Greetings and welcome!
It has been a hot one in the north woods this week, and we aren’t short on humidity. Today looks like it will be the hottest of the week, with the NWS looking at upper 90s.
The humidity has been thick. As I crested a hill yesterday I could barely see Thunder Mountain 20 miles away for all of the humidity in the air. The large amount of moisture in the air has brought us some torrential downpours like the one on Monday night and the storms that hit the UP and north of about Hwy 8 last night. The atmosphere is loaded with heat and moisture, all that it takes is a trigger to set it off and bring torrential downpours.
There is a 20% chance of storms today, but those chances go up Friday (30%) and Friday night (70%) as some cooler air starts moving in from the north. We are expecting high 90s and humid today, Saturday will offer a lot less humidity and a high temp of about 80. A change like that probably won’t be a peaceful one, so I am expecting some pretty good storms when it does come.
The weekend looks nice with a hi/lo of about 80/55 and mostly clear weather. That trend looks like it will continue into next week.
It has been a busy week for the area. Everywhere there are cars & trucks with boats, campers, ATVs, jet skis, and other fun stuff to do. It wasn’t obvious last week when people would visit the area with the 4th holiday landing on Wednesday. Apparently a lot of people took the week off and headed up north. It is good to see the area busy after how slow it has been the past few years with the economy and high gas prices.
My early week prediction on high water on the whitewater rivers came in as pretty accurate. I guessed at about +6″ on the Peshtigo River, possibly as levels rocketed higher. It looks like we crossed the +6″ mark this morning, and the slope of the graph suggests that it is nearing the crest, probably reaching a peak today or tomorrow (assuming no more rain, which might not be a good assumption). The median flow volume on the Pesh for today is 229CFS, and as of the 4:45am reading it was at 503. Sweeeet!
I was taking pictures on the river yesterday and people were having a blast. There were flips and spills and some spectacular wipe outs, along with some epic pop-ups and burials as people smashed the big waves and holes. It was a great day to get wet and the Kosir Krew was all over it on the whitewater stretch.
A lot of people took advantage of the flat water tubing on the Peshtigo at Kosir’s too, there was a steady stream of people cooling off and floating down the Pesh all day.
I would be neglectful if I didn’t mention the Menominee River by Kosir’s. That river is running huge, and could well be on the rise again after the storms that hit Florence County and the UP last night. Right now it is running at 3,000CFS, a really incredibly fun level that will eat a 16′ raft with 10 people in it in some of the waves and holes. This is an old picture, but I am thinking that it was taken at about 3,500-4,000cfs. If I were out for a first order feeding of the adrenaline rat today I’d probably head for the Menominee with Kosir’s.
Gas prices in the area have been pretty steady at about $3.39. It isn’t great, but it is a lot better than it has been recently.
Well, the river calls so I am off to work and get wet doing it. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!
RJB