Greetings and welcome!
I was traveling yesterday and didn’t get too much of a look around the local area. From what I saw it looks like the snow settled and is now a general 3-5″. It has a very high moisture content and some water under it. When I was walking back and forth to the shop this morning my tracks would get stained from the water under the snow. Once it freezes in it will be a nice addition to our ice base.
My travels took me from here to Rhinelander yesterday. All along the way there was fresh snow and the trails looked very inviting. I saw a couple of groomers operating along the road in Forest or Oneida Co.
The trails along F weren’t groomed yet, and that is probably a good thing. It would be a lot better to let some of the water under the snow freeze up.
With the rain and snow of the past few days, it is looking more and more like we will have somewhere to ride for a while. Once all of that water freezes in it will add even more brick to our brick of an ice base.
The weather this week holds promise too. When the Green Bay news was on it looked like the warmest temperatures were going to be Thursday and Friday, with highs in the low and mid-30s. Prior to that we are expecting highs at or below freezing. We are looking at teens overnight tonight and Tuesday night, single digits Wednesday night, and lows around 20 for Thursday and Friday night.
Wednesday and Thursday are the days to worry about for sun. Wednesday it is expected to clear up later in the day and overnight. Thursday looks like a sunny start, but a small disturbance could cloud it up later in the day. Friday and Friday night we are expecting a clipper that could bring clouds, colder weather, and a bonus of 2-4 or 3-6″ of snow.
The NWS has Saturday and Sunday cloudy and in the mid-30s. The GFS is showing a shot at some sun Saturday between the Friday clipper and Sunday’s minor disturbance, but normal or slightly below normal temperatures.
I don’t see anything in there with a real threat to our trails. The sunny days can get plumb wicked at this time of year, so the sun might win in the occasional spot Wednesday or Thursday, but it has its work cut out for it with the now reinforced ice base.
I want to point out just how lucky we are getting here. Our normal high is 35 right now. I consider a +/- of 10ยบ to be very normal, and a +/- of 20 degrees to be normal variability. We could easily be seeing 45 and 55 degree days, and a lot more sun that one or two days a week. While it isn’t the polar opposite of last year’s 70s and 80s in March, it is getting pretty close if we can ride St Patties Day weekend.
I do expect to be able to ride this weekend, but plowed roads will be rough, and I’d expect a few sunny spots on the trails. That just comes with March sun. For the most part I expect the trail system in the area to be very rideable.
Time is getting out from underneath me this morning, so I have to run along. I will be back for Wednesday morning with events, the latest weather, and some big news for me.
In the meantime, have a good Tuesday and thank you for visiting!
RJB