5:30pm
Greetings and welcome!
I ran up 32 right before sunset today. Lakewood didn’t take the warm weather well. The golf course is bare on the big hill and some other spots, and the stretch of the RR grade between town and the McCauslin Creek bridge is burned off to mud. Townsend had no bare stuff visible except for one hilltop that was getting thin. The trail by Valley Inn on the east side wasn’t great, but it is a sunny spot. The trail in the woods on the west side looked a little distressed but still had good coverage. A check of the RR grade just south of the casino in Carter found full coverage with only one soft spot visible.
The roadsides told a story. In Carter one side was bare, the other side had probably 3-4″ to play in.
Seeing what I did I would put Townsend about as far south as you want to go. North and west is probably better. If it goes 35+ tomorrow that line will probably move north.
Roads are mostly bare.
Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB
Noon..
Greetings and welcome!
I’d Rather Be Snowmobiling..
We have a too warm day going on today.We marked a low of 29 a little after midnight, and it has been getting warmer ever since. It was up to 40 at sunrise. At 10am Crivitz had 43, Shawano 44, Wabeno 37, and Athelstane Weather had 43.
Now at noon Athelstane Weather is up to 47, Crivitz 44, Shawano has 48, and Wabeno has 41.
The sun is hit and miss, sometimes behind a cloud, sometimes shining brightly. Far the last hour it has mostly been out, and the noon news says that it will be clearing.
Yeah it is bad. Most of the snow in the yard is gone or very soft. The roof is dripping fast, and there is a big puddle under the truck. I am on break from making firewood, and a sweatshirt and jeans is comfortable attire.
It is supposed to cool off a few degrees later and go into the mid to upper 30s, and then upper 20s or low 30s over the weekend. Next week brings more mid-30s and low 40s for the first half of the week.
Marginal areas definately took a beating yesterday and today. I had a hard time seeing my tracks from snowmobiling on the way home last night. Now a lot of those roads are bare or getting there.
(Got any good news Zippy?)
The models have been pretty consistent about showing a cool down and a parade of clipper systems for the second half of next week.
That and Ray’s law of variability says that it can’t possibly last. RLoV says that temperatures 10º above or below the normal hi/low is pretty common. Twenty degrees happens but not often, +/-30 degrees is very rare.
Our normal high/low today is 22/2. Today’s hi/low of 48/29 is at the top of the unusual category and heading for very rare. It can’t possibly last. As the noon news TV weather guy said, we will pay the price at some point.
I had planned a trip up 32 today and I still might get there later this afternoon. Right now I am taking advantage of the upper 40s and tackling outside stuff, 48 in January is too warm to pass up.
I’d really rather be reporting on the foot of fresh snow to add to the two feet on the ground and telling everyone to come riding when it is in the upper 20s over the weekend.
RJB