Thursday September 30th, 2010-PT1

Greetings and welcome!

It is about 10 minutes before a very busy day comes at me. I won’t be around for the afternoon report, so the plan is a short version, followed up later with more details.

When I was out last night just after sunset, it looked like the fall colors were really going off. It was hard to tell for darkness, but I could make out a nice patchwork of colors. I have to guess that we will have prime colors for the weekend. I will be taking a camera along in my travels today, one of the reasons for a two part report.

The weather for the weekend looks Fall-like. Our weekend weather will be dominated by a cold high pressure system coming out of central Canada. It will be the first major push of sub-32º cold air at the upper levels of the atmosphere this fall.

The action starts about Friday with a cold front and a little rain possible Friday and Friday night. The rain chances stretch into Saturday on the NWS forecast, but I have some doubts.

As the cold side of a big high pressure system blows cold air over Lake Superior, the warm waters will cause some lake effect showers. The UP could see their first snow flakes this weekend and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them here too. That same lake effect is expected to bring our chance of scattered showers.

The reason that I have my doubts Saturday is that at the moment the winds don’t looks strong enough to push the rain this far south off of Superior. It happens, but usually in the context of 30mph winds that carry it a long way. The winds are predicted to be about half of that, at least right now. In that light, places that see lake effect snow, Like Vilas Co, are more likely to see rain.

My guess is that we will see a cool day with N or NW winds and plenty of clouds blowing by. SOme could bring a quick shower. I like unsettled as a description.

Night time temps are an interesting challenge to predict too. The upper atmosphere will be plenty cold enough to put us into the 30s, but the expected cloud cover could moderate temps a little.

We are expecting a frost or freeze, and the clouds will be the key to that. If it stays cloudy, my guess in that it will go into the low or mid-30s Friday and Saturday night. If the clouds part and we get a lot of radiational cooling, hello 20s.

I am looking for upper 40s Saturday with some wind, and as usual, Sunday looks nicer. Look for clear weather and low 50s.

We have some fun events for the weekend. The bars up and down Parkway are having a mini-golf tournament where each bar sets up their own unique home made mini-golf hole, and people go bar to bar to put-put golf. It was a lot of fun last year, and people were looking forward to it being held again. OK, here is round 2.

Thornton’s is also having a poker run hay ride that day. The hay wagon goes to the bars on the poker run. It was out of hand fun a couple of years ago when we went.

There is also a big Fall Festival in Wausaukee Saturday. They have a lot going on there. Here is the official list from Chris..

Whitewater folks- The rivers are STILL running very high and very much above normal. The Peshtigo is probably about at +18 right now and not falling too fast. It was +24 last Saturday. Normally it is -5 or -6 right now. It is very unusual to have this high of water and not have ice on the sides of the river. Get it now r get it in 7 months when it is ice water. Hmmm.

I was also made aware that the Rapids Resort has a special with big discount on their cabins between now & gun hunting. Give them a call.

Chris & I were planning on hitting some waterfalls this weekend. We will see how that works out, but it would be a good call.

Well I am 20 minutes late now so I have to run. I covered most of the important stuff, I will be back later with some fall color pictures.

Have a good week and thank you for visiting

RJB