Greetings and welcome!
We had a pretty good weekend considering everything. The forecast of rain Saturday night and Monday worked out, and we ended up with a decent Saturday, Sunday, and early Monday.
The rain Saturday night was pretty heavy as I mentioned in my Sunday update. The USGS gauge by the Peshtigo River measured about 1.5″. Sunday morning another wave of storms came through with a lot of lightning and about another quarter inch of rain.
The lightning hit some power lines and took the area out of power at about 8:30am. Apparently this wasn’t the usual tree across the power lines stuff. According to calls to WPS it took down a major component on the high tension lines that feed the area. Power was finally restored here at about 11 or 11:30pm, though the grid to our east came on a couple of hours sooner.
The power outage was not well timed, and caused some problems. A lot of people were stranded without the gas station being able to pump gas. The gas station and local businesses had to loose thousands of dollars in business. We ended up running the photo business on my generator. Rapids had one too, and they managed to get enough stuff running to cook a limited menu and stay open.
The repair estimates kept changing. Initially power was going to be back at 6:30, then it was 7:30, 8:30, and then they said that they didn’t know, it was up to ATC the high line operator. The outage affected 1,000-2,000 people, so it was pretty localized. After a 15 hour outage on a major holiday weekend it probably wouldn’t be too hard to sell some standby generators around here.
The early afternoon storm Monday brought a round of heavy rain for a little while, but none of the severe stuff that could have been. I did hear a report of some penny or dime sized hail from the wave that went through Crivitz, but we saw just rain here.
The storm Monday was in advance of a pretty major cold front. We probably got close to 80 on Monday, and today we are looking at a high in the upper 50s and a chance of frost tonight as the low temps could go into the low 30s. Thursday and Friday look to be on the cool side too, with highs in the low 60s.
The weekend looks pretty good. There is a minor chance of showers Friday-Sunday as a storm to our east could spin off a small shower or two, but we are looking at a 30% chance and low rainfall expectations. Friday could hit 60, Saturday could hit the mid 60s, and Sunday’s predicted high is in the mid-70s.
The weekend brings a lot of events. This is the weekend where you don’t need a fishing license to fish in WI, the state parks are open with free admission and open houses, and the Marinette County parks are having free admission on Saturday. Here is the current event list. As usual I will add any more that I see in my late week update.
| June 2 | Mountain Area (Maiden Lake) |
7th Annual Walk/Run at Maiden Lake – 9am Sponsored by Nicolet Plastics and the Northwoods Parrot Head Club – This is a family friendly “fun run” or walk, with a kids run afterwards. – Several area fire departments and ambulance services, including Mountain, are the beneficiaries of this fundraiser. |
| June 2 | Marinette County Parks | Free Admission Day All Marinette County Parks, boat landings and day use areas will have free admission (Camping fees still apply) |
| June 2-3 | State of Wisconsin | Free Fishing Weekend Free fishing for residents and non-residents on all Wisconsin Waterways |
| June 3 | Gov. Thompson State Park | Open House call 715-757-3979 for details |
I am also pretty sure that this is the weekend that the FOMA, Friends of Mountain Ambulance Service will be starting their drive through fish fry and brat/burger fry on Friday nights in Mountain. I don’t have it in front of me, but I recall an article saying that they have raised over 150K for the Mountain Fire & Rescue/Ambulance services so far.
That is about it from here for today. I will be back later in the week with an events and weather update along with anything else that crosses my path.
Have a good week and thank you for visiting!
RJB
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