luckyweather

Cross country skiing in almost May at almost 8pm, every bit of 4-6 here

Here at the IL/WI state line for sure

+sn north of Rockford just south of the WI state line. Small flake size but coming down heavy. Mix started about 9:30, all snow by 10.

I skied Rib Mountain on May 4, 2018, their last day open. 4/21 I also went up and the snow was awesome spring corn, as good as it gets. May 4 it was trashed and going fast, but still completely skiable. Their 17/18 ski season went from November to May which is simply incredible.

holy cow, glad you made it out okay, wow. Did you have a personal locator beacon or did somebody just come upon you? The current situation down here at 43north isn’t great for much of anything outdoors, snow is trashed, can’t ride mountain bikes, too icy for studded fat bikes, ice isn’t solid enough on the water to do anything, ski hills are trashed, can’t snowshoe or XC ski. So I’m going ice climbing this weekend, the late season cold is good for one thing - freezing up the waterfalls and keeping the ice climbing season active.

F* it, I’m in the ice sleet rain trifecta has destroyed the slopes everywhere south of 45 north in the Midwest, and I don’t have enough vacation time to chase the killer pow they’ve been getting out west. been decent fat bike riding conditions but if I can’t ski on saturdays I’m ready to switch back to the singletrack on my mountain bike

I think this is just more of cyclone’s luck continuing. An icy coating is pretty on the trees but otherwise, even for a hardcore winter weenie like myself, not exactly desired.

Since winter arrived around January 10, my son and I have been shoveling little by little a 4-6’ deep by 3’ wide by about 30’ long ski jump run. We’re on an acre and we’ve been taking a lot of the snow out of the yard as it comes down! We were out of town skiing until around noon today, as soon as we got home we put tarps over it, it was still mostly intact. I’m sure we’ll see more snow so we can keep adding to it, the plan is to see how long into spring we can hang onto it. I’ll post pics here if we end up hanging on to it long enough where it’s interesting or noteworthy.

The fog is hardcore tonight. Skiing at Chestnut Mountain near Galena, IL, last night was frigid but the snow was really good and looked great, as good as it gets. Today by mid day it was a spring like slush, now with the dense fog/mist it’s literally disappearing in front of my eyes and looks horrible. Interestingly, at the bottom of the hill (about 500’ lower elevation), no fog (also on the bank of the Mississippi River), at the top it’s a whole different world, pic is near the top.

It has been phenomenally wet here in rfd ever since last spring, with really no dry periods to speak of. I won’t be surprised if the rubber band snaps back and the spigot shuts off. A dry spring and we’ll be off to the races with your analogues.

If there’s a better recipe for depression, I don’t know what it is. Sorry for your loss. On the other side of the coin, we’re reloaded and refreshed here on the IL/WI Stateline and in optimal shape to maximize the potential of the incoming airmass. I do have to say my thoughts keep going to the wildlife. Going to be very hard on them.

In avalanche safety class they took us out and we did a cross section into the snow slab at elevation. It quickly became apparent those kind of layers are really just about everything you need to know to understand the avalanche hazard. The first storm we got was heavy and wet, second storm powder, this storm briefly liquid then heavy and wet again. Now for deep cold, maybe a powdery clipper or two, this is the stuff nightmares are made of in mountain country.

I hate to say anything for fear of messing it up, but Rockford has been a pretty good place to be, both this year and the last few seasons. We have wound up in the narrow jackpot bands a little more often than I would say statistical odds should support. Maybe climo is involved in a way I don’t understand. Building up a very nice snowpack, and the current model porn once again shows us in the heart of max accumulations over the upcoming period. Storm total imby about 6” and continuing to accumulate.

Back to fz dz. Will stop with the obs, but thought that I’d share it’s a very fluid situation (lol)

Just drove through fz dz from IL/WI state line on I-90 to RFD. Now I’m stationary on the RFD east side it has changed over to light flurries. The freezing drizzle was accreting rapidly on my windshield.

My mom lives in Montgomery City. She measured 15” around 9am. She sent me this pic at 11:30am, I know they got at least a few more inches after this.

Can’t bring up those guys without bringing up tropical/cromartie/palm tree guy. And in the gone, not forgotten, but for totally different reasons category — geos. I always enjoyed his posts and him as a poster.

Stayed in Wausau, WI to ski over the holiday. Nothing but ever so light flurries occasionally yesterday and a howling wind last night just before the slopes closed, enough to make it feel otherworldly up on top of the ski hill (about 500-600’ above the base). Drove back to northern IL today and stopped in Madison for lunch. Madison was plastered, snow was heavy and wet. Super photogenic to be sure. By the time I hit home/the IL-WI stateline, nothing but a dusting/coating. Madison was square in the jackpot zone by how it looked driving through the snow swath from north to south.

Wild that its not 12/1 yet and there have been flakes in every state except Florida and Hawaii (assuming Mauna Kea and Haleakala havent seen snow yet, and assuming the far northeast corner of Georgia got a T as it looks like on the map).

You might have heard the mabas call for 3 alarm house fire in Harlem Roscoe. I posted here around 2pm at the onset of sn, wasn’t 10 minutes later we were evacuated from our house, next door neighbors house was fully engulfed. I saw trucks from Byron, Cherry Valley, etc- response was heavy, no hydrants out here. Everybody is fine but it was quite the wild scene, with the heavy fire, all the equipment, and the firefighting efforts in effectively blizzard conditions.

I’m above the decimal in the ‘14.8’ on the 18z rap (west of Caledonia, IL in far eastern Winnebago county). Had no pre onset rain, drizzle, etc - just started -sn about 15 minutes ago, with no liquid on the ground it’s accumulated to a coating quickly. Very small/fine dendrites. LOT left us out of the blizzard warning, I’m guessing those warning boxes were traced over the 12z ec as the warnings seemed to mirror it, which had us in a little screw hole. Naturally, go team RAP!

Can’t use port 87, RFC restricted port, Safari won’t even try to connect. Can you change the port to something like 8080?

Don’t want to get too far OT, but thought I’d mention - if you bought it with a credit card, check to see if that card has extended warranty protection. Almost every amex does, almost every visa signature (regardless as to the bank, if it says ‘signature’ on the front), every visa infinite, most MasterCard world, and almost every MasterCard world elite. They extend 1 year or long manufacturers warranties by 1-3 years depending on card. I discovered this perk in the last few years and now that I’m doing better at remembering I have it, I’ve used it several times - almost too good to be true.

The blob is back (they are calling this one blob junior) and Anchorage hasn’t had a freeze yet. Have to watch to see if the blob hangs on and what condition it’s in by the end of November to see if it will be a factor for us this winter. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2018/10/18/persistent-alaska-warmth-this-fall-has-brought-back-blob-if-it-lasts-it-could-mean-wild-winter-lower/?utm_term=.e9782ecb9033

John Dee just released his winter forecast: http://johndee.com/seasonalfcst/seasonalforecast.htm Snippets for our areas: REGION 1 – The Northwest Midwest: The news for most of this region is OK. This may not be a standout year for snows in most spots, but overall, it looks like most of the region will see close to average temps and snowfall occur for the season as a whole. This should lead to a fairly decent season for snow-play. The exceptions look to be the further west in the region you go. Areas of the western Dakotas look to see an increased chance for temps to run warmer than average and thus better chances for some snow loss during thaws. REGION 2 – The Southeast Midwest: The news for this region is fairly similar or even a bit better than for the neighbors to the NW. Snowfall and temps both look to run fairly close to average, with an area of below average temps to occur across the OH River Valley. This colder than average setup could also cause more of the precipitation to fall as snow- rather than rain. My only other note to make is that folks should keep in mind what is actually average for their locale. Areas like northern IL, southern WI and southern MI see an 45-55” of snow fall on average. This does not typically lead to deep and lasting snowpack. Rather, it leads to having enough snow to play in during the second half of January and first half of February, sometimes longer if no major thaws occur.