Winter Wins

Last week started off tasting of Winter. As we munched further into the days, an autumnal heat was savored. At the end, a strong Winter aftertaste was all that remained. There were also some flurries that bracketed buckets of rain.

The river otter is back playing on the shore and in the lake in front of Knott Lane.

While he was there, the "Bird Feeder Bouncer's" intimidating presence saved many seeds from the squirrels.

Unfortunately, after he would fly off, the furry little balls of evil would raid and pillage.

During the warmish bump mid-week, and before the rain, the last of the docks was reluctantly pulled from the increasingly cold water.

Around mid-week, it started to rain.

The rain ended about 36 hours later. The lawn puddles are back.

The entire precipitation event pushed the lake up almost 2 inches. Some watershed action could push it up a little farther.

After the rain, we enjoyed on and off snow flurries for the rest of the week.

We did not get any real accumulation, but did get enough to remind anyone who forgot that Winter is coming.

The white collected on lawns, but looked worse than it actually was.

By noon, most of this white coating was burned away by the early November sun.

With the posting of the Annual Ice-In Contest, all eyes that are familiar with ice-in on Lucerne turned to Lake Wabikon.

Wabikon usually freezes over about a week or two before Lucerne. As of Sunday, Lake Wabikon had a little ice on parts of the shore but for the most part, was completely open. This pushes Lucerne's earliest freeze over into the week of Thanksgiving.

In the battle between the seasons, victory is either a function of the calendar or some notable weather event. This year's struggle between Fall and Winter will not be determined by the calendar. After the heavy, cold rain, it looks like Fall has thrown in the towel. Ever since the downpour, high temperatures have not gone above 32°F and the less said about the lows the better. Ice-In could come early to the lake this year. It's been 8 years since we've had a November ice-in... maybe we're due. Still keep in mind that past performance does not guarantee future results so choose your date in this year's contest accordingly.

-Nemo's watching for ice while waking up the snowblowers.

Winter Wins

November 7th through 13th, 2022