Rain, Fog, Snow, and Ice

Last week poked its head above the cold, still waters of Deep Winter for a time. Temperatures went above freezing and precipitation came as rain...until it didn't. It was mostly a good week because we'll take rain, fog, and melt instead of sub-zero cold any day.

A group made part of Sugarbush Hill a sledding hill. We tried to get an image of the slope from above Lucerne, but the run faces Wabikon so it was blocked by the hill top. As a side note, both lakes Wabikon and Riley are still iced over.

Before the rain and snow, there was fog. In an ill-conceived scheme to get a fog free image of the lake, a drone was popped up to get above the fog. Imaging Lucerne above the fog or through the fog is pretty much the same, but with less icing.

There was a layer between fog banks that resulted in more of the same in terms of images.

Amazingly, enough light filtered through the fog before sunset to energize the LED "flame" on top the north end's Lake Lucerne sign for a few hours.

The warmer weather had the town attempting to make the roads less treacherous. The scrape did not get down past the ice, but the sand helped.

The deer shaped suet feeder that went up on Knott Lake in late November is proving to be a favorite for small birds.

Larger flying types still prefer the Bar's feeder or a large pine.

The warmer air had the Bar's teeth built to an extraordinary magnitude. They broke off with a startling crash just before the weekend.

Before the weekend, snow and small icicles bending over the webcam's roof didn't crash off, but were scraped off.

Just after mid-week, it rained.

All the rain combined with the colder night air iced up the Lane nicely.

The rain eventually faded to snow.

We got about two inches of very wet, heavy snow before the sun came out.

In between the rain event and the snow event, the lake area got a wee icing event. It was small enough to get all the aesthetics of an ice storm without the tree tumbling, power out baggage.

The last of the snow fell and then the sun came out just before the weekend.

All the rain, ice, and snow has left the roads in a very un-summer like state.

Knott Lane is the most un-summer like of all.

The weekend sun and snow attracted many sleds to the lake area.

The sun made it feel warmer than it was. Despite this, as far as we know, no maples were tapped.

The sunsets got better with the weekend.

More pink, too.

The lake has plenty of snow and is forecast to have more than enough cold for the coming annual Lake Lucerne Bottle Rocket War. Huzzah! Fort construction will start as soon as this summary is posted. We hope we don't get too much rain before the predicted cold.

-Nemo's not tapping yet.

Rain, Fog, Snow, and Ice

January 5th through 11th, 2026