Greetings and welcome!
The cold is here. Last night I saw temps as low as -9F. I spoke to area people that saw temps as cold as -14. The TV says that Antigo had -18 last night and Rhinelander saw -20. I spoke to a fellow in Crandon that saw -17.
Monday saw a high of 17 on the bank clock in Wausaukee, and Athelstane Weather posted a high of 12.9. Right now it is still just above zero, and I am expecting single digits below for tonight.
We have a dusting of snow tonight as a clipper comes through, and that will bring more cold weather until late week. Friday and the weekend could go into the 20s.
We are clearly making ice and putting frost into the ground.
The late week rain and warm temps didn’t end well from what I saw. It did make some base but there are bare spots too. Places that held snow did well with the rain.
We need snow. There are riding opportunities on forest roads and such, but that would be my destination if I rode locally.
The cold will do the lake effect snow areas in WI and the UP good. From what I see on radar the area that is getting the most starts and about Marquette and goes south and east. It has been snowing there for a couple of days.
A Craigslist car for sale in Manitowish Waters showed adequate of snow there. Unlike the Christmas to New Years stretch, there are riding opportunities in the region.
This weather is another face of ElNino, and fairly typical in just about any January. We have a northwest flow with clippers every few days bringing light snow and reinforcing shots of cold.
Unfortunately is is a pretty dry pattern as the southern storms are pushed south and east of our region. We end up with light snows or on the higher end as much as 1-3 or 3-5″ at best.
For now it is a good thing as we freeze up lakes and swamps. We are about a month behind on that and we really needed a cold stretch. Here is a case of some is good, but more is not better. A couple of weeks would be fine, then hopefully we get into a nice active pattern to bring us some big storms and real snow.
Have a good Tuesday and thank you for visiting!
RJB