Greetings and welcome!
Welcome to the first day of spring. Our normal high crosses over to the 40 degree mark today, but we don’t seem to be in any danger of seeing that.
Yesterday got partly sunny, but it didn’t hurt the snow much at all. When I went outside at sunset to throw in firewood the snow was still all there and still puffy. At mid-afternoon the county road was still mostly covered with a hard packed snow layer. Sun was not an issue yesterday even though it was a pretty bright day outside.
Today, as I mentioned won’t get close to the normal high of 40. The NWS is looking for a cloudy day with a high of around 23, with some wind, and maybe an inch of snow. It is likely to hit single digits this morning, and with the wind it could go -10 or -15 on wind chills.
Wednesday night we are looking at lows in the 8-13ºF range.
None of that poses any kind of danger to the trails. We are golden until Thursday with pretty much zero melting. After that we are expecting partly sunny skies and upper 20s Thursday, and mid-30s Friday and Saturday.
Unless Thursday and Friday go crazy 80s like last year, there is a lot of promise for the weekend. The trails were mostly intact after the weekend, we just got 4-5″ of snow, and there is another inch possible tomorrow.
Looking around recently I have been pondering the heavy ice buildup. The roof is probably carrying about 4″ of ice plus a nice layer of snow. One spot in Lakewood where the big plow hit a frozen edge looked about 6″ thick of solid ice. It was like a mini-glacier.
While we are having the best season in many years, or possibly every, some people are ready for Spring. I am hearing a little more grumbling every day. If I wasn’t a snowmobiler I’d probably be grumbling too. It has been a heck of a winter.
When this all melts off it will be a heck of a mess too. There are already frozen puddles in low spots, and plenty of water waiting to join it as the snow and ice melts. It will be an ugly mud season.
The upside of that is that the whitewater rafting on the Peshtigo River will be fantastic this spring. That is a given, a lock, a sure thing.. guaranteed. When it finally opens up, it will roar, and when that river roars it is some really spectacular class II-III+ whitewater. I am also expecting some big peak flows where it just gets huge. In about 3 weeks we are about to follow a really fantastic snowmobiling season with a huge one for whitewater.
Personally I have a few more miles to travel on the snowombile first. Get it while you can.
Have a good Wednesday and thank you for visiting!
RJB