Greetings and welcome!
A busy week kept me from an early week update, so we have a lot to talk about.
It is a cold gray windswept day outside today with a few showers to top it off. It is like one of those raw November days that aren’t really good for much outside.
That somewhat describes the last week. It has been very windy almost daily, it has been overcast, and there have been some occasional showers.
The winds have been brutal. Figure a daily 15-30mph wind with some gusts into the mid-30s. The other day Athelstane Weather recorded a gust of 48mph.
There has been very little damage. Some trees have fallen, but for the most part the forests have been hardened against wind storms by our last 4 or 5 high wind episodes. Power has not gone out or even flickered here, and a check of the WPS map only showed very scattered outages.
The wind has been merciless for the last week or so. Today they could go 20-30. Tomorrow we should finally get a break when they are only expected to be 5-10.
The weekend looks to be partly cloudy and in the mid-50s, and without the big gusty winds of the past week. The NWS is putting a chance of showers in for Sunday and Sunday night. The GFS is holding it off until Monday, but then bringing three days of the stuff.
About two weeks ago I predicted snow for yesterday. There was a pretty good mass of cold air behind the storm, and I expected the two to get together for a little snow. It didn’t happen.
One of the guys from Kosir’s goes to school up in Ely, MN near the Boundary Waters, and he had a picture of about 1/2″ snowfall on Facebook the other day.
According to the GFS the next good chance of seeing the first snowflakes of the year are in a week, behind next week’s storm.
Even though we haven’t had snow, it has been cold. Most days have been peaking around 50, and nights in the 30s and low 40s. The once a day fire to take the chill off has been replaced by an all day fire or 2-3 small ones. Heating season is officially under way.
Most of the leaves are down now, but there are still a few with color. One fairly common species of popple (or cottonwood maybe) still have yellow leaves. I also noticed the tamaracks are turning their bright yellow, bringing some color to wet areas.
I do not have any events on the list for this weekend.
Time has gotten away from me again, and I have to go for now. I will be back tomorrow with a part two of the update. There is still much to cover.
Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB