Summer?

It’s been a pretty crazy week of weather. Things started quite warm and even humid, with highs in the 80’s and dewpoints in the upper 60’s. Most of the nights were still cooling off into the 50’s and the humidity was dropping in the evenings as well. However, it sure felt a whole lot like full blown summer. The bugs were responding to the warmth. Mostly the mosquitoes. It almost seemed like their population was doubling every 24 hours and they were eating all the other biting creatures like the black flies. By Wednesday and Thursday, it was so bad that you really did not even want to go outside…even in the middle of the day.

The bug population fluctuates not only from day to day or week to week, but season to season. I really thought that this was going to be one nasty mosquito season. In fact, I was not looking forward to writing an entry and talking about how bad they were, but I also did not want folks to come up here thinking all was as it usually is. Then, we had a cold front blast through Thursday night, with some pretty heavy rain and temps were very chilly on Friday. Highs were only in the 40’s. When it is that cold the biting insects go into hiding, so when Saturday rolled around with sunshine and 60’s, I thought for sure it would be game-on with the bugs. However, to my pleasant surprise, there were little to none of them. Today is also only in the 40’s, so it’s hard to tell if the cold on Friday killed a bunch of them off, or if they were just still in hiding.

I am hoping and leaning more towards the idea that their population just spiked with the warm and humid weather we had and then the cold did in fact kill off many of them. No doubt that there will be future generations to have to deal with the rest of this season, but as long as they only reach average population numbers, it would be great. This week is suppose to warm back up and be warm for several days in a row, so we will see how things go, but for now, it is a joy to be able to go out and not be swarmed.

Not a whole lot else is going on up here at the moment. The first taste of summer tourist season came and went with Memorial Day weekend last week and just about all of the snow-birds have arrived back home. However, we are still not yet in full swing as far as the busy summer season goes. That will be ramping up starting around next weekend and will hit its crescendo around the 4th of July period and then hold its own for the rest of the summer.

This week is the final week of school for all of the kids. For some reason, it sounds like the kids have been extra ramped up for the end of the school year to come. I am not sure if the summer-like weather we were having had anything to do with it, or if it was something else, but it sounds like most of the staff at the schools are anxiously awaiting the end of the school year, so that things can quiet down!

Gracie has a pretty nice week, with regular school on Monday and Tuesday, then the all school picnic on Wednesday. That lasts pretty much all day. Thursday is the last day and is only a half day and I doubt that any work is done that day. I remember our last day of elementary school was usually around an hour long and all we did was pick up our report cards and make sure all of our lockers and desks were cleaned out. Seemed like kind of a waste to have to wake up at the regular time, just to go in for an hour and then come home, but I did not argue much. Any day of school that was only 60 minutes long was a good one to me!

I can announce that the Laurium Glacier melted this week. We went by it on Monday and there was still some left and then by later Tuesday, it had all disappeared. I have already been in touch with the winner and his prize is on it’s way. I do have to admit that I really thought it was going to make it into June this year, but with all the warm temps and sunshine we had the last 2-3 weeks of May, it sure did melt quickly. Only about 5 short months and it will be re-building!

I also can announce that I will be starting up the warm season forecasts tomorrow. I do plan to have some new graphics for high temps and winds this season, although I am not sure if I will be able to roll out that new feature by tomorrow. Depending on how much work is involved in the new maps, I may carry them over into the winter months, as the temps are pretty important in that time as well.

I think that about covers it for this one. Short but sweet I guess!

Good night from the Keweenaw..
JD