of news reports this week about the drought in Northern WI. The Milwaukee fishwrap had an article, the Green Bay TV 2 news did a piece this morning, and the DNR has an article about it as well.

I thought we had it bad here.. The articles said that the Rainbow Flowage  in Oneida County was down 13 feet, and Deep Lake in Washburn County is down 15 feet. There was a picture on the DNR site of a dock 50-75′ up a hill from the waterline.

Contrast that with Waubee Lake that is maybe 3′ off, and our rivers are running at about normal recent August low levels.

Flowages like Caldron Falls and High Falls are not affected from our perspective. The dams have strictly controlled water levels that they must maintain. They are not down at all. WPS isn’t making much power or letting much through the dams, but the lakes remain full.

I checked fire danger today and we are at moderate. Much of the area saw rain. Today’s low relative humidity behind the front is of some concern, but  we are not a tinder box. They actually are allowing burning today.

The next item up for bids is the weekend weather. So far that looks to be on track with earlier forecasts.

We will see high pressure dominate the weather through Sunday. It is expected to be warm with increasing temps as the time passes. An approaching storm will push warm and probably humid air north into our region as it approached from the west. The influence of that should be mostly felt on Sunday. The forecast has the cold front coming through Sunday night and early Monday morning with a chance of rain and storms. They do not look that strong on the models.

As far as temperatures I would generalize a little and estimate upper 70s and into the 80s Saturday, and a little hotter day in the mid-80s Sunday. Monday should drop back to the upper 70s if it clears out quickly.

I am always a little suspicious of bluebird weekend forecasts, and this one is no different. The models and sources agree on what I have above. I am not sure that I do.

Here are the events that I know about for this weekend..

May 29 Rustic Inn
Silver Cliff Rummage Sale
In the Yard and Pavilion

Buy or Sell from 7 AM to 12 Noon
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May 29 Town of Stephenson
Parade starts on Archer Lane off Boat Landing #3 Rd 9th Annual Picnic & Parade
sponsored by the Town of Stephenson Fire Dept. and Twin Bridge Rescue Squad Parade at 11am – Picnic to follow at the Stephenson Town Hall on County X

Food & Drink, Games & Raffles, Live Music
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May 29 Townsend Town Hall 9th Annual Townsend Stars & Stripes Celebration

7pm to 11:30pm Refreshments, Raffles, Games & Prizes, Live Music
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May 29 Wabeno Fire & Rescue Grounds 2nd Annual Wabeno Fire & Rescue Fund raiser

Open House – Pig Roast – Classic Car Show – Raffles – Live Music
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May 30 Silver Cliff Memorial Park
& Picnic Grounds Annual Memorial Day Picnic
Ceremony at 10am, picnic to follow – Food, Drink, Games, Raffles
Sponsored by American Legion Post 66 & Auxiliary

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May 30 Downtown Mountain Mountain Memorial Weekend Parade
Starts at Noon – Life music, food, refreshments and raffles to follow

Sponsored by the Mountain Area Business Assoc.
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May 30 Lakewood Town Hall & Activity Grounds McCaslin Lioness 11th Annual Family Faire
10am – 3pm Raffles & Prizes – Silent Auction – Children’s games

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Sunday May 30th- Memorial Day Parade Through Wausauke @ 11am followed by the Wausaukee VFD Truck & Garden Tractor Pull 12pm at the fairgrounds $5 entry $2 beer and food

The travel should be fairly painless. The WIDOT site says that they closed down most construction sites for the weekend. There are exceptions. Here is a link to the page where you can plan your route around those spots.

They also furloughed the DMV workers Friday for budget reasons, so the DMV will be closed. That was well timed.

In a related note, they have been hammering ads on the local TV stations that WI will be on a “Click it or ticket” seat belt law enforcement push this weekend. You will want to be aware of that and generally drive safely as they will be watchful as with any holiday weekend.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB