Tuesday January 31, 2012

Greetings and welcome!

The good news is that as a I got farther away from the house it looked more like an inch of snow than the half inch reported. The bad news is that the temp peaked at 40 today and ate about half of it. Thankfully it stayed cloudy so the sun had a reduced affect on the melting.

Today was what looks like the warmest day of the week. The GFS and NAM models are showing slightly cooler temps ahead. The bad news is that the sun will be out  a little more. That is a dynamic that can take a low or mid-30s day and see it get out of hand.

Speaking of out of hand, I was a little shocked this morning when I saw on the morning news that Green Bay was expecting 48 degrees for a high. I expected upper 30s but not almost 50. Thankfully it stayed in the upper 30s, only briefly peaking at 40.

They also mentioned that tomorrow is the first time that the sun sets after 5pm since November 6th. We have picked up about 40 minutes of daylight since the solstice in late December. I like that it isn’t dark at 4:30pm, but I am less enthusiastic about the longer days on those sunny days that are bad for the trails.

The storm for Sunday was pretty clearly billed as speculative yesterday with good reason. Yesterday it was going to hit WI and the UP with a lot of rain and rain with the rain/snow line up in Canada. Today the northern reaches of the storm barely got north of about Sheboygan or Madison on the GFS. It will change again.

We have a lot of friends from around McHenry Co Illinois. Apparently they had a 2.4 earthquake in those parts last night. In case the news didn’t flood you with info about it, here is the USGS summary page about it. Rumor has it that it wasn’t really an earthquake, but rather Brother Ed firing up that bad to the bone MXZ of his..

There are a few events for this weekend. The top of my list is Ice Bowling at the Parkway Inn. Over the years Ice Bowling has become a part of a lot of people’s winter event tradition. It is a good time and they are nice folks. This one is recommended.

There is also a Fish-o-Rama on Chute Pond. It is the 54th annual from the Mountain VFD Axillary. They have a heated building and even fireworks at dusk.

There is also a big poker run up by the Sugar Bush Sno-Mo-Wheelers. The poker run covers places in Crandon and Mole Lake as well as Laona, Pickerel, Argonne, and Wabeno. It is being run out of the Beachside on Lake Metonga.

And from the comment section and Dan From Riding With Dan and Dillon..

Dan Guendert Says:
January 31st, 2012 at 7:03 am   edit

Ray, We’re counting on your prediction to come true! The Brent Rosner Memorial Ride is this Saturday. Riders are sledding (or driving) from Pulaski om a poker run to Water’s Edge on Anderson Lake. Another group of riders (or drivers) is leaving Water’s Edge on a poker run in the Chute Pond area. Entry fee is $10, and all proceeds go the a scholarship fund created in memory of Brent Rosner, a Pulaski high school student who died last year from a bacterial infection. Everyone checks in at Water’s Edge by 2pm and raffles, food and the party begins then. Having snow and trails to ride on would really be nice.

I like to have a sound idea of weekend conditions by Tuesday. Right now the best guess is that it will be pretty much like last weekend. There is the possibility that the sun and warmth could get out of hand this week, but so far so good.

Sorry I am so late today. Something unexpected came up this afternoon.

Have a good Tuesday and thank you for visiting!

RJB