Greetings and welcome!
We missed out on most of the storm overnight, but we did get the wind and a little snow. The lake shore counties like Sheboygan and Manitowoc got hit pretty hard. Driving I-43 between Milwaukee and Green Bay would be a rough ride today.
The noon news put Sheboygan in first place with 14″ of wet heavy snow and peak winds of 51 mph. There was a lot of drifting, and everyone was getting stuck. They showed 3-4′ drifts, though I am sure that there are bigger ones where farm fields got scrubbed and the wind hit a fence or treeline.
The low pressure area ended up a little north of where it was expected, and is now camped over southern lower Michigan. It wasn’t enough to put us into the heavy snow, but we got some light snow and winds in the 15-30mph range.
The warm weather this week brought good and bad things for the trails. I went for a short ride last night and got a quick look around. Plowed roads that are snowmobile routes had a lot of big bare spots opened up and were not good.
The trails in the woods ranged from incredibly nice to a little lumpy, depending on where the groomer had been recently. The warm weather consolidated the snow and made it pack down into a firm flat base. The smooth trails were fantastic. Last weekend’s loose trails are a memory, all of that snow packed down very nicely when it was groomed.
There were a few signs of the pending Spring with a couple of puddles in low spots and a few slushy spots. Those were only very occasional, mostly where the sun could hit the trail. The vast majority of the trail that I rode was great or would be with a pass of the groomer.
I am sure that we will have a good weekend on the trails this weekend. We really didn’t have temperatures get out of hand this week, the highest temperature that I saw was 37.
Get it while you can. The sun is starting to get unfriendly. That will get worse as the weeks pass. With our ice base and good snow layer we should have trails to ride for a while yet, but the usual bad spots will get more frequent as we get into March. I also saw some warm weather showing up for the second week of March that wouldn’t be good. Since it first showed up today on the model my plan is to ignore it and hope that it goes away.
We are not expecting to get above freezing through the weekend. Thursday and Friday’s forecast is for cloudy skies and highs around 30, with some clearing skies Friday. Saturday and Sunday look clear and in the mid to upper 20s. Friday and Saturday night should bring lows in the 5-10ยบ range.
Right now the biggest challenge that I see to the weekend is those sunny days opening up a few spots. Other than that it should be a good weekend on the trails. Conditions were very nice last night.
Jim asked where I would be this weekend. I will be back at Rapids Saturday from noon until at least 3 or 4, and much later if it is busy with riders. I am expecting a busy weekend.
That is news from here. Have a good Wednesday and thank you for visiting!
RJB