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Wintering Over in the North Channel

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2019 10:22 pm
by jimh
In case anyone was thinking of wintering over in the North Channel, I just noticed the weather forecast for Sunday in Blind River, Ontario, one of our favorite ports. The forecasted high temperature is -5 degrees-F and the overnight low will be -16 degrees-F. I think boating season is over up there, but I am sure the snow-machine (as snowmobiles are called in Ontario) crowd is having a lot of fun running on trails marked on the frozen lake.

Re: Wintering Over in the North Channel

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2019 9:58 am
by Jefecinco
It's impossible to forget my very limited experience on a snowmobile. In the mid-seventies I was assigned to the Army Safeguard Installation in Nekoma, ND. I spent a year there and met some of the finest locals I've known. My second day there I had to replace some uniforms I'd lost in Iran (another story), on my previous assignment. I had to drive to Langdon to find a Penny's store to buy the replacements. I was low on cash and asked if I could pay with an out-of-state check. The lady working the counter said sure and didn't want to see any ID. Very trusting and, I believe, the only time I've encountered such trust.

Back to snowmobiles. During my time there I met a lot of the locals who were inevitably kind and welcoming. I had several invitations to go snowmobiling and finally accepted one. That was a very scary experience. I'm on the back of this machine in a crowd and it felt like we were doing over 100 MPH cross country with little regard for anything but speed and jumping off the crests of hills. You would think a half intelligent person would learn not to do that again but one night at a wedding reception in a huge barn, after a few adult beverages, someone suggested a celebratory ride. Who could refuse such an invitation. It was complete terror all over again but with only headlights for vision. That was my last snowmobile ride. Very nice people but sometimes crazy.

Re: Wintering Over in the North Channel

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 10:51 am
by Dutchman
Jefecinco wrote:I had several invitations to go snowmobiling and finally accepted one. That was a very scary experience. I'm on the back of this machine in a crowd and it felt like we were doing over 100 MPH cross country with little regard for anything but speed and jumping off the crests of hills. You would think a half intelligent person would learn not to do that again but one night at a wedding reception in a huge barn, after a few adult beverages, someone suggested a celebratory ride. Who could refuse such an invitation. It was complete terror all over again but with only headlights for vision. That was my last snowmobile ride. Very nice people but sometimes crazy.


That is probably what they say when you take them for a 40mph boat ride in your Whaler on water. ;-)

Re: Wintering Over in the North Channel

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 11:44 am
by jimh
We were briefly north of Latitude 45-degrees-North last weekend. When we arrived the shoreline of Grand Traverse Bay was beginning to creep outward with ice cover, and there were some impressive icebergs floating around in the open water offshore. The overnight low-temperature was about 0-degrees-F and the winds were calm, and the next morning we could see a thin sheet of ice had grown out about another 100-feet into the bay. Later in the day the wind rose and broke up that new ice.

We were planning a longer stay, but a hazardous travel advisory, a forecast of 12-inches of snow, and temperatures heading to -15-degrees or lower caused us to leave early in order to avoid a 265-mile drive in a freezing blizzard. I don't think the snowfall turned out to be as much as forecasted, and the below-zero temperatures are still a day away, but we were glad to drive home in sunshine and on dry roads, although it was so cold that all the windshield washer sprayers froze up--I guess 70-MPH at 0-degrees was too much wind chill for them.

Re: Wintering Over in the North Channel

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2019 2:59 pm
by ConB
I survived yet an other old fashioned winter event at 45*N.

The good thing about winter is most of the fudgies are gone.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fudgie

Ground hog will probably see his shadow tomorrow, so 6 more weeks of winter. Get the Whaler out of the barn.

Con

Re: Wintering Over in the North Channel

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2019 9:51 am
by jimh
ConB wrote:I survived yet an other old fashioned winter event at 45*N.


I just checked a NOAA chart, and it looks to me like you are wintering over at 44° 59.4' N.

Re: Wintering Over in the North Channel

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2019 12:22 pm
by ConB
But I can see 45ºN from my house.

Re: Wintering Over in the North Channel

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2019 5:25 pm
by jimh
Down here in southeast Michigan (lower peninsula), the air temperature has gone from minus-12-degrees-F to 55-degrees-F in about two days, a 67-degree change. All the snow accumulation we had is gone now, except for some piles along the side of my driveway. Last year we left the northern hemisphere for a while in order to get through Winter. This year, with the 55-degree re-warming this week, we might be able to make it through to Spring.

Re: Wintering Over in the North Channel

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 9:53 pm
by Hoosier
And, then again, maybe not:

Friday: A chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a temperature falling to around 15 by 5pm. Wind chill values as low as -3. Windy, with a west wind around 26 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%.

Friday Night: Cloudy, then gradually becoming partly cloudy, with a low around 11. Wind chill values as low as -7. Breezy, with a west wind 13 to 23 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 24. Wind chill values as low as -3. West northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.

Re: Wintering Over in the North Channel

Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2019 2:20 pm
by Dutchman
Hey they were right again as today the wind makes it bitter cold here in West Michigan and after 2 days of rain and drizzle it is white and icy again.
Up to 400,000 without power due to the ice storm.

Re: Wintering Over in the North Channel

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 4:00 pm
by jimh
Yesterday climate change scientists predicted that in the next 24-hours we would get 1-inch of snow. We got about 4-inches of snow in that time period.

My conclusion: the rate of climate change is now increasing 300-percent faster than predicted.

Re: Wintering Over in the North Channel

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 6:24 pm
by Hoosier
It looks like the next couple of days will have something for everyone:

https://blog.weather.us/messy-winter-st ... wednesday/

This is a good site to bookmark.

Re: Wintering Over in the North Channel

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 1:52 pm
by Dutchman
jimh wrote:My conclusion: the rate of climate change is now increasing 300-percent faster than predicted.


Yea it will be a lot warmer in the next couple of days. NOT!