Wed May 17, 2017

Greetings and welcome!

4:30pm

We have another round of storms moving through. It is raining and rumbling now, and the TV just said that we could see a couple of more rounds of storms. The heaviest stuff again went a little to our west and then up into the UP. We are still getting some solid rain though, I am using my phone as a hotspot to write this because the satellite internet keeps getting blocked by the rain.

The last wave of rain also hit the Peshtigo River watershed quite nicely filling in any gaps that showed less than an inch of rain, and pushing most of it to the 1.5″ range. Part of the heavy rain area east of Crandon is now showing radar returns in the 3-4″ range. Great whitewater on the Peshtigo this weekend is definitely a lock.

I put on a lot of miles today, and in one case I shaved about 20 miles off of my trip by short-cutting down a couple of forest roads (What a Bummer!!). Here are a couple of more flower pictures. The shooting stars are new today. I thought that I saw some yesterday, but was at highway speed and couldn’t be sure. Now we know.  The trillium are now more common, and starting to really fill in.

On to the morning report..

Thanks Sara!

RJB

5am

It is raining pretty good as I start my update at 5am. It has been raining most of the night, and we had a few heavy waves that brought thunderstorms. The 4am update of the USGS gauge by Kosir’s showed 1/2″ down. The current wave of rain is dark green on the radar and a good sized blob of it. The roof-dar says that it is a moderate and steady rain. My guess is that we will be at an inch plus before long.

The storm has brought some very strong weather, and it brought a tornado in Western WI. There was one line at sunset that looked really wicked with several concentrated red areas on the radar. It was making a due east bee line right for us. Thankfully that weakened as it got farther east. I was watching it on radar and lightning tracker and it looked like it was going to slam us here in Silver Cliff. Instead it took a left on Hwy 32 and went north.

Crandon, Laona, Armstrong Creek, Goodman, and Dunbar all got significant rain. The radar returns are showing them getting 2-3″ of rain, and that was before the last two waves hit them. Why do I care in Silver Cliff? Because that big orange stripe of heavy rain fell on the far reaches of the Peshtigo River watershed.

The river is running at about 600cfs right now, probably a +5. Our median flow for today is about 400cfs, so we are already well above normal. With the above normal flow, Monday’s rain, and last night’s rain, I think that we have a lot to look forward to playing in the whitewater this weekend.

There is still more rain ahead for today and Thursday, including some that could get heavy. Unfortunately there is also a little rain in the forecast for Saturday. It doesn’t look like a lot for quantity, but the forecast has it coming prime time Saturday afternoon.

I put on a lot of miles yesterday and got a good look around. The trees and underbrush are starting to fill in now, and forests that I could see 100 yards into a week ago are now blocked with green after about 100 feet. The trillium started blooming here in Silver Cliff about Sunday, and there is a good start on them in my woods and front yard.

I made a couple of stops on some forest roads to take pictures of marsh marigolds and the swollen creeks from the rain. The marsh marigolds picture after sunset was too dark, but the creek picture from an hour earlier came out nice. At both creek crossings I was greeted by an ample cloud of mosquitoes and quickly driven back to the car. I guess that season is here.

When I cut the grass Sunday a few gnats and wood ticks were the only pests. Apparently the trout streams have a more generous mosquito population.

Well the alarm is going to ring in a couple of minutes, so it is time for me to go and jump into a really busy day. Have a good week and thank you for  visiting!

RJB