Greetings and welcome!
The cold weather is the topic of conversation today. The -5 overnight temps were bad enough, but the -30 wind chills were the butt kicker. As of 12:20pm we are back up to a balmy +5 with about a -9 wind chill.
Tonight the numbers get more grim. We could see temps as low as -17F, but thankfully there won’t be that much wind. Friday will warm up a little with a predicted high between +7 and +12, and Friday night lows of about -5. Saturday we could see mid-teens and Sunday brings a heat wave with highs around 30.
There was a dusting of snow last night as the cold front passed through. There is a chance of another one Friday when a small storm hits mostly south of Green Bay.
The storm for Sunday/Monday is still a little difficult to pin down. The models are showing a storm coming across the southeastern 1/3 of WI, which is good. The GFS is showing it then tracking up the western shore of Lake Michigan, which will push the rain/snow line west. After it moves off a little it is showing accumulating snow for us. That one is still a wait ‘n see, the models change details with every run.
Yesterday was a road day for me with service calls and shopping that took me from Carter to Crivitz and many points in between. At one point I needed to go from Lakewood to Crivitz, so I took a shortcut through the national forest (Smyth-Holts Ranch-LaFave-W) that put me by Crooked Lake and Hwy W. A lot of those roads looked almost good enough to ride in places, and sunburned in others. I remember the last time that I fell for that, I gave up half a set of carbides, but it wouldn’t take much to turn it around.
On my run up Hwy 32 from Lakewood to Carter there were a variety of conditions. Lakewood had good spots and bare spots. Townsend was mostly covered with some sunny spots on the south end of town down to gravel. The RR grade looked ok up to Valley Inn with no bare stuff visible from the road, but there wasn’t much extra.
Bla bla bla, show me the pictures..
The bottom line is that you can ride north of about Townsend but all areas need more snow. As is usually the case, north and west are better. In this case I’d go west of 32 and north of 8. This is really a stretch, if we didn’t have so much of the season behind us the standards would be a lot higher. This is what I’d expect to ride on in December or March as a first or last ride. Hopefully the Sunday storm and some next week turn it all around.
Have a good Thursday and thank you for visiting!
RJB