Greetings and welcome!
The cold weather has continued, but it seems to have eased up a little. At 9am we are at 5 degrees off of an overnight low of +3. That is the first time in about a week that we haven’t had a sub-zero overnight low temperature. Wednesday night was notable. Rhinelander got down to -25F, and Antigo marked -31. Here we were about -10. Yesterday we actually got up to 14F for a high temperature.
The forecast for the weekend remains on the cold side. Saturday’s high should be close to 10 degrees and Sunday’s only about 5. Overnight lows are forecast to be -5 tonight, -13 Saturday night and -18 Sunday night. Add in some wind chill and it is pretty cold, at times down to -20 to -30.
This cold weather is supposed to ease up a little next week. The NWS has us for a high of 17 Tuesday, and mid-20s for Wednesday and Thursday.
We had a little light snow this morning. There is another chance of snow tonight and tomorrow. It is more of a winter wonderland snow than anything meaningful. We would be lucky to see an inch tomorrow.
Tomorrow is the big High Falls Radar Run & Winterfest. See my Tuesday update for more info on that. Just a tip.. they start racing early morning and finish early in the afternoon.
There is live music Saturday with..
Bullets and Booze band at The Rustic, Silver Cliff. Saturday 5-9pm
Paul Hanna after the fish o rama at Uncle Mikes Corner Pub
I will be at Rapids Saturday with my usual noon till 5pm, but I will be on the fun side of the bar. If they get busy I will jump in behind the bar too. At any rate I will be meeting people and doing pictures for the web site. I am always glad to step outside and do a picture because I get to meet people and hear your stories. You have to ask me though or ask the bartender.
A passing thought.. Thank you to everyone that went to the outhouse races at Firelane last weekend. They raised over $6,000 for the Athelstane Fire Departmet and Silver Cliff Rescue Squad. Cool!
Road conditions are a mix. County and state roads are mostly clear. They cleaned them up quickly after last week’s snow. Town roads like Parkway Rd are a very different story. Those have a nice ice base. The towns use a salt/sand mix and the salt is not effective below about 15 degrees. At that point the ice layer is still there, and after a week of traffic, they are quite polished in some places. That makes them slipperier than usual. Just a little heads up on that.
My recent travels included Crivitz and Crooked Lake. All of the roadside trails had full coverage with the exception of one spot right by the Crivitz airport a couple of miles west of town. Things were a little thin in a couple of spots. NBD. Be ready for some early season stuff though. We haven’t had enough snow this winter to let the groomers fill in all of the bumps and dips. Hey at least we can ride.
I am going to say get it while you can. Once the frigid weather goes away the mid-February sun will do its evil and start eating our trails in sunny spots. There are a couple of smaller storms showing up next weekend and beyond, and another monster storm 16 days out on the 28th.
That is about it for today. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB