Last week started off cold. As the days progressed, the air got warmer, the lake ice got thinner, and the entire area got wetter.
As if to underscore the cold start, Lucerne got a little snow last Monday.
By Monday's end, the snow and lack of sun moved on.
Last week's first rain event fell just after mid-week. The accumulation failed to fulfill expectations.
After the rain event, just like after the earlier snow event, it got warmer and sunnier.
Plants in the northwoods are starting to come back to green. Some are getting flowery, but those are mostly indoors and citrusy.
Shout out to the knottlane webcam that has survived another year. We'll replace it someday, but not today.
By the end of the week, the snow had melted enough to uncover firepits. During the first clean-up fire of the year, it was noted that wet cedar branches burn pretty well but can be a little smokey.
A yard of hemlock trunk with a questionable core turned out to be one of the more interesting burn events of the century.
A fire stacked on one side of the log carved a hole through the unrotten outside into the dubious middle wood.
It looked like a little wooden kiln or some sort of Keebler tragedy.
The second rain event drowned out the flames, leaving behind a log with the same roundness but much less density.
That second rain event exceeded expectations. The bulk of it fell mostly in the wee hours of Sunday. The intense volume of water resulted in the lake level moving up and many local roads needing repair.
The chains of lawn puddles are back and deeper than ever.
Parts of Potawatomi Trail were closed after the rain. It was cleaned up and opened by the afternoon.
West Shore Drive has its issues, but was largely passable.
The north end of Knott Lane is passable if your vehicle has really big tires. The plan is to fix the north end's chasm soon.
The south end of Knott Lane has a more parallel chasm issue. If a smaller vehicle avoids the lakeside of the road it might make it to the flatter, less eroded parts beyond.
Sunday's humid air combined with the ice cover on Lucerne and a strong wind from the south produced an almost continuous stream of fog crashing onto the north shore of the lake.
Sunday's sunset was a fun counterpoint to an otherwise warm, damp, and dreary day.
We'll measure it to be sure, but the lake level still seems a little low. It's definitely going up after all the rain and melt torrenting into it, but we could use more. Just not all at once. All this rain and warm should hasten this year's ice-out. Got your date in yet?
