Monday March 8th, 2010
Afternoon Update
2:30pm
What a day.. 61 & mostly sunny. I was outside working on my truck and sweating.
A lot has melted fast in the last two days. The snowmobile track pictures show a real story. A few days ago they were sitting on a 2-3″ ice layer. they still are, but only in the shade of the machine.
Also included are some guys that visited the Rapids recently.
The sun and 50s and 60s really had their way with the ice here. It isn’t too muddy, making me wonder how much frost we have in the ground.
Early Updates 1 & 2..
Welcome!
Check out the new site!
There is a lot going on, so I will give you a little tour.
First up, you can leave comments here. That in itself is pretty big stuff. I encourage you to click the little comment link below each post and speak your onions, contribute some info or an event, or ask questions.
It is a cool system. You give your e-mail address, which is checked against an up to the second database of spammers. Usually after two approved posts you don’t have to have me approve your comments. You don’t have to log in, remember passwords or any of that. I used it on the snowmobiling page and it was a hit.
Item two is the contact info. If you need to let me know something, or need to contact me about a web site, use the little Feedback Tab on the left. It pops out a form that sends me your message.
On the top left we have a big new Accuweather widget. It is the best that I have seen, with forecast, radar, 15 day forecast and all kinds of stuff. There is also a new AccuWeather map page link in the weather links. This opens a page of many weather forecast maps, satellite, radar, and all kinds of weather stuff.
There is now also a public bulletin board page. Leave a comment and post your stuff.
Beyond that there is a lot to talk about.
We had a very warm weekend. Saturday we saw 56 and Sunday we saw 58, with sun both days. Between the warmth and the sun it was very nice outside.
The warm temps really made some headway melting down the big ice base that was under the snow. In sunny spots it ate a lot of it, in shady spots it melted it soft and slushy several inches deep.
The same clear skies that have been bringing us a lot of sun have also brought cold nights. This past week had warm days but nights in the teens. It isn’t quite July yet.
Those cold nights have been refreezing the sunny spots, and they are not too muddy yet. About the time the sun starts winning, the day is over and it freezes back up, so the mud isn’t too deep yet.
I haven’t heard word about the road bans, but they have to go into effect any day now if they aren’t already. The road ban is a weight limit banning heavy trucks while the gravel and soil under the road base is soft during frost out.
Likewise once the snowmobile trails close, the ATV trails close for the same reason, soft trails during frost-out. Usually they reopen the first weekend in May.
Whitewater rafting starts April 3rd with Kosir’s. A lot of people think that because we didn’t have many snow storms over the winter, that we are way behind on water. It just isn’t so. The majority of the Peshtigo River watershed is up near Crandon. I saw the other day that they are right at normal for rainfall since August.
We are starting a little from behind from the dry summer last year, but our October rains helped that a lot, and so did the winter rains. The Christmas storm and the mid-winter storm brought a lot of rain before the snow came. The end result is that we are still down, but not as much as you would think.
Current forecast models show several big storms possible in the coming two weeks. It has been showing the breakdown of the high pressure that shielded us from winter storms. Our El Nino should be weakening any day now, and often that brings changes that can produce a stormy period for us. It would have been nice if it would have come in winter, but I do still expect it this spring or early summer.
In the short term weather..
The next few days look nice and warmer than normal. We should see temps cross the 50 degree mark today and Tuesday. As of 9:30am, Athelstane Weather is at 46, so it is a pretty good bet that we will see a warm day.
About Wednesday a storm will come this way and affect our weather for almost a week. It looks like off and on rain into the weekend, and a chance of it changing to snow Sunday & Monday.
The concensus at Rapids Saturday night was that we likely will see a spring snowstorm or two. The conversants had a hard time believing that we would get away with two winters in a row that never had a foot or more of snow in one storm.
THAT is why I am still dragging around the plow on the truck and haven’t summerized the snowmobiles yet. The plow will probably get taken back off today.
In events we have bucket golf at Dockside this Saturday. They are also having a meat and prize raffle along with it. It should be a big event and a chance for people to check out their new addition where the patio used to be.
Later in March we have a poker run coming up with the nice folks at Firelane Bar, the Chute Pond Snowmobile Club Banquet, and a sports show. Whitewater rafting with Kosir’s starts the first weekend in April.
That is about it from here. Have a good morning and thank you for visiting!
RJB