I hope everyone got home from the Thanksgiving holiday and deer hunting weekend ok. We ended up with more snow than I was forecasting last Friday. I thought there might be a dusting up to an inch on Sunday. We ended up with 1.9 inches here in Wausau and 2 to 4 in some areas east of Marathon county. We had our first Winter Storm Warning of the season (outside of the lake effect areas). The warning was for the Green Bay, Fox Cities, and Milwaukee areas, where around 5 inches was observed – so far. The snowfall yesterday brought our snowfall for the Month of November up closer to normal but we were still quite a bit below. Precipitation was below normal as a whole – like usual. Temps were very close to normal for November, even though we started out with record warmth. Most of 2008 was below normal. January, October, and November were slightly above normal.
Wausau ended up with a record high of 72 on the 3rd and tied a record at 70 on the 4th. There was also a record warm low temperature of 54 on the 4th. No record precipitation was observed. Here are the official stats:
Average High: 40.0 (normal: 40.1)
Average Low: 25.6 (normal: 24.6)
Precipitation: 1.27" (normal: 2.20")
Snowfall: 3.1" (normal: 7.1")
Highest Temp: 72, on the 3rd
Lowest Temp: 6, on the 22nd
Snowfall will continue below normal for this first week of December. Right now it looks like we will have only two chances of accumulating snow (outside of lake effect areas). The first chance will come from late afternoon Tuesday through early morning Wednesday. The chance of snow now looks to be 40% and there could be up to an inch accumulation in a few spots – even mixing with some light sleet or freezing rain in the southern half of the area. The second chance will come on Saturday. Right now I am forecasting a 30% chance of up to an inch on Saturday. The main trouble in the weather this week will be the wind. We will have NW winds of 10 to 20 gusting up to 25 mph this afternoon and again on Wednesday and Thursday. On Tuesday the wind will be out of the southwest and be in the same range. Winds should let up a bit on Friday. Dress warmly to battle the wind chill. High temps will be in the 20s for most of the weekend and the upcoming weekend – except for Tuesday when the mercury will reach the low 30s on on Thursday when we will be lucky to see 20 degrees.
Environmental News:
Here is an interesting story I found about visits to National Parks: Visits were down 13% in the past year. The title of this article says the drop was "mysterious". It isn’t all that mysterious to me. All types of outdoor recreation is experiencing a decline. The National Parks were most likely affected a bit more than other attractions because of the price of gas. That is the most obvious reason in the last year. However, there is a demographic shift going on as well, and this is mentioned in the article. Baby boomers were the ones taking there families on long trips to National Parks in the past. They are now older and the younger generations are not as interested in camping. If they do go camping, they need to bring along their cell phones, portable TVs, and game systems. City-folk just don’t have much interesting leaving the comforts of home and the spectacular digital entertainment that is available. Younger generations have a short attention span and taking a long hike in a National Park is not all that stimulating. I see the same thing with younger deer hunters here in Wisconsin. If they do have to stand in the woods for more than an hour, they need a walkie talkie or a cell phone to keep them busy. The average age of hunters is going up (46 this year) and younger people are not picking up the sport.
Now maybe some of you might take umbrage when I say that digital entertainment is "spectacular" – well then you probably have not played many video games or seen some of the more high-tech movies as if late. Videos games are popular because they are great entertainment and getting better every year. The "environment" within the video game is only limited by your imagination, whereas the outdoor environment, while beautiful, does not change at the whims of your imagination. I am not going to say one way or the other which is better, just that the digital entertainment is more stimulating for a short attention span.
The one reason for a decline in attendance given in the article that makes no sense what-so-ever is that President Reagan allowed logging in National Forests back in the 1980s. Seem like Thomas More of the Forest Service has a political axe to grind. I have been to the main attraction areas of at least 3 different National Parks and never noticed the "selective" logging. No one else I ran into ever mentioned a concern for logging. In fact, when logging slowed in the 1990s, Forest service revenue fell. They responded by raising fees, which probably led to some of the visitation decline.
So what does this mean for the National Parks? As long as the Parks get adequate funding from the government, everything should be fine. In fact, everything should be spectacular. Less visitors means more quiet, pristine, undisturbed beauty for the people that do visit (me included). Environmentalists are concerned about the decline because they figure if young people do not visit then they will not support government funding for Parks in the future because they will not understand the significance and benefit for society. I doubt this will be the case. If there is one subject that is taught more than most in U.S. schools, it is environmentalism. Math, science, history, and economics seem to have taken a back seat to environmentalism. Younger generations should be well schooled in the preservation of National Parks – even if they do spend most of their time playing Guitar Hero (its fun – I’ve played it).
Have a good Monday! Meteorologist Justin Loew
Posted under Uncategorized
This post was written by bniznansky on December 1, 2008
There is a big difference between the National Park Service and the National Forests. Your comments seem to confuse the two agencies with very different missions. National Forests are such as the Chequamegon-Nicolet in Wisconsin that does a fair amount of logging – that is very compatable with the multiple-use mission of that agency. I also am employed by the Forest Service. The park service mission is one of providing recreational opportunities and ecosystem protection, though I am not exactly sure on the wording. The short answer – there is and has been for a long time logging on National Forests. There is none to very little logging in National Parks.
November is a prefect month to illustrate how the words ” above normal” can be used, but not have much meaning. The first handful of days were well above normal with some beautiful weather, although somewhat breezy. The rest of the month other than a few days a couple degrees above average, was below average.
When most days are below average, then it really was not an above normal month, even though the numbers said it was for low temps. No wonder people often thing it should be colder than it already is. They hear November was above normal, and think about it, and figure it must have needed to be even colder.
Maybe it’s true that visits are down over all, but I disagree about kids “needing” a two-way radio to stay amused. Walkie Talkies can be a real life saver in the outdoors. Our kids know the safety rules (always take buddy, have your compass with you, yada yada yada) but it never hurts to have that extra measure of protection. I found a site that might be helpful to others who are heading into the wild and considering taking radios with them: http://www.TechWholesale.com/which-radio-is-right-for-me.html
Hope this helps keep some kids safe. Thanks for the nice piece.