Greetings and welcome!
The big news today was the wind. It was really ridiculous. When I opened the front door it sounded like a roaring whitewater river was right in front of me. I would call it 25-35mph sustained winds gusting to 45 or 50. The highest gust that I saw on the news was 57mph.
There were a few trees down and some power outages, but we have had some strong storms this year, so the easy trees are down already and there was no widespread damage.
Wind is hard to measure accurately because a lot of equipment only samples every three or five seconds. I had a couple of instantaneous blasts so strong that it was a roar inside and the house creaked a little. I think those were well over 50, but maybe not recorded.
From what I see on the radar the wind direction was not favorable for widespread lake effect snow in the UP. The wind came mostly out of the west.
A friend called and asked if there was somewhere to ride in the UP, he had seen a lot of snowmobile trailers heading north. A quick check of some UP conditions sites found a lot not updated since March. None offered good conditions. Several said that they were starting from zero after the early week 50 degree day and 1+ inches of rain. If anyone knows a spot, please comment.
Last night I tried to go out on the forest roads for a relaxing drive. I turned back after about 4 miles because the frost was coming out of the ground in a lot of shaded areas and the mud was getting a little deeper than I was up for. We are starting from zero too.
Right now at 10:30pm it is 18 in Crivitz and 13 in Wabeno. With the wet ground and strong winds we should freeze up quickly and have the frost go fairly deep by the end of the week.
There are some snow showers possible Friday/Friday night, and they could add up to a little white ground north and west of here, but no meaningful snow is expected.
For right now it is a very good thing that we are freezing up. There is really a lot of water in our swamps and lowlands. After yesterday’s rain the Peshtigo River is running at a +12″ and is on the rise. That is very unusual for December 5th, and is an excellent level for playing in the whitewater. The point is, a lot of the low areas that are usually grassy but soft now hold a foot of water. I would like to see a foot or two of ice in those before the snow comes. Not having that would cause a lot of problems, especially in thaws and late season, and might make some trails impassable for groomers.
I might not like how rude it was working outside today or how hungry the wood burner is tonight, but I love that we are freezing up. The snow will come, right now we are building the foundation.
Have a good Wednesday and thank you for visiting!
RJB