Tuesday September 7th, 2010 pt 2

Greetings and welcome!

We have a cold windy overcast day today with a few scattered showers. Like the weekend, it is a reminder that winter is around the corner. More about that later.

The winds have been strong. The TV said that Chilton recorded a gust of 51, and our friends at Athelstane Weather have a peak gust of 41 showing.

Normally when you have southwest winds they are warm. Not with this storm. Apparently it is pulling enough cold air down from Canada and wrapping it in, that it is cold in the SW quadrant of the storm where we are.

The majority of the rain from the storm came after about dinnertime Monday. It did rain pretty good and we had some lightning and rumbles of thunder too. Some of the storms got pretty heavy with the rain, and we were in spots of red and orange on the radar. The last big wave intensified as it went east and showed dark red not to far northeast of here. Those were probably some good downpours.

As usual the rainfall reports vary. The radar returns showed between .5 and 1″. Athelstane Weather shows 0.59″, and the USGS is in with a little over 4/10ths by the Peshtigo River.

The NWS and TV weather guys have put out the possibility of some power lines going down. The thought is that with the wet soil and strong winds, some trees would be more likely to uproot and hit lines. So far so good, but it is a possibility.

To me the big storms late week and again Monday represent a changing of the seasons. The cold from Canada is making it’s first fall incursion into the areas, along with upper air temps that I haven’t seen since April or so. It isn’t cold enough to snow, but it is within 4ºC in the upper atmosphere not too far from here. I consider it fair warning.

As usual I am in a total panic about fall and all of the stuff that I need to do before it gets cold or snows. The biggie is firewood. I got a nice start early season, but stopped cutting when it got humid and hot. I’d be out there today with the cool temps, but dropping trees in 40mph winds sounds like a bad idea.

We are almost certain to have a La Nina winter this year. The probability of it are above 90% through January and it is expected to hang on until spring. It looks like it will be a good one. We have quickly plunged into a moderate La Nina, and it could go deep. La Nina is the cold phase of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), one of many drivers of our weather. If it is an accurate indication, this winter will be very different than last winter, when we had a moderate to strong El Nino.

Last weekend was a good one. There were a lot of people around to enjoy summer’s last hurray. It was good to see and fun to be part of.

Saturday was cool and with the threat of cooler temps after sunset, I suggested that we make the first chili of the season. It was a spicy batch, and quite delicious. We took a slow cooker of it down by some friends at Kosir’s and they enjoyed it too.

Speaking of Kosir’s they have locked up shop for the season as of Monday. Thank you to all of the people that came rafting this summer. It was one of the strangest summers I have ever seen. We lost April, May, and half of June to a D-3 and D-4 drought, only to have the rest of the season be above normal after we had 20″ of rain in two months. The Pesh is still above normal today.

Also locking up for the season is the ATV trail from Jungle Jims and the BP up to Brandywine. That is closed as of yesterday. There is a key land owner that bow hunts, and does not want people riding under his stand. You don’t want to violate the closure, the last time that happened it took a year to get it open again. Please plan ahead for gas and honor the closure.

We are in the hunting season. I think early goose and dove is open now, and bear opens tomorrow. Bow deer, grouse, rabbit, squirrel, and many other seasons open next weekend.

Normally by now I am seeing the first splashes of fall colors. I did finally see some Sunday along Hwy C on the way back from Wabeno. There was a general drabness to the leaves as the chlorophyll was dying off in advance of the season. A few of the leaves on the south side of the road were getting tinges of orange to them but just barely.

Well, I am going to have to come back in a little while. The distractions are running hot n heavy. BRB

RJB

Part 2

Sorry for the delay, there was a lot going on today.

We still have events, future weather and a few other things to cover. Let’s start with events..

For the snowmobilers among us, this is also the weekend of Hay Days, the big grass drags and huge swap meet in Minnesota.

The weather this week looks pretty nice. We are expecting mostly clear weather with temps in the mid-60s until the weekend. It looks like there is a storm possible for Saturday. As usual I am going to say watch the timing on the storm.

Check out this weather report and forecast.. The Vostok Ice Station in Antarctica.. -104F & clear, but it will warm up to -79 tomorrow.

That is about it for today. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB