NorthernDestinations.com

Tuesday 8-8-2023

Greetings and welcome!

Last weekend was a very busy one for the area. Between the big Lakewood craft fair and the ATV/UTV events there were a lot of people doing summer stuff.

There is also the element that summer is quickly coming to an end. A lot of colleges start classes before Labor Day and for many families the window to vacation with the whole family is coming to a close. When I was on Hwy 32 between Wabeno and Lakewood Sunday afternoon there were almost as many people with boats and campers heading north as were heading south.

Yesterday we were up in the Nicolet at a secret lake and a small line of rain and storms came through. It was a typical summer afternoon pop-up line of storms. We hit the jackpot where we were and got hit by the most intense red blob on the radar. The rain was really pounding and it escalated in intensity three times. At the end it was really impressive how hard that it was raining. That probably yielded about 3/4″ of rain in a little under an hour. It was nothing severe but it was some pretty intense rain.

We can expect stuff like that on just about any given day in late summer when the daytime heating stirs up the atmosphere. There are more organized storms possible for Wednesday and Friday but the weekend looks pretty good.

This is a big weekend for our little town. I am talking about the Silver Cliff Picnic and parade. That is always fun with an impressive parade followed by the picnic where you get to see and meet all of your local neighbors. The word on the street is that they will have a dunk tank this year. It is always fun to sink a local celeb or two.
It doesn’t mention it on the poster, but the parade starts at Boat Landing 11 Rd and heads east to the picnic grounds.

Also this Saturday is the motorcycle stunt show at the Thunder Lake Lodge..

I saw a post on facebook that someone was harvesting some bounty of black raspberries and dewberries. The spot that I was at yesterday had a couple of small raspberries that were nice and red and ripe but they were tiny. I haven’t checked the ample patches at the Silver Cliff house yet.

Fun story about that.. One year I noticed that the bushes were hanging really heavy with black raspberries and they were getting ripe. I planned on a big harvest on my next day off. The day finally comes and I head outside with some garbage bags.. that’s how many berries that there were. I go out there and in the 1/2 acre patch there is not one single ripe berry to be had. What!?!

I look around for tracks from the offending berry thief and there are none. No bear, deer, or human tracks at all. What in the world is going on?

I sat on the front step with a beer and my empty garbage bags trying to make sense of it all. That’s when the mystery got solved.

I watched as a chipmunk ran up one of the berry canes bending it to the ground and started feasting on the near ripe berries. Mystery solved. I am still kind of marveling at how a couple of chippies cleaned out a 1/2 acre berry patch in only a few days.

On that note I am off to go and be part of a beautiful 78 degree summer day. There aren’t many left.

Have a good week and thank you for visiting!
RJB

Tuesday 8-1-2023

Greetings and welcome!

We haven’t had any wild weather to report so far this week. I am happy about that.

We have some events coming up this weekend.

The first one is the biggest, the Lakewood Art & Crafts Show. They have almost 300 booths with over 200 vendors. Here is a link. https://www.ocontocounty.org/events/?i=lakewood-arts-and-crafts-show-2023-08-05&d=2023-08&view=l

Next up are two ATV/UTV related events.

Saturday from 9-11am there is a WATVA meeting at the Stephenson Town Hall, followed by a trail ride. Here is a link.. https://www.ocontocounty.org/events/?i=northeast-regional-watva-meeting-2023-08-05&d=2023-08&view=l

From 11am-4pm the Near North Trail Riders are having a corn roast trail fundraiser up at the Northwoods Bar on Benson Lake Rd & Northway Rd (Old A). Here is a link to that.. https://www.facebook.com/events/169468336004373?ref=newsfeed

Next weekend August 12th is the Silver Cliff picnic and parade.

The recent rains did lift the rivers up from too low to good enough. A little river tubing might be fun.

Other than that it is a pretty typical summer outlook. Temps in the 80s and a chance at a pop up storm on any given afternoon. I am off to go and be a part of that. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

I swear that I am missing something else that I wanted to share. I will update if I remember.

7-28-2023 Storm Update

Greetings and welcome!

We had a strong storm hit the area at about sunset last night. It had plenty of lightning, a LOT of rain, and some strong winds. The power went out a couple of times and came back on. The best that I can tell from searching area web sites is that there were a few trees down here and there but there is no widespread damage. At my house it blew over a folding lawn chair and broke one small branch off of a very dead tree.

Yesterday the atmosphere was charged up like a taser and was really ready to go off in a big way. It was a very hot day and the humidity was very high. That all adds up to a tremendous amount of energy in the atmosphere. When I looked it up the surface CAPE was up to 3,500, and the rest of the atmospheric dynamics were also well into the severe weather range. I was very concerned.

The storm looked really scary when it was moving in. There was a lot of red on the radar, a lot of lightning, and it was moving at almost 50mph. My poor dog that is afraid of thunderstorms was going crazy.

Happily it all ended with some strong winds, a lot of torrential downpours, and plenty of thunder and lightning.

Between last night and Wednesday’s torrential rains I would guess that we saw 3-4″ of rain in the last two days. There will likely be some washed out roads and driveways and some flooded low areas. To the best of my knowledge that will be the extent of the damage. I will update if I see anything else in my travels.

Here is a link to a Facebook post by a guy name Dan Smeiska, the Northwoods Storm Chaser. He caught a very dramatic picture of the wall cloud as it moved in. https://www.facebook.com/groups/Crivitz.WI.Links/permalink/3569503750045319/

RJB

Wednesday 7-26-2023

Greetings and welcome!

It feels a lot like summer around here.. The weather has been on the warm side and we have had a few lines of afternoon showers and storms popping up. That’s good, we can use the rain.

Yesterday I was cutting grass way at the end of our private road, about 1/4 mile down. The skies were getting a little dark and I was almost done. Yeah.. The skies opened up and I was done alright. It was a rockin’ downpour and I had to laugh as I raced up the 1/4 mile road at the tractor’s top speed of 4mph. I pushed it and lost. Play stupid games..

Anyway, that storm dropped close to an inch of rain in about 20 minutes. The road went from totally dry to huge puddles that fast.

It happened again this afternoon. The heat of the day and all of the moisture in the atmosphere stirred up a dandy line of storms. When I drove through it between Wausaukee and Silver Cliff it was an incredibly intense downpour where it couldn’t physically rain much faster. There was some thunder, but no wind or hail.

The storm continued to intensify and southeast of here the NWS put out a warning that radar indicated 70mph winds and up to 1/2″ hail. It looked like only one little spot that got really strong. I haven’t heard of any damage or if the ground truth was as dramatic as the radar estimates.

When I was cutting grass at the Silver Cliff house it was only the second time this summer. That is very unusual. Most of what I was cutting was weeds. The grass had a rough year. In areas that it usually chokes the mower it just wasn’t that thick.

Those weeds are also wildflowers, and there is a very nice variety going on right now.

I did notice a ripe raspberry while I was over there. I don’t know if there are a lot or a little, I spotted it on the way back up the driveway in a downpour. I will have to look into that when I go finish up.

We have had a rough year for gypsy moths and tent caterpillars. Those are turning into moths now and there are a lot of them. We are probably in for a bad year for them next year too if all of those moths have a successful breeding season.

Some of the weather buddies were getting pretty excited about a hot week this week. Over the weekend there were predictions of days close to 100ºF. That has mellowed a lot. Now we are looking at mid 80s and a high of 91 Thursday. The weekend looks seasonal at about 80. It is late summer so an afternoon pop-up storm is a possibility just about daily.

This weekend they are having Weinerfest North in Lakewood.

I will update with any other events that I find.

That’s it for today. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB