Greetings and welcome!
Well this has been quite a storm. Today stayed right at 32 and the wind blew in a lot of mist and drizzle. This afternoon I ran to Crivitz and had to keep the wipers on full time. The rain was fine enough that most of it eluded radar. At about 9:30pm it just started to change over and snow lightly.
We have had a few days of 32 degree temperatures and light rain or drizzle. I am starting to see some pretty big puddles in low spots. Most of the trail base that was thick enough is sucking it up. If it was on the edge of bare the rain ate the rest of the snow.
Roads.. (Sam Kinison laugh) The side roads like my subdivision road built up a good ice layer. It isn’t sheer ice, it has some texture and crunch so you can drive on it. Town roads vary with some melting in the middle and various layers of ice buildup. Not nice. County roads were just wet except for where there wasn’t as much road salt applied, and those stretches were glazed.
We are finally in the section of the storm where temperatures are starting to drop and the drizzle is changing to snow. The NWS is expecting and inch or less and a half inch tomorrow. If the drizzle today were snow it would have been 2-4 or 3-6. I’d be up for a pleasant surprise.
When I was testing a snowblower a couple of days ago I found a couple of inches of snow with water soaked snow under it. Once it freezes up that will make a big ice base under the snow. That will help trail durability in a huge way. Likewise side roads should hold some ice for road trails.
After it all freezes up we just need some snow. It is my observation that the medium range forecast often changes a lot after a big storm like this. At that point I am not going to get too invested in any coming storms for a few days.
And now we wait..
Have a good Thursday and thank you for visiting!
RJB