Greetings and welcome!
Last night about dark I had to go on a computer call south of Hwy W. It was snowing a little as I walked out and the wind was blowing it around. It seemed that the totals had gone a little over 2″ in the driveway.
I didn’t get far and it was a full blown snow squall with big flakes, a lot of wind blowing them around and very limited visibility. It was really going to town and it was quite exciting. It stayed like that all of of the way down Parkway until about X, where I drove out of the storm. As I went south the snow totals closer to W were in the 1-2 or 1-3 range.
On the way back I took Landing 11 Rd, one of my snowmobiling routes. It had more snow and will make a great first ride playground. There was probably 3-4″ of new snow and a little left from last time. It had me thinking about Chickadee a few miles west, and that if they hadn’t plowed it, the 3-4 on top of the ice would also make a great ride.
It is still only 3-4″, so I would not expect the glorious groomed trail system that winter usually brings, but it is enough to make forest roads and lakes worth a ride.
I have not head from Iron Snowshoe yet as far as opening the system. I saw on the Red Arrow (Townsend) web site that they also saw 4″ of snow and that they were out panning it to pack it down. The site said that their trails as well as Forest Co trails would open up on Wednesday.
The cold north wind has started the lake effect snow up in the UP. Earlier and last night it looked like about a 100 mile swath from about Marquette down to Escanaba was being blessed, and today it looks like it is snowing from the Keweenaw Peninsula almost to Newberry. Quantifying the lake effect snow on radar is tricky because of the hilly terrain making so many radar shadows, but it looks like the UP is getting lake effect snow, and the Central UP is being favored.
The blowing and drifting last night also makes it tough to measure the snow here. I would guess that there is 2-3 in the yard, but in the sheltered areas along L11 Rd where it wasn’t blowing around so much it looked more like 3-4.
Why does there always have to be a ‘but’? Today’s but is that it looks like we are in for a warm up this week. Today and tomorrow are fine with temps about 20F, BUT the NWS forecast has Wednesday starting out a stretch in the 30s that gets a little warmer every day until it peaks Friday at almost 40. Saturday the NWS has us in the low 30s and Sunday we are back down into the mid-20s.
We will have to wait and see how that goes. A little of the 30s isn’t bad, it consolidates the snow and then freezes it back up overnight and makes base. As long as it doesn’t get out of hand it might be a good thing.
I also have my concerns about Saturday going into the 30s at the same time that a few thousand riders hit the trails with less than 6″ of snow. The ice base will help, and hopefullly the forecast will bring cooler temps.
Looking ahead at the 16 day GFS I want to hit the reload button and have it shake again. It isn’t terrible for temps after this week, but there aren’t too many snow possibilities, and no big storms showing up. The stage is set for a pleasant surprise, hopefully we have a couple.
Work is not my friend today and I have to head to town later, so I am benched from the sled for today. It is my intention to get out and play a little tomorrow though. In the meantime I will get a look at Wausaukee and Crivitz from the truck, and possibly my travels will take me north on 32 tomorrow.
So the bottom line is that the 1-2 reported yesterday went to 3-4 with the second wave of the storm. There are finally riding opportunities at least on back forest roads and lakes, and Townsend and Forest Co will open trails this week. The downside is that there isn’t that much snow, so expect early season conditions, and grooming will probably be limited to panning the snow.
Have a good Monday and thank you for visiting!
RJB