Thursday December 8th, 2011

Greetings and welcome!

It is a balmy 16 degrees outside as I start my report about midnight. We had a cold front go through the area yesterday. The front itself didn’t bring much snow other than to the lake effect areas of the UP. The real news for us is the cold behind it. Friday could have a high of about 15 degrees and a low of  zero to plus five, and brings the first real chance of a sub-zero night.

The arctic blast behind it doesn’t last long. By Saturday we are expecting to bounce back to a hi/lo of 25/15, and Sunday 35/25. The first half of next week looks seasonal with highs in the low to mid-30s.

The GFS forecast model isn’t giving me a lot to be excited about this morning. Yesterday’s look showed a pretty active second half of the 16 day reach of the model. Today it has backed off a little on that, but not completely.

For some reason I am ok with that. I am just not that concerned yet. The trails don’t open for another week, and about the time that they do is about when the model was firing up some storms for us.

Our icy little mini-base is holding up well, and it will make even a couple of 3+ snows a nice start in a lot of spots. Some of the back roads have a lot of ice on them where they didn’t get plowed on one of the storms. The driveway wasn’t plowed and it has a decent ice layer on it. If I had my act together on the new battery for RXL #1 it would have already been seen zipping up and down the driveway. Less sheltered areas are a little spotty, and treated roads are bare.

I haven’t had a chance to check it out directly, but the recent cold nights have to have been making ice on the lakes. Without a lot of snow cover the cold nights like tonight will be making good clear ice. We are getting a very good start on the roof on the lakes. Another week of freezing weather and cold nights before the snow comes will put us in fantastic shape for late December when a lot of people come around.

That is about it from here. Have a good Thursday and thank you for visiting!

RJB