First things first. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was. We were missing some family members, but were fortunate enough to have my Mom join us. My brother who lives in Allouez was also here, as were Nora and Grace. My sister who lives in Oklahoma could not make it and her son and daughter could not make it either. With a little luck and some better planning, we might be able to get the whole gang together in the Keweenaw for next Christmas. I has always been a wish of mine to have my whole family up here for Christmas.
Not only did we have a white Christmas on the ground, but we also had it in the air. Most of the day, these big fluffy LES flakes dropped from the skies. It did not pile up to much, but around 2″ for the day and added to the 6 or so inches we had on the ground at the time.
So, it only took the first 3 weeks of December, but the Keweenaw has finally been pulled out of it’s snow quarantine. As mentioned, we have not gone nuts with snow just yet, but it has finally begun to look like winter around here. The forecast looks good for more in the next 7-10 days. A couple of inches later today through tomorrow and then the potential for double digit snows Wed and Thur.
That double digit snow for Wed/Thur (if it happens) would really help our snow situation a lot. Trails are open and being groomed minimally. There is just not enough snow on the trails to aggressively groom, but enough in most areas to play in. I have not been to town since Christmas Eve, so I do not know what the situation is as far as folks up here riding, but glances as the webcams seems to indicate things are still pretty quiet.
Back to the Wed-Thu storm, it would not only bless the Keweenaw with double digit snows, but a good chunk of MN, WI, the UP and northern lower MI. Just about the perfect track to hit the traditional Northwoods snow-play areas. While I do believe that the storm is a good probability (80%), I am not quite ready to lock into details just yet. The models are in good agreement on the details though, so as long as that continues, I should be able to give some confidence to those details by tomorrow.
The good news and not so good news after is that there is no slug of really cold air seen behind it. That would be good because it would put temps in the comfortable range for playing in the snow, but also be cold enough to prevent any melting. It’s only bad news for the LES belts, as they would not get much of a second punch of snow behind the system snows. I guess the way this season is going so far, beggars cannot be choosers!
So for those of you wanting to come up to the Northwoods to play in the snow, I guess I would follow the site closely. If the storm does hit as currently indicated, the answer would be yes! However, most reading this know that changes can happen.
The only two pictures I have for you are of Gracie sledding. My mom and her went up to spend yesterday, last night and today with my brother and there is a suitable place for sledding not far from my brothers house. So Gracie was her usual all smiles as she prepared to race down the hill. While I was not there, I was told that it was short but steep and there was one run with a jump in it.
I guess that covers it for this one folks. Take care, be well and have a Happy New Year! I think the new year will be welcomed in a bit more that the past few have!
Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD
