Greetings and welcome!
Winter came early this year and it looks like it might be here to stay. I would guess that I have 5-6″ down in the yard right now, but you don’t have to travel very far north to cross the 12″ mark. We are looking at another 1-3 tonight.
The lakes are making progress freezing up. Small lakes have started to skin over. The lake about 3 miles east of Wausaukee skinned all of the way over Thursday, and Morgan Lake (about 5 miles west of Wausaukee) actually had skinned all of the way across Friday morning. Reports from the bar last night said that the bays of the flowages have iced over but not the big water. It won’t be long, we had our first sub-zero night last night (-1) and it looks like the cold will reinforce after the snow, bringing another way below normal week for next week.
Our normal high & low temperatures today are 39 & 24. It looks like we will be at about 25 & -1 today.
I don’t see any big warmups coming on the 16 day GFS. It looks like winter is here to stay.
I took some back roads last night and was getting a little excited about how much ice was building up on the roads. There are still sunny spots that are bare, but a lot of it looked better than I have ridden on many March last rides. It is tempting to go for a spin, but the trails are not open and you will get a fat ticket. It also makes land owners unhappy, and we want to avoid that at all costs.
IF I get enough of my work done today I might pull the 500 out of the storage shed and give it a look over and a possible first driveway ride. It is a big IF, the list is a very long one.
Anyway, It looks like we will be ready when the season opens unless something bad happens in the next few weeks. The lakes are making good progress, and we have a good start on snow. So far the biggest snow total that I heard was something like 43″ in Negaunee (?) in the UP. Eric said that Wabeno had 13″, and that sounds about right. It looks like we can add another 1-3 tonight.
There are some areas that the trails can’t open until they cut the corn. That looks like it might be problematic this year. It has been way too wet for them to harvest it, and most is still standing in the fields.
One last item, an opening day forecast. I am looking for a day in the upper 20s or low 30s with increasing clouds. There is a strom coming for Saturday night and Sunday that could bring some rain. The timing of that storm changing a day either way will make a huge difference, so keep an eye on the forecast.
Time to get back to work. Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!
RJB