Seasonably Cold

Last week Lucerne got a full plate of February with all the trimmings. Sides included sub-zero cold and wind anchored with a main course of snow. There was also a distinct lack of golf, talk of golf, or any desire to golf.

Early in the week there was more than a little smoke over the bar's lawn. What we first throught was more smokey Canadian forest mis-management turned out to be a lakeside fiery clean up of some tree trimmings.

It was cold at the start of the week. Not the sub-zero cold that was to come, but cold enough to freeze in place ice sheets that were previously scrubbing rocks on the shoreline.

Cold covered the entire week, but the first half was also dry. You could feel a change coming as the sun set mid-week.

There was 6 inches on the lake, too.

The strong wind that followed picked the snow up off long flats and dropped it down in drifts that were deeper than 6 inches.

Apparently there was enough left on the lake to snowmobile on.

After the snow and before the sub-zero cold, we had some pretty good sunsets.

Local roads were cleared of snow in a timely manner, but there were occasional patches of ice bonded to the asphalt.

What Knott Lane lacked in bonded ice, it made up for in snow.

On Sunday it was cold outside, but in a sure sign that this freezing weather will not last, Crandon Water Shows had its first land practice of the year at the Potawatomi Community Center's field house.

The first show is less than two and a half months away.

The last event of the week was to check on the thickness of Lucerne's ice.

The lake is covered with 10.5 inches of very good ice. That's a little less than normal. Ice-out could be early this year.

During and even after the island of Spring we had in the previous weeks, there were predictions by some of the men that we would not see below 0°F lows for the rest of the season. Foolish humans. This is February after all and this month is as predictable as a small child hopped up on Red Bull and Pixy Sticks. Due to the remaining February days' unpredictablity, it's best to stay flexible with any outdoor plans, and going into March and beyond, hope we don't get visited by any remaining Horseman of the snowpocalypse. It also might be a good time to wake the code monkeys and tell them to get this year's Ice-Out contest posted.

-Nemo's watching snow devils dance on the lake.

Seasonably Cold

February 12th through 18th, 2024